2022.10.11 Nikkei Software Engineer Taishi Ikai Awarded INMA "30 Under 30" Prize in Product Category
On September 30, it was announced that Taishi Ikai, a 29-year-old software engineer working in the Digital Strategy and Planning Unit of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, was selected by the International News Media Association (INMA) as the winner of their Global News Media Young Professionals 30 Rising Stars award (the "30 Under 30 Award"). This award selects outstanding young talents working in the media industry, and Nikkei personnel have won this award for three consecutive years since 2020.
This year the INMA selected 30 of 216 nominees for their "30 Under 30 Award". The award is divided into six categories: Advertising, Data, Leadership, Newsroom, Product, and Reader Revenue. Ikai was selected as the winner in the Product category.
Ikai joined the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in 2015. He belongs to the Digital Strategy and Planning Unit, working as a software engineer on the development of smartphone applications and new services for the Nikkei Online Edition.
He led the development of applications for the iPhone and iPad, and the introduction of a billing system for the Nikkei online edition app, and also developed a memo function for the newspaper digital replica viewer app. In these initiatives he made important contributions to new reader acquisition and increased engagement. He was also responsible for the development of the NIKKEI Wave app, an experimental product that presents new ways of viewing news, which was a finalist in the INMA Best Product and Tech Innovation category in 2021.
In presenting Ikai's award, the INMA praised him for "using a wide range of technical capabilities from application to server software development to contribute to the improvement of the online edition service, with more than 800,000 paid subscribers''.
On receiving the award, Ikai said "I am very happy that the product development I have been working on since joining the company has been recognized. I will continue to do my best to contribute to the development of products that are widely useful to everyone".
<About the INMA and the Young Professionals Initiative>
The International News Media Association (INMA) has more than 800 member news media outlets in eighty-four countries and approximately 20,000 individual members. The Young Professionals Initiative is positioned as an activity aimed at discovering and collaborating with young leaders in news media.