# Recognizes kanji, can't read them: IceBox's creator built a keyboard where "if you can type pinyin, you can type Japanese." One post, 490k views · mobile app

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/ios_6828318775.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> "You can type Japanese if you know pinyin" is a one-line pitch that gets it, and it's also a joke. The author already had a following, and his launch post blew up in the Chinese X community. Big accounts like Guo Yu and Niao Ge reposted it, and Chinese people in Japan saw it and installed it immediately.

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · iOS · written 11-6

マダマダ / Madamada: a Japanese input method you can type with pinyin · 若昕 何

# Recognizes kanji, can't read them: IceBox's creator built a keyboard where "if you can type pinyin, you can type Japanese." One post, 490k views

**What it is** A Japanese keyboard for iPhone, built for native Chinese speakers. Type pinyin for kanji you can't read, type English for loanwords, long-press verbs to switch conjugations and honorifics, and words you type get saved to a vocabulary list automatically.

**Why it took off** "Type pinyin to write Japanese" is clear in one sentence and has a joke built in. The creator already had a following. His launch post went viral in the Chinese-language corner of X, then big accounts like Guo Yu and Niao Ge reposted it. Chinese speakers in Japan saw it and installed it on the spot.

**C** **How you could follow it** Don't copy it head-on. Go after the Android version it hasn't shipped, or flip the direction and build the mirror need (Japanese speakers typing Chinese with kana readings, etc.). Borrow its model of free input with paid learning, and its move of seeding scenario pages for AI search.

C grade: the product and approach are worth studying, but the audience is narrow and early users already have loyal fans and word of mouth, so chasing the same people won't work. The Android version is the creator's home turf and the window may close fast. Demand among adjacent audiences still needs to be validated. Circulating in small circles

Data (updated daily) · first listed 2026-11-02 · Japan rating 21 · charted in 11-08 of 2 stores

iOS · best category chart rank · by store

Japan Taiwan Hong Kong

Data 2026-11-04 → 2026-11-08 (5 days, 5 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day

iOS · rating count · Japan

Data 2026-11-04 → 2026-11-08 (5 days, 5 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.

In Nov 3, Ruoxin He, the indie developer behind the Android app IceBox, posted a 24-second video on X introducing his new iOS keyboard, Madamada: type pinyin to get Japanese kanji, type English to get katakana. Three days later the post had 496k views and 1.8K bookmarks, and on the app's third day it hit #53 in the Japan store's Top Grossing chart for Utilities. It's a good idea that fits in one sentence, but much of its traction came from the creator himself.

### A post saying "I wish I'd had this when I first came to Japan"

On the afternoon of Nov 3, 2026, @1ittlecup posted: "New app: Madamada input method. Type pinyin to get Japanese kanji, type English to get katakana, long-press verbs and adjectives to conjugate... with Madamada, Japanese comes easy!" It included a demo video.

The top-liked replies included: "I wish I'd had this when I first moved to Japan" (17k views), "A Japanese input method that works like the Chinese one, nice!", and "Amazing that someone thought of this; the target customers are Chinese speakers wanting a Japanese keyboard." By Nov 6 the post had 496k views, 2.4K likes, 1.8K bookmarks, and 428 reposts. Bookmarks were close to likes, and many people's reaction was "saving this for later."

That same day, Guo Yu (guoyu.eth) quote-posted "Wow, what an interesting idea." Then on Nov 4, Niao Ge (@NFTCPS) posted an introduction that was also shared to Threads. App Store ratings started climbing right after these posts: the Japan store had 11-04 ratings, then 0, 11-05 1 ratings, and then reached 12 ratings at 11-06.

### What it is

An iOS Japanese keyboard for native Chinese speakers. Chinese learners of Japanese usually get stuck here: they recognize the characters but don't know the readings, so the system keyboard can't produce them. Madamada turns this gap directly into the input method (examples from the Japan store page):

- **拼音出汉字** :yutuding →「御徒町」,qiuyeyuan →「秋葉原」,jiankangbaoxian →「健康保険」,候选上方标平假名读音。

- **English to katakana** : schedule → スケジュール, no need to worry about where the long vowels or geminate consonants go.

- **Mix all three methods in one phrase** : zailiucard → 在留カード, mianjiegaaru → 面接がある.

- **Long-press verbs to switch conjugations and honorifics** : swipe up and down for forms (te-form, nai-form, potential form...), left and right for politeness level. The store page gives concrete scenarios: "reply to a teacher's message and swipe 行く to 参ります; greeting customers at a part-time job and swipe 食べる to 召し上がります."

