30 Innovative Brands of the Year 2023
The Silicon Review
“Source code is a complete global standard, so there are no borders.”
One Act Inc. is a global startup engaged in software development and AI technology development. Its flagship platform, PieceX, is the world’s first AI-powered source code marketplace. The company has offices located in five countries and serves clients from around the world.
One Act Inc. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Chuo, Tokyo.
The Silicon Review reached out to Yusuke Asano, founder and CEO of One Act Inc., and here’s what he had to say.
Interview Highlights
Q. Why was One Act Inc. born? What pain points did you set out to solve?
I started my career at Keyence, a company with the third largest capital in Japan after Toyota and Sony, and engaged in sales and management for eight years. After that, I oversaw the launch of two IT venture companies before establishing One Act in 2013.
When I entered the software development industry from the hardware industry of industrial equipment, I was surprised that software does not have parts and is created from scratch every time. This seemed very inefficient to me. It’s a long-standing pain in the software industry that every software project needs excessive costs and time, especially now that there is a worldwide shortage of IT engineers.
That’s why I founded One Act to create a service that would revolutionize the software development industry and take all those pains away. By distributing the parts of ready-to-use source code around the world, people will be able to launch new services with minimum manpower and cost. This service is PieceX, the world’s first AI-powered source code marketplace.
Q. What makes One Act successful? What are its focus areas?
We are creating a new market as the pioneer of the first marketplace for high-quality, high-price source code. Although we focus on software development, there is almost no business today that does not include software when developing a new service. Hence, our service targets almost all companies in almost all industries.
Source code is a complete global standard, so there are no borders. We already have users in 220 countries and have a track record of trading in over 170 countries. Although we are a startup, we already have AI technology to handle traction around the world, bases in five countries, and excellent members in 12 countries.
Q. Can you introduce us to your PieceX service? What are its key features?
PieceX is the world’s first AI-powered source code marketplace. By trading software components on a global scale, PieceX allows sellers to earn new income from the source code itself and allows buyers to save 80% on software development time and costs by purchasing ready-to-use source codes. PieceX creates a web infrastructure where anyone in the world can rapidly develop new services, creating a new economy.
Our AI technology is used to bring trust to the marketplace. It is responsible for functions that are essential for trust, such as optimal price management, copyright protection, and quality control, and is thus evaluated as the most advanced and trustworthy marketplace in the world.
Q. How does One Act create and sustain a culture of innovation?
Innovation is born from a combination of deep consideration from a macro perspective that captures the world as a whole and a micro perspective that captures the issues and experiences in front of us.
It is important to continue to generate a variety of multifaceted ideas and so as a startup, we have offices in five countries, members from 12 countries, and service users in 220 countries around the world. We are creating an environment where we can always hear the voices of innovation.
Q. Tell us about the One Act team. What value do they bring to the company?
Our organization is a group of professionals from 12 countries around the world. Our global team consists of talented engineers who have experience in companies such as IBM, Oracle, and Deloitte. Of course, we also have experts in sales, design, and marketing, making up a group of worldwide professionals.
We are very multinational and each of us has a different culture but we respect each other. All of us are highly motivated and passionate about changing the world and contributing to the world through the services we create.
Since it’s a startup, it’s very flexible. Whether it is an idea that denies the existing organization or an idea from a new employee who has just joined the company, we will immediately adopt any idea that would improve the current situation and help us evolve.
With that, we will continue to work hard to keep innovating.
Q. What’s the one thing you want One Act to be known for?
To make it the world’s largest web infrastructure, I want to universally spread the name of PieceX. However, many people in the world still don’t know that there is a place where you can buy and sell high-quality source code. So, first of all, I think it is necessary to let the world know that ‘source code can be bought and sold.’
Tell us, what’s next for One Act Inc.
The goal of One Act is to contribute to the world by creating an environment where anyone in the world can create innovative services using the world’s largest web infrastructure that has never existed before. To make it smoother, we also work on challenging automatic source code generation. When people want to create something, by combining parts and automatically generating code to connect them, they don’t have to do anything. Just type ‘I want to make XX’. If we can achieve this, a wonderful world of innovation will be born.
Q. Is there anything you would like to add before we wrap up?
We are trying to create a global infrastructure for software in the form of a market leader in the trading of high-quality source code. To that end, we have plans to build business partnerships around the world. We already have that in South Korea, Spain, and Kazakhstan. In the future, we plan to expand our partnership to more than 200 countries around the world.
We always welcome partners who create new markets whether they are IT companies or not.
Yusuke Asano, Founder & CEO | In His Own Words
Shortly after leaving Keyence, I oversaw the launch of two venture companies. Several years later, I set up One Act in 2013. Again in 2021, I established One Act UK in London and One Act US in California. Now, I am representing the three companies and expanding my business to the world.