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DIGITAL MEDIA ACROSS ASIA

Japan: Mobile Landscape

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Overview
Statistics
Mobile usage
Mobile internet usage
Mobile social networking
Mobile industry
Setting future trends?

Overview
The Japanese mobile industry is the most advanced mobile industry in the world. It is years ahead of anyone else in innovation. The world's first 3G connection was launched in Japan in 2001. Known as the "keitei" in Japanese, the mobile phone has become a must-have accessory for every Japanese adult. Unfortunately, the Japanese mobile industry has progressed so much faster than the rest of the world that it suffers from the "galapagos syndromme" . This basically means that the mobile industry in Japan has evolved so heavily that it is divergent from the rest of the world. It is important to note also that the advancement of Japan's mobile industry goes hand in hand with the advancement of their mobile network infrastructures. On the flip side however, current trends of the Japanese mobile industry seem to be serving as good indicators of the future direction of the mobile industry for the rest of the world. More of this will be discussed further below. The mobile landscape of Japan is slowly merging with the internet landscape as more and more Japanese access the internet via their mobile phones. With figures from 2007 showing that the number mobile web users was nearly equal to the number of PC-based web users then, it is highly likely that there are now more mobile web users than PC-based web users. This shift is significant for companies as it means that they now have to accomodate for much more mobile digital content.

Overview

The Japanese mobile industry is the most advanced mobile industry in the world. It is years ahead of anyone else in innovation. The world's first 3G connection was launched in Japan in 2001. Known as the "keitei" in Japanese, the mobile phone has become a must-have accessory for every Japanese adult.

Unfortunately, the Japanese mobile industry has progressed so much faster than the rest of the world that it suffers from the "galapagos syndromme" . This basically means that the mobile industry in Japan has evolved so heavily that it is divergent from the rest of the world. It is important to note also that the advancement of Japan's mobile industry goes hand in hand with the advancement of their mobile network infrastructures.

On the flip side however, current trends of the Japanese mobile industry seem to be serving as good indicators of the future direction of the mobile industry for the rest of the world. More of this will be discussed further below.

The mobile landscape of Japan is slowly merging with the internet landscape as more and more Japanese access the internet via their mobile phones. With figures from 2007 showing that the number mobile web users was nearly equal to the number of PC-based web users then, it is highly likely that there are now more mobile web users than PC-based web users. This shift is significant for companies as it means that they now have to accomodate for much more mobile digital content.

Japan: Mobile Landscape - DIGITAL MEDIA ACROSS ASIA

Statistics
Mobile phone subscribers: 110.395 million 3G penetration rate: 96% (106 million) 3.5G penetration rate: 35% (3G technology is the minimum of mobile phones sold in Japan. Older sets are no longer sold.) Subscribers on flat rate data plan: 50% GPS enabled phones: 55% Largest mobile operator (by subscribers): NTT DoCoMo	Source: Wireless Watch Japan

According to the ROA Group, the mobile user base in Japan is expected to hit 121 million users by 2011, and the penetration rate in the Japanese market is predicted to grow to 95.4% in the same year. EMarketer estimates that a greater majority of the 89 million people in the Japanese population who are connected to the Internet, prefer mobile internet usage to the PC.

Source: The Japanese mobile market, CIA Wrold Factbook, Japanese Mobile Market Overview

Mobile usage

Mobile usage

	With a massively high 3G penetration rate and advanced mobile industry, the Japanese are able to do everything from emailing to calculating body fat with their mobile phones. As seen from the graphic on the left, mobile phones in Japan are also able to double up as credit cards and boarding passes. According to Dr Alastair Brydon, co-author of a report on mobile media in Japan by Analysys, western mobile operators have often intended to develop a broader range of non-voice services, but data ARPUs are still dominated by basic SMS person-to-person messaging. In contrast, in Japan and South Korea, a significant proportion of total mobile spend is generated by data services, rather than text messaging. In fact, mobile messaging revenues in Japan are believed to be in terminal decline. Perhaps the most significant trend with mobile usage is that the Japanese are now accessing the internet mostly with their mobile phones and not through the traditional desktop or laptop computer. Source: ICT Statistics Newslog: Japan

With a massively high 3G penetration rate and advanced mobile industry, the Japanese are able to do everything from emailing to calculating body fat with their mobile phones. As seen from the graphic on the left, mobile phones in Japan are also able to double up as credit cards and boarding passes.

According to Dr Alastair Brydon, co-author of a report on mobile media in Japan by Analysys, western mobile operators have often intended to develop a broader range of non-voice services, but data ARPUs are still dominated by basic SMS person-to-person messaging. In contrast, in Japan and South Korea, a significant proportion of total mobile spend is generated by data services, rather than text messaging. In fact, mobile messaging revenues in Japan are believed to be in terminal decline.