- **Learn while you type** : words typed via pinyin or English get saved to a vocabulary list automatically. Later, when you type the romaji correctly, the word is marked as "can type now."

130k built-in words, all offline. Requires iOS 26 or later.

### Who uses it

Most ratings come from the Japan store (12 of 13), then Taiwan with 1, and the China store page has 5 ratings at 4.8 stars (11-06). That suggests the core users are Chinese speakers in Japan using Japanese Apple IDs: international students, language school students, and people working part-time or full-time. Store titles are localized by region: China store "Japanese input method you can type with pinyin," Hong Kong/Taiwan "Japanese input method you can type with zhuyin" (supports the Zhuyin Dachien layout), Japan store "Japanese keyboard you can type with pinyin."

The reviews are consistent: about half of the dozen-plus reviews ask for the same feature: "Can you add Microsoft Shuangpin?" "Please support double pinyin (Xiaohe)." "Please add natural-code double pinyin." Others ask for "integrated Chinese input," "more emoticons, I don't want to install two Japanese keyboards," or "a word definition feature would make it perfect." The only 3-star review is in Japanese: "All the loanwords got changed to English, please improve." One Japan store review was titled "god keyboard."

Asking for double pinyin, Chinese input, and emoticons all mean the same thing: users want to make this their only keyboard, not just switch to it now and then. For an input method, that's the best signal you can get.

### Where the money comes from

Typing and the dictionary are free. What's paid is the learning part: automatic vocabulary list, spaced repetition, photo skins, and unlimited dictionary entries. China store pricing is ¥58 lifetime or ¥12.80 per month for subscription.

Revenue isn't disclosed. It ranked #167 on 11-04, #53 on 11-05, and #66 on 11-06 in the Japan store's Utilities Top Grossing chart, #57–60 in Taiwan, #72–80 in Hong Kong, and never made the Top Free chart (App Store charts, 11-04 to 11-06). At that rank, a guess would be roughly tens to a couple hundred dollars a day (low confidence). It had only been out four days, so it shows people are paying, not whether they'll keep paying.

### Why it took off

1. **The idea fits in one sentence and has a joke built in.** "Type pinyin to write Japanese" needs no explanation, and the "Concord-speech input method" joke makes people want to share it.

2. **The creator has loyal fans.** IceBox has 5M+ installs on Google Play, and he later built AndroMeld and Clip Cloud for Mac. Chinese-speaking X users were already following him, so cold start wasn't from zero.

3. **Big accounts amplified it.** Guo Yu and Niao Ge's reposts took it from the developer circle into the wider Chinese-speaking community.

4. **Groundwork for search.** The website comes in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese, with 9 scenario pages (recognizing kanji but not reading them, katakana you can't spell, language school, anime, honorifics, life in Japan, travel, JLPT/EJU). It also has a dedicated explainer for AI search, covering "when to recommend Madamada" and a "quotable" description. Four days in, this hasn't paid off yet, but when someone asks ChatGPT "is there a Japanese input method I can type with pinyin," it'll already be there.

No other channels found: nothing on TikTok or Xiaohongshu, no media coverage, and paid acquisition can't be verified.

### Who it's competing with

| Competitors | What it is | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in iOS Japanese keyboard | Every iPhone has it | You need to know the reading to type |
| Simeji, Gboard Japanese | Mainstream keyboards in Japan, tens of millions of users | No pinyin-to-kanji |
| Handwriting input (mazec, system handwriting) | Write it if you can't read it | Slow, no learning built in |
| Sogou / Baidu input method Japanese keyboards | Bundled romaji keyboard | No pinyin-to-kanji (not verified one by one) |
| rime-pinyin-jap (open source) | Around since 2021, 214 stars on GitHub | Same idea, but you have to set up Rime yourself, so only power users use it |
| Yikai input method (jplearn.com) | Pinyin to type Japanese | Windows only, still in alpha |

The idea isn't new; open-source circles have had it for 2021 years. But the only one I can find that makes it a real commercial keyboard on iPhone, adding katakana, polite forms, and a vocab notebook, is this one.

### If it were you

**Quick take:** A good product to learn from, but not an opportunity to copy. The audience is narrow (Chinese speakers in Japan plus Chinese-speaking learners of Japanese), and the first mover already has loyal fans and word of mouth. Cloning it head-on would struggle to win the same people.

**Who it's for:** Developers who can build input methods (iOS keyboard extensions, dictionaries, candidate ranking) and who already have an audience with a special connection between their native and target languages.

