Questions
Frequently asked
What the card does, what it costs, and what happens when it does not work. If something is missing here, the contact form goes to a person.
Buying a card
Two options. Standard Matte is ¥2,000 and is the premium matte card with your profile on it. Metal Custom is ¥10,000, a solid metal card in silver or gold with your own logo and up to three lines of engraving. There is nothing else to pay after that.
No. You pay once for the card and the profile that comes with it. There is no subscription, no per user fee, and no feature behind a second payment.
Yes. The card is a physical object we post to you, and the profile is a web page, so both work wherever you are.
Checkout runs through Stripe. Note that the charge is processed in USD with automatic conversion, so your statement may show a converted amount rather than the yen figure.
Yes, and the Metal Custom option is built for it, since you can put a company logo and a consistent engraving on every card. Get in touch through the contact form and tell us how many people, and we will work out the details with you.
How it works
The card holds a short web address. Their phone reads it and opens that address in whatever browser is already installed. Your profile appears. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why nothing needs to be installed on either side.
No. Neither do you. This is the part people find hardest to believe, and it is the main reason the card works with someone you have just met.
No. There is no battery in it. The phone supplies the tiny amount of power the chip needs for the moment it is held near it, which is why the card keeps working for years and survives being carried around.
There is a button on your profile that opens their phone's own contacts app with your details already filled in. They tap save. It is one action, and it happens while you are still standing there, which is the point.
Your profile is a normal web address, so a QR code or simply saying the address out loud both get to the same place. Decide which fallback you will use before you need it, and use it without explaining NFC to anyone.
Phones and compatibility
iPhone 7 and later can read NFC tags, and from the iPhone XS onward it happens automatically with the screen on and the phone unlocked. Most Android phones sold in the last several years also read them, though some ship with NFC switched off and a few budget handsets do not have it.
Usually the spot. The antenna is not in the middle of the phone, it is near the top edge on an iPhone, and people instinctively tap the centre. A thick case, a metal ring holder or a wallet case full of cards will also block it.
Yes. NFC is the same standard everywhere and your profile is just a web page, so it opens the same way in Tokyo, London or São Paulo.
Your profile
Yes, any time, and that is the single biggest difference from paper. The card points at your profile rather than storing anything, so editing the profile updates every card you have ever handed out, including the ones from last year.
Your name, title, company, photo and bio, plus links to your website, LinkedIn, Instagram, LINE and the rest. Business profiles can also carry a company section, career history, addresses and posts.
Yes. There are several layouts to pick from and you can switch between them whenever you like, including after the card has been printed and handed out.
Yes. You pick a custom address when you activate the card, so your profile lives at animanext.com followed by the name you chose.
The site and dashboard are in English, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese. Your profile itself shows whatever you write in it, so you can write it in any language you like.
Security and privacy
Less than you would fear. There is no personal data on it, only a web address, so whoever finds it sees the same public profile you have been showing to everyone you met that week. There is no account access and nothing to unlock.
No. Editing requires signing in to your account. Holding the card gives no access to it whatsoever.
Yes, and deliberately so, because a business card is a public document. That means the thing worth thinking about is not the card but what you chose to put on the profile. The test is the same as it was with paper: would you print this and hand it to a room full of strangers?