Data & Technology
The world is full of content—yet people still may not be finding what they truly want to discover.
We bridge that gap through structured databases built on a deep understanding of content and technologies that capture the emotions of the people who experience it.
Countless works are created every day, and streaming services offer enormous catalogs. Yet in practice, we encounter only a small fraction of what appears on the screen.
Historically, there has been little structured data for information that depends on human emotion: what helps someone choose a work, what kind of world it presents, what feeling remains afterward, or whose heart it reaches. Without understanding the content itself, many works remain buried and fail to reach the people who might have loved them.
For more than 20 years, Sockets has worked to close this gap through data and technology.
Foundation
Sockets provides a range of services built on three foundations of data and technology.
One of Japan’s largest databases for systematically recording information about content
AI technology that understands content and enables information processing for areas that depend on human emotion and sensibility
A platform connecting MSDB data with external sources to enable new services
Media Service Database
Recording Information about Content—including the Relationships around It
MSDB is a database that systematically records a wide range of entertainment information across music, video, books, games, and other media, including works, related products, and the people involved.
An anime title, for example, may have an original comic, a theme song, production staff, voice actors, characters, and real-world locations that inspired its setting. MSDB records not only these individual facts, but also the relationships among them across media.
A key strength of MSDB is its ability to represent these relationships accurately and make them traceable.
MSDB began with experts who deeply understood the content entering data item by item. It was labor-intensive, but created a level of originality and specialist knowledge that could not be produced elsewhere. With the practical adoption of machine learning, this accumulated data also became valuable training data.
A database starts becoming outdated the moment it is created. We have continued to operate and update MSDB as new content is released and distribution shifts toward digital services.
MSDB supports the daily viewing and listening experiences of users across major music and video streaming services in Japan. Because the data is used in live entertainment services, we have continually focused on its quality.
Kansei AI
Turning an Intuitive “I Like It” into Usable Data
We call the technology that understands content and enables information processing for areas dependent on human emotion and sensibility Emotional AI.
How clearly can we explain why we like a particular work? “It was quiet and stayed with me,” “I identified with the character’s background and setbacks,” or “I found myself crying a while after I finished reading.” These reasons can be difficult to put into words precisely and may depend heavily on each person’s emotions and sensibilities.
Emotional AI is being developed to capture this kind of sensory and emotional information.
Handles what the content is as a matter of fact
Handles how people feel when experiencing the content
Only by combining these two perspectives can the connection between content and people be processed as data.
It can respond to ambiguous requests such as “a work with this kind of worldview” or “a book that leaves this kind of feeling.”
It can represent emotional proximity and affinity between content and content, content and people, or content and brands.
It can turn experiences of empathy with a worldview or story into data.
Entertainment DMP
A Platform Connecting MSDB Data with External Sources to Enable New Services
MSDB Bridge is a platform that uses MSDB and Emotional AI to create new encounters and experiences for people involved with IP content.
Data alone does not create action. MSDB Bridge is the foundation for putting the information accumulated in MSDB into a form that can be used in real business settings.
Our core business has traditionally focused on distribution after content reaches the market. MSDB Bridge extends our role both upstream and downstream—from discovering new talent and original works to production, marketing, corporate collaboration, and real-world experiences. Data and Emotional AI support the full flow through which IP content is created, expanded, and experienced.
* IP content: content such as works and characters that has value as intellectual property.
For producers and investors: provide data-driven information that supports early discovery of original works and creators, as well as planning, production, and investment decisions.
For content holders and rights owners: support distribution, promotion, and secondary development of content.
For brands and companies: support everything from identifying content with strong affinity to planning collaborations and forecasting their impact.