**Who it's not for:** People who haven't built an input method before, and people who want to ship a knockoff of it to compete head-on with Chinese-speaking Japanese learners.

**How to do it:**

- **Take the platform it skipped: Android.** Right now it's iOS 26+ only. But the author started on Android, so an Android version is likely (my inference), and this window may only last a few months.

- **Shift the direction or the audience.** Japanese speakers learning Chinese hit the mirror problem (they recognize hanzi but can't read pinyin). You could flip it and build Chinese typing with Japanese readings. Or look at Korean, with its many Sino-Korean words, or Vietnamese with its Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary, and see if the same "type in your native language to write the target language" idea works there. The demand is small and needs validating, but nobody owns it yet.

- **Take its playbook:** Make typing free and charge for the learning loop. Write scenario-based FAQ pages on the website, and put a short, quotable description on it for AI search.

**How to get users:** Follow its path: a short demo video that states a one-line value prop, posted where the target audience gathers (Chinese speakers in Japan on X and Xiaohongshu; Chinese learners in Japanese-language X circles). Then get two or three big accounts in that circle to repost it.

**When to move:** The Android window has to be taken before the author ships an Android version. Other directions aren't urgent, but input methods need time to build dictionaries, so the earlier you start, the better.

**Signs you've misread it:** If in a month or two its ratings in the Japan store are still in the dozens and it falls out of the top 200 grossing, that means lots of people try it and few stay, so the input method route itself doesn't hold up. Conversely, if ratings keep climbing and requests for things like double pinyin keep growing, it has really become an everyday keyboard. That would mean this audience is bigger than it looks, and following up on Android or adjacent audiences would be worth more.

[iOS store page ↗](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6828318775)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in iOS Japanese keyboard | Big-company features | Always present | All iPhones | You need to know the reading to type it. No pinyin-to-kanji, no English-to-katakana, no polite-form switching. |
| Simeji / Gboard Japanese | iOS | Years | tens of millions | Built for Japanese users, with no pinyin-to-kanji input. |
| tumuyan/rime-pinyin-jap | Open source | 2021-05 | GitHub 214 star | Same idea, but you have to set up Rime yourself, so only power users use it. No reading hints, polite forms, or vocab notebook. |
| Yikai Input Method(jplearn.com) | Other | Alpha, date unverified | Very small | Also pinyin to type Japanese, but Windows-only alpha with no mobile version. |
| Handwriting input (Hanami, mazec, system handwriting) | iOS | Years | Small to medium | For characters you can't read, you write them out. It's slow and doesn't teach anything. |
| Sogou / Baidu Japanese keyboards | iOS | Years | Hundreds of millions (the whole input method) | Japanese is just a bundled romaji keyboard. It can't turn pinyin into kanji (not checked one by one). |

Where users come from

- **Verified** **Developer's own launch post on X** : @1ittlecup 2026-11-03 demo video post, 491k views, 2.4K likes, 1.8K bookmarks, 420 reposts

- **Verified** **Reposts from big Chinese X accounts** : Guo Yu guoyu.eth 11-03 quote repost; Niao Ge @NFTCPS 11-04 wrote an intro post and cross-posted to Threads

- **Verified** **The developer's old fans** : IceBox on Google Play 5M+ installs, plus AndroMeld and Clip Cloud

- Inferred **SEO / AI search (GEO)** : The website is in three languages, with 9 scenario pages. llms.txt covers "when to recommend it" and a quotable description. Live for 4 days, results unknown.

- Inferred **Store search (keywords in titles, by region)** : China store title "Japanese input method you can type with pinyin"; Hong Kong/Taiwan "Japanese input method you can type with Zhuyin"; Japan store "Japanese keyboard you can type with pinyin"

## Madamada / Madamada: Japanese input method you can type with pinyin (iOS 6828318775)

### One line

An iOS Japanese keyboard for native Chinese speakers. Pinyin produces kanji directly, with kana readings shown above the candidates. English words turn into katakana. Long-press a verb to switch conjugations and politeness levels. Words you type automatically go into a vocab notebook (Pro). The developer is He Ruoxin (Catching Now), who also made IceBox (5,000,000+ installs on Google Play) and FilterBox, a well-known indie developer in Chinese dev circles.

### Data (our appstore library + store pages, 2026-11-06)

- Released 2026-11-02,11-03, updated to 1.1.0. Free download with in-app purchases: Pro lifetime ¥58, monthly subscription ¥12.80 (China App Store page). iOS 26+ only.

