"Do I already have this?": a Japanese indie dev's merch-tracking app, free with no charge, 60k downloads in three-plus months

MeMory is a fan-goods organizer app built by Japanese indie dev Koumei Watase: acrylic keychains, acrylic stands, plushies, photocards. Snap a photo, log the count and price, and switch to your oshi's theme color. It has no in-app purchases, no real ad spend, and no creator promotion. It took off for two reasons: its name is the exact term users search for in the store, and the whole app does one thing, "how many do I have," and does it charmingly. Anyone can copy that playbook, but the app itself doesn't make money, and over twenty same-named apps have already crowded into the Japan store. Anyone who wants to follow needs a different circle and has to figure out the revenue model first.

A review that says "I wish I'd had this sooner"

In 2026 November 2, a Japanese user gave it five stars on the App Store with the title "もっと早く使いたかった" (I wish I'd used it sooner):

"Started using it yesterday and it's great. This is exactly the kind of app I wanted!"

The same day another user gave three stars, and their first line says what the app replaced:

"I used to track these in my phone's notes app. Now I can store photos of merch, log counts, add notes and record amounts, and see everything at a glance. Really useful. I've wanted something like this for a long time."

Another review from Aug 30 spells out the use case more concretely: "When I'm out and want to buy merch, I often can't remember how many I already have. Same with CDs, I can check which ones I own in seconds, so I end up buying doubles far less."

This is the problem MeMory is built for. The store description says it plainly: "これ持ってたっけ?" "何個買ったっけ?" (Do I have this? How many did I buy again?).

What it is

It opens without registration. Take a photo of a piece of merch and the app removes the background, then you fill in count, price, purchase date and notes. Items are sorted into "pages" (usually one character) and "categories" (keychains, stands, photocards), and each category shows total count and total spend. You can swap the background to your oshi's theme color and change fonts, with settings per page. Each saved page becomes a "pain wall" you can screenshot and share.

The iOS version launched in 2026 June 9, and in July 24 the developer announced the launch on the official X account @MeMory_app_. Data syncs via iCloud, it is completely free, and there are no in-app purchases (the website lists the price as free). The Android version didn't arrive until 16 October, and its Google Play page lists ads.

How much it grew

• iOS: ranked 4.7 in the Japan store, 645 ratings (App Store page, 11-06). In 16 October 17 it surged to #11 then #12 on Japan's Lifestyle free chart, and reached #134 on the overall free chart at the same time (APPLION ranking page). The X account bio said "10,000DL milestone" in August and now reads "60,000DL milestone." 645 ratings against 60k downloads is a rating rate of about 1%, which is plausible, so the self-reported numbers are broadly believable.
• Android: Google Play installs 10-29 is 202,10-30 is 1,891,11-03 is 4,317,11-06 is 4,564, up 2,673 in one week. It peaked at #11-02 on Japan's Lifestyle free chart and slid back to #66,11-06, then #135; on Taiwan's Lifestyle free chart it ranked #10-29 at #32.
• The two days iOS surged: the Android launch and the iOS 1.9.0 update landed on the same day. Which one pushed it up can't be determined (inference: the launch post may have spread on X, or the store may have featured it).

The third-party estimator AppInsider's model says the two platforms together bring in over 500 downloads a day, roughly 38% from store search and 47% from store browsing (model estimates, not measured).

Where users come from: the name is the search term

The app's full name is "推し活・グッズ管理 - MeMory." When Japanese fans look for a merch tracker, they type "推し活" and "グッズ管理" in the store, and it shows up immediately. One record shows it ranking first on iOS for the search "推し活 グッズ 管理" (unverified; Apple's search API couldn't confirm it).

Other channels are small:

The demand was already there. On TikTok, videos like "推し活グッズ" and "グッズ収納" routinely reach millions of views (for example, one from @willertravel hit 1.85M, and one from @rin_oshikatsu100 hit 1.84M), but they all show physical storage: shelves, clear bags, itabags. Digital tracking has been an empty space.

Why users stay: fast iteration, and the developer replies to bad reviews personally

The review section is basically this app's feature request list: categories can't be manually reordered, you can't edit a count by tapping it, the totals are wrong (one user calculated 49,664 yen with a calculator while the app showed 332,606 yen), people want to copy one item's info, and they want iPad support. From September to November it shipped 1.6 to 1.10 five versions, and each update note says "ご要望の反映" (incorporated your requests). The latest, 1.10.0, even rolled back a broken interaction: "グッズ長押しで並び替え&編集モードへの遷移に戻しました" (long-press to sort and enter edit mode, restored to the original behavior). The developer replies to negative reviews one by one in the App Store.

