Japan Enters and Expands Mobile Content Business in China

Osaka – Saturday, August 14, 2010




Nikkei, Japanese newspaper specialized in business and economy, reported on August 12 in its evening paper that Japanese mobile content developers/suppliers are starting to provide contents to Chinese online customers. Since the start of “I-mode” mobile service in 1997, mobile content companies developed and provided variety of mobile contents and services and were successful



The Japanese web content companies are to leverage know-now and systems they have acquired and established through their business in Japan in expanding their business, first in China, for their further growth and sustainability.



1. What is the background of Japanese mobile content developers/suppliers entering Chinese market?



1) China’s mobile content market has an enormous potential



China has become (one of the) largest mobile phone market, and it is expected that 3G mobile phones and smart phones will drastically become popular. This means that it is quite possible for the China’s mobile content market to drastically grow, and China’s mobile content market potential is huge.



2) Japanese mobile content developers have abundant know-how



Japan is ahead of China in 3G, and mobile content developers have already been successful in their businesses in Japan. They could leverage know-how and systems they already possess in entering and penetrating Chinese mobile content market for their further growth, expanding their business globally.



3) Growth of Japan’s mobile content business slows down



Japanese mobile content companies have been successful in developing and providing such contents as fortune telling and decoration mails; however, Japan domestic market for that kind of business is no longer to growth much as it has been. Therefore, Japanese mobile content companies need to create and/or seek for other markets or start new businesses for growth and sustainability.



2. What kind of content businesses are being started in China?






1) Weather information



A mobile content company called Weathernews Inc http://weathernews.com/global.html decided to start providing mobile paid contents on weather, for China Mobile. It has already started providing mobile web service from April 2010 in which subscribers in China can participate in, and post weather information around the nation.



The company first started the service free of charge to maximize their subscribers, and after a certain period plans to upgrade the services with high added value and navigate the subscribers to continue enjoying the paid contents. This is the strategy they used in Japan and was successful.



2) Fortune telling



Another mobile content company called Zappallas http://www.zappallas.com/en/ started providing service of fortune telling by tarot reading in the end of July 2010. The company has made alliance with a Chinese motile content distributor called Vogins, and receives revenue from the online customers via mobile terminal that can use mobile web site managed by Vogins. The fee is 2 RBM (approximately 25 yen) for utilizing the service 15 times.



The top management of Zappallas comments that with slowing down growth rate of Japan domestic mobile content business it is urgent for them to start and establish new businesses. It is for this reason that the company is speeding up penetrating the Chinese mobile content market.



3) Online comics



Nihon Enterprise http://www.nihon-e.co.jp/, a Japanese printing/publishing company started providing Japanese comics on mobile to 3 mobile-server provider including China Mobile. They first plan to provide total of 50 titles such as comics on golf, and aim to expand their overseas content business, starting with China.



The company has been providing online comic contents free of charge and is to switch to paid content in the beginning of November, 2010. The company has signed with approximately 50 China local comic writers. Their China business has been in the red until the fiscal quarter ending May 2010 but hopes that in annual base it turns to black. In addition, they are thinking of providing comics by Japanese writers in the future.