- Ratings: Japan store 11-04 0 → 11-05 1 → 11-06 12 (iTunes lookup shows 13, average 4.69); Taiwan 1; Hong Kong 0; China store page 5 ratings, 4.8 stars (our library doesn't track the China store, so these numbers come from the store page).

- Charts: It has only charted in the utilities grossing chart (genre 6002), never in Top Free. Japan 11-04 #167 → 11-05 #53 → 11-06 #66; Taiwan 11-05 #57 → 11-06 #60; Hong Kong 11-05 #72 → 11-06 #80 (appstore.app_day). In-app purchases are running, but the sample is small. The bar for #50–60 on the Japan utilities grossing chart isn't high. Converted to money, that's roughly tens to a hundred-plus dollars a day (estimate, unverified).

- Most of its ratings come from the Japan store, so the core users are likely Chinese speakers in Japan with Japanese Apple IDs (students, part-timers, workers). That's exactly the audience it targets.

### Why it took off

1. **The developer's own launch post on X went viral.** @1ittlecup (He Ruoxin) 2026-11-03 posted "New App: Madamada input method..." with a 24-second demo video. At the time of capture it had 491k views, 2.4K likes, 1.8K bookmarks, 420 reposts, and 148 replies (x.com/1ittlecup/status/2117520269149606114). The replies say things like "I wish this existed when I first moved to Japan," "A Japanese input method for Mandarin speakers, nice," and "Who came up with this, genius." The need is obvious at a glance and the idea is memorable, which is why it spread. Bookmarks are close to likes, meaning many people thought "I'll need this someday."

2. **Big Chinese tech and crypto accounts reposted it.** Guo Yu guoyu.eth 11-03 quote-reposted it the same day with "Wow, what a fascinating idea!" (TodayRss reprinted his X post at cn.todayrss.com/t/S7QkNOHeFS). Niao Ge @NFTCPS (Bluebird Club) 11-04 wrote an intro post and cross-posted it to Threads (@0xbird). Ratings started climbing 11-05 and 11-06, right after these posts.

3. **The developer's existing fans.** IceBox has 5M+ installs. He has since made AndroMeld and Clip Cloud for Mac. Chinese-speaking users on X and Threads have followed him for a long time, so the cold start didn't begin from zero.

4. **Content built for SEO and AI search.** The website comes in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese. It has 9 scenario pages (recognizing kanji but not knowing how to read them, katakana you can't spell out, language schools, anime, polite speech, life in Japan, travel, JLPT/EJU). It also has a dedicated llms.txt with "when to recommend Madamada" and a one-line quotable description, clearly written for AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity to cite. It has only been live for 4 days, so this channel hasn't kicked in yet, but the groundwork is there.

5. **Store titles are tailored by region.** The China store title is "Madamada: Japanese input method you can type with pinyin." The Hong Kong/Taiwan title is "瑪嗒瑪嗒: Japanese input method you can type with Zhuyin" (supports the Zhuyin big-keyboard layout). The Japan store title is "マダマダ: Japanese keyboard you can type with pinyin." Each region's title spells out the search term directly.

6. **Why people would pay:** Typing and the dictionary are free. Paid features are the automatic vocab notebook, spaced repetition, photo skins, and unlimited dictionary entries. Bundling the input method with a learning tool is valuable for people preparing for the JLPT/EJU. The lifetime price of ¥58 is low enough for an impulse buy.

Channels I couldn't find anything on: No TikTok videos for "Madamada" (TikHub). No public Xiaohongshu notes (Jina search only returned unrelated content). Not yet in our x-radar corpus (limited local coverage). No evidence of paid acquisition (the ad library doesn't track it, which doesn't mean it isn't running ads).

### Competitors

| Name | Where | When | Scale | How it differs from Madamada |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The iOS built-in Japanese keyboard (romaji / kana) | Big-company features | Always present | All iPhones | You have to know the reading to type. No pinyin input, no English-to-katakana, no polite-form switching. |
| Gboard Japanese / Simeji (Baidu Japan) | iOS/Android | Years | tens of millions | Built for Japanese users. Simeji is popular in Japan, but it doesn't turn pinyin into kanji. |
| Handwriting input (Hanami, mazec, system handwriting) | iOS | Years | Small to medium | For characters you can't read, you write them out. It's slow. |
| tumuyan/rime-pinyin-jap | Open source (Rime schemes) | 2021-05 | GitHub 214 star | Same idea entirely ("Mr. Li's Japanese input method": pinyin for kanji, romaji for kana), but you have to set up Rime yourself, so only power users use it. No reading hints, polite forms, or vocab notebook. |
| gkovacs/rime-japanese, Rime-KappaJP, etc. | Open source | Years | Small | All are Japanese schemes under Rime, and most don't turn pinyin into kanji. |
| Yikai Input Method(jplearn.com) | Windows | Alpha, date unverified | Very small | Also "type Japanese with pinyin," but Windows-only and still in alpha, with no mobile version. |
| Sogou / Baidu input method Japanese keyboards | iOS/Android | Years | Hundreds of millions (the whole input method) | Japanese is just a bundled romaji keyboard. It can't turn pinyin into kanji (not checked one by one). |

