Oshibana, the Fandom App with 1.1M+ Downloads Among Gen Alpha & Z, Officially Launches 'Question Box' Feature

Booklista Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Shigeru Murata; hereinafter 'Booklista') has officially launched 'Question Box,' a feature for anonymously exchanging information and feelings related to fandom activities, which had been in trial since the end of December 2025 within its - Fandom App Oshibana - (hereinafter, Oshibana app).

After releasing a beta version for value verification, 'Question Box' underwent repeated updates based on actual user data and qualitative feedback. As it surpassed the benchmark for continuing a new feature, it has now been officially released.

### Development Background: Resolving the 'Loneliness of Fandom'

According to a proprietary survey by the Oshibana app, it's now common to have multiple 'oshi' (favorites), with 29.4% of users having 10-25 oshi, and 3.7% having over 100 (*1). Users who enjoy fandom activities spend over 30 hours a week, averaging about 6 hours a day on them (*2), establishing fandom as a crucial part of daily life.

However, many users in their teens and twenties (especially students) who enjoy fandom activities shared the following concerns:

- 'I want to talk about my oshi, but I have no one around to talk to.' - 'I want to ask questions and consult気軽に without revealing personal information.' - 'I don't want to get flamed for posting a specific interpretation.' - 'I don't want to be judged based on my age or gender.'

'Question Box' was designed and developed as a feature to solve these newly emerging challenges amidst the diversification of fandom activities.

*1 Source: [Survey of People in Fandom] How many oshi do you have? 41% of people have 10 or more oshi! 14% say 'I only have one oshi' *2 Source: Average of 36.2 hours per week on fandom activities. Junior high students' top activity is 'watching videos/streams of their oshi.'

### 'Question Box' Beta Release

The Oshibana app is thorough in its user co-creation stance and its development process of conducting an initial release to easily test hypotheses, followed by improvements. 'Question Box' also started as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), with key metrics being initial week usage and continued usage rate to test its hypotheses. Rather than unilaterally providing a large feature, it reached its official version through a 'co-creation type' development process, making improvements such as fixing bugs reported by users by the next day.

*Reference: 'How we built an app that ranked 3rd on the App Store'

The 'Question Box' beta version initially released only a voting feature to test whether the concept would be accepted.

### Features at Beta Release

### Features Intentionally Omitted in Beta

The initial release focused on observing users' spontaneous actions to verify if the 'Question Box' concept was truly needed.

### Beta Version Adjustments (Iterations)

After release, we continuously responded to user feedback on bugs while making improvement releases several times a week.

Here are some examples of feature improvements:

- The voting feature was released with 4 options, but after observing users splitting polls for groups with multiple members into two, we expanded the options to a maximum of 20.

- In response to the passion of 'one vote is not enough,' we added a feature to add emoji reactions to votes as many times as desired. A 100-tap burst function was implemented.

### Value Discovered in Beta and Official Release

Comparing the period from beta to pre-official release, the number of users increased by 380%, and page views increased by 435%. Following these results, we announced to users that we would continue the development of 'Question Box' as an official feature.

Furthermore, through the beta operation, the value that 'Question Box' brings to users became clear.

#### ① Oshi and Fandom Activities are Diverse As hypothesized by the Oshibana app, oshi and fandom activities are diverse, and posts were distributed without being concentrated on specific celebrities.

#### ② Providing a Sense of 'You're Not Alone' The voting feature was often used to check 'if there are other people who think like me, and what other thoughts are out there.' It is particularly used by 'riako' fans (those who have fallen in love with their oshi for real) as a place to resolve the doubt of 'Am I the only one feeling this way?'

### A Place to Share and Find Solutions for Fandom Worries In the question feature, interactions regarding student users' worries were prominent, such as concerns about parents stopping them from trading fandom merchandise and discussing solutions. The anonymity creates an environment where users can speak honestly, which has proven to function as a place to share and find solutions for fandom-related troubles.

### What is the Oshibana App? The Oshibana app, with 1.1 million downloads, is an app that increases the moments you feel 'happy to be alive today' through fandom activities. We think about fandom activities from the fan's perspective and develop our service together with users.

Many people start using the app when they find an oshi, and it has spread through word-of-mouth at schools and on social media, mainly among students and specific fandom communities. It has surpassed 13,000 reviews while maintaining a 4.8 rating on the App Store.

Official Website: https://oshibana.fun/ App Store URL: https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/id1581399897 Supported Devices: iOS *iOS16.4 or later Official X: ...