WW-163 -- Mobile SNS - Beyond Hype

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J at pan Inc presents the Wireless Watch Newsletter:

W I R E L E S S W A T C H

Commentary on the Business of Wireless in Japan
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Issue No. 163
Tuesday May 15, 2007
Tokyo

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----------------- ICA Event - May 23 ---------------------

Speaker: Mike Alfant, President and CEO, Fusion Systems
Topic: Leadership in Entrepreneurial Ventures

Details: Complete event details at http://www.icajapan.jp/
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Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Time: 6:30 Doors open, Buffet Dinner amd Open Bar included
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Entrepreneur's Handbook Seminar 9th of June, 2007

If you have been considering setting up your own company,
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Terrie Lloyd, founder of over 13 start-up companies in Japan,
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This is an ideal opportunity to find out what is involved,
and to ask specific questions that are not normally answered
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Mobile SNS - Beyond Hype

Social network services (SNS) like MySpace, Orkut and
LinkedIn are booming. These PC-oriented networks allow
participants to mutually introduce friends, exchange
information with trusted members, and setup interest groups.
Japanese successful web community sites are offered by Yahoo
and Mixi. Since 2006, mobile versions of SNS sites have
popped-up like mushrooms in Japan.

Mobile SNS allows for the ultimate context-based 1-to-1
advertising. Not only user profile and preferences which
are important for targeted marketing - also location,
weather, and a phone that is always connected to the
Internet, make mobile SNS a much more compelling advertising
medium than PC-services.

KDDI launched 'EZ GREE' in November that allows users to
access SNS with just a mobile phone - a PC-based account
is not required anymore. Recently, Disney started its own
mobile SNS as well. The Plant, an international web service
and design company in Tokyo offers multi-lingual web- and
mobile SNS. Its service Asoboo targets the internationally-
minded community in Japan. The philosophy of Anatole Varin,
The Plant's founder, is to keep the user interface as clean
as possible allowing for easy navigation - no fancy pages
powered by colorful style sheets. A strategy that works well
for mobile SNS where ease of use and fast loading pages
are required.

The largest and fastest growing mobile SNS is Mobile Game
Town offered by DeNA - a Tokyo-based e-commerce company
that runs virtual auction sites and shopping malls. DeNA
provides a mobile-only SNS. Its success is overwhelming.
4.4 million subscribers generated 9.3 billion page views
in March - four times larger than that of Yahoo's mobile
portal.

What differentiates Mobile Game Town from other mobile SNS?
DeNA teases the users with free mobile games. In February
and March, DeNA aired several TV commercials, and launched
magazine and train advertisements. The investments paid off -
the number of monthly page views increased with 3.5 billion
in two months. Sixty percent of the subscribers are now male,
while 56% are teens.

DeNA wants to become the largest mobile portal in Japan.
Besides games, participants can chat, send mini-mails, use
avatars, and upload photos and videos. DeNA furthermore
connects Mobile Game Town to its own mobile e-commerce
services, and content services from third parties like
music providers. News, weather and public transport
information services are also offered in the portal.
Advertisement - banners and mail magazines - and kick-
back fees from third-parties selling content providers
are the main source of income. DeNA's revenues in the
quarter ending March 31 accounted for almost 50 million
dollars of which 60% was generated by mobile services.

Can mobile SNS also succeed in the US and Europe? The mobile
SNS experience in these regions is mostly limited to
uploading of text messages and photos. Mobile data fees
are at this moment too expensive to allow extensive browsing.
Affordable 'all-you-can-eat' packet fees and the break-through
of mobile advertising will be the key-enablers for mobile SNS.

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STAFF
Written by Arjen van Blokland; edited by the
J at pan Inc staff (editors at japaninc.com)
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