So the 4.7 rating isn't only because the features are good. Users see their feedback being acted on, which makes them willing to leave good reviews and recommend the app to friends.

Who it's competing with

After MeMory launched in July, a bunch of new apps with nearly identical names and positioning appeared on the Japan store: COLLEMO「推し活グッズ管理・コレクション記録」(8-18), もってる帳「推し活グッズ管理とダブり買い防止」(8-25), POPs Log「推し活・グッズ管理」(9-15), plus temochi and 推しイレ. By November, they all had single-digit to low-teens review counts. There's no evidence anyone copied anyone, but this slot in Japan is already getting crowded. MeMory just got the reviews and rankings first, and it's hard for latecomers to outrank it in search results.

Where's the money coming from: nowhere yet

The iOS version is free with no charge, and the Android version has ads. For a tool with 60k downloads and hundreds of new users a day, ad revenue probably only covers the developer's coffee money (est.). The developer is preparing an oshi-katsu media account, @LovaMe_official, and the website is also under the domain lovame-official.com, which suggests they want to funnel users to media or e-commerce (inferred, not verified).

This is the biggest weakness of this business. Merch tracking is a natural fit for paid features: capped free entries, premium themes, multi-device sync, a monthly "oshi spending report." monoca's one-time purchase model shows people will pay for this. But so far, no one has publicly proven that a merch-tracking app built for otaku fans has made money.

If it were you

B. The opportunity is real, and the approach is simple: pick a frequent, specific small pain point within a large community, build only that, name it with the words users actually search for, and make the UI shareable. But the Japan store is already crowded, the original is free, and you need to figure out the monetization question for yourself first.

Who it's for: a solo dev or a team of 1 to 2, with at least one person who's already into fandom merch and knows how badges, standees, photocards and Polaroids are sorted. You'll need Kotlin Multiplatform or Flutter to ship both platforms from one codebase, and an interface that fits the fandom's taste.

Who it's not for: anyone who wants to build another 「推し活グッズ管理」 in the Japan store, since the name and positioning are already taken; anyone who doesn't understand the community and just copies a feature list, since these users are picky about aesthetics and details and their bad reviews come from exactly that; anyone who wants to make money from it quickly.

How to do it: switch to a different community. There are two directions.

1. Chinese goods collectors: badges, standees, photocards, colored paper. It's exactly the same stuff as in Japan, with far more people. The China App Store already has 「谷獭社-谷子记账次元收纳」 (listed 2026-08-20, with 11-06 reviews at 67), so someone has noticed, but no one has scaled it yet. Name it directly 「谷子管理」or「吃谷记账」, and add features specific to the domestic community: the term 「谷子」 itself, bookkeeping for group buys and proxy purchases, and logging the cash recovered from each resale (「出谷」).
2. Global K-pop photocard community: in the English market, Bias Room (listed 2026-05) has 849 reviews in the US store and is already capturing this segment, but it only handles photocards.

Feature set follows MeMory: photo cutout, count and price tracking, category totals, fan-color themes, no sign-up required. Build monetization in from day one, such as free tracking for 100 items with overflow unlocked through a one-time purchase or monthly subscription. Don't wait until you have users to add it.

How to get users: first, store search, since the app name is the search term. Second, post screenshots and screen recordings like 「my goods cost me this much in total」 on Xiaohongshu and Bilibili. Goods collectors love showing off their spending and their bills. Third, reply to and act on every request in the comments section. That's how MeMory earned its 4.7 score.

How early is early enough: the sooner the better. From MeMory's launch to five or six same-named apps crowding in on the Japan store took just two months. The term 「谷子管理」 in China is still unclaimed, and whoever lists first and collects reviews first will stay ahead.

Signs you've misjudged this: ① 谷獭社 or another domestic goods-tracking app accumulates over a thousand reviews within six months. That means the slot is already taken, and you can only compete by doing what it does poorly. ② After adding paid features, the conversion rate doesn't even reach 1%. That means this community will only use free tools, and the money has to come from elsewhere (trades, secondhand sales, group buys). ③ MeMory's Android installs flatten after November, and the iOS app drops out of the top 200 in Japan's Lifestyle category. That means its growth came from a one-off chart push, not from search terms.