Perhaps the most significant trend with mobile usage is that the Japanese are now accessing the internet mostly with their mobile phones and not through the traditional desktop or laptop computer.

Source: ICT Statistics Newslog: Japan

Mobile internet usage

Mobile internet usage

ComScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, released a new study in September 2007, estimating that 53.6 million people in Japan are using a mobile device to access the Internet. The most common Internet activity among 75% of these users is checking email, while 41% of them check email at least once a day. Accessing news and information is the next most popular activity, engaging 52% mobile users. Search and navigation queries followed close, at 51%.　

Source: Comscore: Mobile phone web users in Japan

Top Mobile Web Activities
Mobile Web Activity	Percent Reach
Email	75%
News/Information	52%
Search/Navigation	51%
Games	39%
Blogs	38%

Japanese commuters while away the journey by watching TV on their mobiles.
Photograph: David Sacks/Getty

A combination of an urban lifestyle and infrastructure advantages mean that the fixed internet is being left behind by the mobile.By offering the Japanese a multiplicity of services - and, very importantly, some very cool handsets to use them on - the operators have created what every western mobile service provider is dreaming of: a mobile lifestyle culture that keeps millions reaching for the mobile rather than the fixed internet.

Source: Why mobile Japan leads the world

Mobile Social Networking
A recent trend that follows the mobile industry is the overwhelming increase in mobile social networking. Morgan Stanley's Economy + Internet 2009 report shows that mobile social networking of Mixi (Japan's biggest Social Networking Site) is approaching a figure of 3 times greater than desktop social networking. (as can be seen below) Japan's 2nd largest Social Networking Site, Gree, seems to have given up on the PC market altogether and is concentrating solely on mobile social networking as seen below. In another sign that mobile social networking is truly taking off in Japan, Twitter has launched a mobile version exclusively for Japan.

Mobile Industry

Mobile Industry

With one of the highest mobile penetration rates in Asia, the mobile market in Japan is believed to be reaching its saturation point. Currently, the competition for Japan's market share has intensified among the three operators, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and SoftBank, in terms of network, contents and devices. Given the situation, these operators intend to extend their businesses abroad. DoCoMo plans to pioneer in commercializing Long Term Evolution (LTE) service in the world by 2010, and its rival SoftBank is challenging to introduce the service at about the same time. Steve Lee, Chief Consultant at ROA GroupIt anticipates that by 2011, free-call service (flat-rate) will be widespread in Japan. Source: Japan's cellphone edge

With one of the highest mobile penetration rates in Asia, the mobile market in Japan is believed to be reaching its saturation point. Currently, the competition for Japan's market share has intensified among the three operators, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and SoftBank, in terms of network, contents and devices.

Given the situation, these operators intend to extend their businesses abroad. DoCoMo plans to pioneer in commercializing Long Term Evolution (LTE) service in the world by 2010, and its rival SoftBank is challenging to introduce the service at about the same time. Steve Lee, Chief Consultant at ROA GroupIt anticipates that by 2011, free-call service (flat-rate) will be widespread in Japan.

Source: Japan's cellphone edge

Setting Future Trends?
As mentioned earlier, Japan's mobile industry has long been setting the standard for the international mobile industry. Current trends in the Japanese mobile industry thus provides for an interesting study of the direction that the world would most likely be taking. Morgan Stanley's Economy + Internet 2009 report argues that mobile internet development in Japan shows significant opportunities for mobile online commerce / paid services / advertising monetization. Data access is said to be likely to lose relative revenue share in the mobile internet ecosystem. All in, Japan's mobile industry should be closely observed to see the latest trends and innovations that we can expect to see in the rest of the world in the future.

Setting Future Trends?

As mentioned earlier, Japan's mobile industry has long been setting the standard for the international mobile industry. Current trends in the Japanese mobile industry thus provides for an interesting study of the direction that the world would most likely be taking.

Morgan Stanley's Economy + Internet 2009 report argues that mobile internet development in Japan shows significant opportunities for mobile online commerce / paid services / advertising monetization. Data access is said to be likely to lose relative revenue share in the mobile internet ecosystem.

All in, Japan's mobile industry should be closely observed to see the latest trends and innovations that we can expect to see in the rest of the world in the future.

Demographics	Internet Landscape	E-commerce

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Demographics

Internet Landscape

E-commerce

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joshua.sum	Latest page update: made by joshua.sum , Nov 12 2009, 6:50 AM EST (about this update About This Update Edited by joshua.sum 2 words added view changes - complete history)
	Keyword tags: japan mobile industry japan mobile internet usage japan mobile landscape japan mobile statistics japan mobile usage mobile in japan More Info: links to this page

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