Bottom line: The idea of "pinyin to Japanese kanji" has existed in open-source circles for 2021 years. But the only one I can find that makes it a polished commercial keyboard on iPhone, adding English-to-katakana, polite-form conjugation, and a learning loop, is this one.

### Differentiation

- The core is using the trait of native Chinese speakers, who recognize kanji but can't read them, as the input method. Pinyin produces kanji and English produces katakana. Both can be mixed with romaji in the same sentence (zailiucard → 在留カード).

- You learn while you type. Candidates show readings, words you type go into the vocab notebook automatically, and once you can type a word with romaji it's marked "got it." You pick up the proper way to type as you use it.

- Polite forms and conjugations come out with a swipe. Long-press a verb, swipe up and down for conjugation forms, and left and right for politeness level. That matches the situations of international students replying to teachers and part-timers greeting customers.

- Scenario dictionaries (residence card, ward office, JR stations, convenience store items, JLPT/EJU) all work offline. The keyboard doesn't connect to the internet, which it highlights as a privacy feature.

- The differentiation is why it spreads. It's easy to explain in one line ("type Japanese with pinyin"), and the first time you see it you think "wait, you can do that?" That kind of thing travels well on X.

### Visibility and copycats

- Word is spreading in small circles: a launch post on X with 490k views in Chinese tech circles, plus reposts from Guo Yu and Niao Ge. I haven't seen any media coverage or disclosed revenue (not on TrustMRR, and no one has posted earnings). It doesn't show up in Japanese local media or Japanese social platforms yet.

- Copycats: none yet.

### What others can borrow

- Find a group whose native language has a special relationship with the target language (Chinese speakers and Japanese kanji), and turn that relationship directly into an input method. Or go the other way (Japanese people typing Chinese with kanji). Korean and Vietnamese, which use Sino-Korean and Sino-Vietnamese words, might work the same way.

- An indie dev with a loyal following posts a "new app" demo video and that completes the cold start. The demand has to be explainable in one sentence and carry a bit of an in-joke ("Concorde-style input method").

- An input method is an entry point people use every day. Put the paywall on the learning loop (vocabulary book / spaced repetition), not on input ability, and keep the free experience undiminished.

- Prepare llms.txt and a "scenario Q&A" page so that when AI search gets asked "is there an input method that lets me type Japanese with pinyin," it recommends this one directly.

### Still unclear

- Actual downloads and revenue: there are only a dozen-odd ratings, and the mapping from chart rank to money is a guess.

- Retention: an input method means switching keyboards, so users may try it out of curiosity and go back to the system keyboard. There are no reviews to look at.

- Only supports iOS 26+, so some users can't install it. No Android version (the developer mainly built for Android before, and whether that will happen again is uncertain).

- China store performance: our database doesn't collect China store charts.

- Views on Guo Yu's quote post weren't found; X follower count wasn't captured.

### Sources

- App Store: [apps.apple.com/cn/app/id6828318775](https://apps.apple.com/cn/app/id6828318775), iTunes lookup (jp)

- Our database: appstore.app_profile / app_day (2026-11-04 to 11-06)

- Official site: [madamada.catchingnow.com/](https://madamada.catchingnow.com/), /llms.txt, /help/pro.md

- X launch post: [x.com/1ittlecup/status/2117520269149606114](https://x.com/1ittlecup/status/2117520269149606114)

- Niaoge: [x.com/NFTCPS/status/2117863916139155864](https://x.com/NFTCPS/status/2117863916139155864); Threads @0xbird

- Guo Yu repost: [cn.todayrss.com/t/S7QkNOHeFS](http://cn.todayrss.com/t/S7QkNOHeFS)

- Developer's other work: [catchingnow.com/](https://catchingnow.com/); IceBox (冰箱) Baidu Baike entry; Google Play com.catchingnow.icebox (5,000,000+)

- Competitors: [github.com/tumuyan/rime-pinyin-jap](https://github.com/tumuyan/rime-pinyin-jap), [www.jplearn.com/](https://www.jplearn.com/) (Yikai)

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.