A look back at 2019

From January to March, I was involved in a new app development project for a company founded by students.

The early-stage startup environment created by students was vastly different from what I had imagined, so I think I learned a lot.

Additionally, throughout the year, I installed iOS apps (excluding games) released in Japan and analyzed trends.

I installed about 3,000 apps, so after checking all of them including those I haven’t launched yet, I plan to compile the research results into articles. I’m planning to spend most of January on this. (Later, I deleted apps that couldn’t be used without being able to read English, so the actual number of apps surveyed was around 2,700)

From April to September, I devoted my time to founding zoome and preparing for it.

Since it was my first time starting a company, even tasks that seem simple now required a lot of research and were challenging at the time.

Novel Writing

This was also my first attempt, and it’s indeed difficult - there’s still a long way to go. I did submit an application though. I’d like to continue this in the coming years.

Stocks

I thought it was time to start learning about stocks, so as part of that, I began trading public stocks.

I started in the latter half of this year, but stocks are basically structured in a way that makes it easy for beginners to lose money.

It’s difficult to do casually without understanding how stock prices fluctuate, and somehow I ended up spending quite a bit of time on it for six months.

That said, I’m glad I started because I can now understand to some extent the reasons behind stock price movements, which were completely incomprehensible when I had no knowledge.

It’s always enjoyable when things that seemed meaningless when you lacked knowledge become understandable. I ended this year in the red, so I’d like to turn a profit by next year.

Music

I went to H ZETTRIO’s Children’s Day Special Live.

When you think of jazz live performances, they seem aimed at adults, but I was surprised to see children getting excited as if they were watching a hero show.

I had been deliberating for a long time about which music streaming service to choose, and I tried Spotify, which was excellent. It’s currently my top choice.

Also, this year I became obsessed with Susumu Hirasawa (not related to Fuji Rock). I’d love to go to a live performance.

Classical Music