Japan Mobile Market Growth in 2008
According to the Nikkei, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecomms announced the mobile contents and services market results in 2008 increased by 17% YoY to reach 1.35 Trillion JPY (approx. $14 Billion usd), mobile advertising not included. The mobile commerce market, including mail orders and stock transactions recorded $9B, up 19% while airline and hotel reservations, in the same segment, increased by 25%. The mobile contents category, lead by music, games and e-books, gained 13% to about $5B. Do the math on a mobile population of 106M contracts!
Despite the drumbeat of bad financial news the mobile market continued to grow at an impressive pace. No doubt driven at least in part by the increased adoption, and therefore exploration usage, of flat-rate data plans it would seem there is still plenty of gas in the tank for 2009 😎