With the ongoing shift to smartphones in Japan, mobile flea-market apps have been getting a fair bit of attention recently. Fril (fril.jp), Mercari (mercari.jp), and Mom's Market (maifuri.jp) all stand out in this space as sellers of second-hand fashion and general goods, but newcomer A2mato aims to please a more specific market: the otaku (geek) segment.
A2mato is for sellers and buyers of anime and game-related goods, including cosplay (costume play) items, games, manga and idol-related products. Existing auction or fleamarket websites in the same niche can be expensive with transaction fees as high as 30 percent of sales. But A2mato only charges 5.25 percent.
If that tempts enough users, the app has the potential to create a rich community of subcuture fans. Unlike some of the flea-market apps, A2mato can also be enjoyed as an app and as a webstore.