Mobikyo KK, publisher of Wireless Watch Japan, together with our local research partner Infinita Inc., has produced several in–depth Japanese mobile market reports which we are pleased to offer here under our established co-distribution agreement. The tiles below represent some of the most detailed and informative independent materials on this subject available — in English — anywhere. We encourage you to preview the free samples and of course we welcome all comments, questions and additional detail requests, via our FeedBack Form, from analysts, the media and industry executives.
Mobagetown – Japan’s No. 1 Mobile Portal Free Sample .PDF
mobagetown was the first and still is the leading mobile service in Japan providing free games through a social networking platform with avatar features. However, mobagetown has evolved far beyond this initial concept: Although free Flash and Java games on a social networking platform with avatars still constitute the core of the service, a variety of additional elements like mobile commerce, user-generated content (mobile novels, music), information and entertainment content (news, weather, celebrities, horoscopes, etc.) and utilities like maps, transport information and mobile search have been successfully incorporated.
mobagetown has developed a diversified and highly sophisticated business model combining revenues from mobile advertising, avatar-related revenues, in-game content purchases and affiliate revenues from its portfolio of mobile commerce partner sites.
Since 2007, the service has grown from 4.4 to more than 14 mn members, from 9.4 bn page views per month to almost twice that, and quarterly revenues have close to quadrupled to reach ¥5.4 bn (US$ 56.8 million). Parent company DeNA Co., Ltd., has relentlessly added innovation after innovation in its quest to make mobagetown the No. 1 mobile portal in Japan.
The company’s success story has been an inspiration for individuals and companies from all corners of the mobile industry across the globe, not a few of whom have turned to Infinita to learn more. We published the original version of our mobagetown research report in March 2007, and it has been flying off the shelves ever since.
This completely revised, expanded and updated report on mobagetown provides detailed analysis of the company’s history and strategy from its beginnings until today, contains a step-by-step walk-through of every single important feature of the service itself, a deep analysis of the games portfolio and provides detailed information on mobagetown’s business model and financials, usage patterns and demographics. It covers the factors that have made the service a runaway success and provides insight into the inner workings into one of the world’s most successful mobile services to an unprecedented degree.
CORPORATE (MULTIUSER) LICENSE — $1,500
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Mixi – Japan’s most successful SNS v2.0 Free Sample .PDF
Mixi, Inc. (Tokyo Stock Exchange 2121) has been highly successful due to its first-mover role in the SNS space in Japan, and its rapid innovation in terms of features and functionalities, and tailoring its service offering in different ways for the PC and mobile platforms.
Although it does feature approx. 40 simple Flash Lite games for added entertainment mixi Mobile – as opposed to competitors mobagetown and GREE – is not focused on mobile games, but is a service built around core social networking functionalities such as profles, pages, blogs (‘diaries’), friends, groups, photo and video sharing.
mixi’s business model (both on PC and mobile) is mostly-advertising based, with only 10% of revenues generated via several premium features, some of which are only available on mobile.
When we published our original mixi research report in March 2007, only 30% of its traffic originated from mobile phones, and mobile-related revenues were minimal compared to the PC platform. A good two years down the line, 70% of mixi traffic are coming from mobile devices, and an estimated JPY1.5 billion (US$ 15.8 million) of mixi Inc.’s JPY2.98 billion (US$ 31.5 million) social networking-related quarterly revenues (as of FY08 Q4) are generated by the mobile version of the service.
Over the past two years, mixi has added a string of innovative features to the mobile version of its service, including premium content like decorated messages and branded profile templates, as well as (in response to rising competitive pressure from mobagetown and Mobile GREE) a portfolio of casual games.
In light of these developments, we have completely revised, expanded and updated our original mixi report – this time around largely focusing on mixi Mobile, and only touching upon the PC version of the service where necessary. This is the only detailed research report available in English providing detailed analysis of the factors that have made mixi Mobile the market leader in mobile social networking in Japan. It includes step-by-step walkthroughs of all major features, insight into business model and financials, as well as into usage patterns and demographics, and analysis of the games portfolio.
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GREE Mobile – Transformation into a Top Player Free Sample .PDF
GREE was originally launched as a PC-based social networking service in early 2004, with a mobile version following in June 2005. Until July 2006, the service was very similar to market leader mixi (focused on core social networking functionalities), however, GREE was not able to demonstrate the same kind of growth as mixi, especially because mixi – which had far more capital at its disposal – introduced innovative features in much more rapid succession.
In July 2006, mobile network operator KDDI made a major investment in the company, aiming to leverage GREE as the ‘SNS engine’ for a variety of its carrier-branded mobile services.
In late 2006, GREE relaunched its mobile version as EZ GREE on the au KDDI network, featuring several features that competitors mobagetown and mixi Mobile had seen success with (e.g. decorated profles, casual games), and in early 2007, the site was listed as an offcial site on NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode as well (a Softbank version came 7 months later).
However, it was not until July 2007 that the service started to really catch on, shortly after GREE introduced avatars, rooms, and – most notably – its now hugely popular pet nurturing game ‘Clinoppe’. Building on this success story, Mobile GREE introduced several other complex games with nurturing and/or collecting mechanisms, tied into community functionalities. All of these games feature in-game paid items. The most successful of these is Tsuri Star, a virtual fshing simulation game (produced by game publisher ORSO).
Revenues for the quarter ending March 2008 totaled JPY3.9 billion (US$ 41.2 million), more than 70% of which stemmed from paid content and in-game purchases. This strongly distinguishes GREE from its competitors mixi Mobile and mobagetown,which much more strongly rely on an advertised-based revenue model.
Interestingly, GREE only started to reach a stellar level of performance once it largely abandoned the PC channel and focused its strategy on mobile. It was also the first of the three major mobile social networking services in Japan to implement complex mobile games that feature strong community elements and combine mobile web and Flash-based technologies, and pioneered the concept of paid in-game items as a revenue stream.
This is the first and only detailed research report available in English providing detailed analysis of the factors that have made Mobile GREE a smash hit. It includes step-by-step walkthroughs of all major features, deep analysis of the game portfolio, insight into business model and financials, as well as information on usage patterns and demographics.
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21st Century Mobile Marketing – Japan Research Report
This strategic research report, published by Infinita Inc., provides detailed insights into the inner workings of mobile marketing and advertising in a country where the vast majority of the population uses mobile Internet services – and where mobile marketing is fast evolving into a standard part of the marketing mix, a scenario soon to become reality in many other parts of the world as well.
With the rapid and widespread introduction of new technologies into the mobile ecosystem, highly personalized and effective forms of marketing are becoming possible, encompassing interaction both on- and offline.
The executive summary 6-page .pdf for this report available Here and 5MB free excerpt of 36-pages from the full document, providing sample pages for content review, is Here.
“21st Century Mobile Marketing” provides in-depth business intelligence and expert analysis relevant to global markets with 188 pages, dozens of charts, graphs and tables includes:
Current and future developments in mobile marketing
Key enabling technologies and services
Detailed data on mobile consumer behavior
Marketer perspective
Campaign best practice case studies
Drivers and barriers for mobile marketing
Interviews with key industry players and mobile consumers
Key questions addressed in this report
++ How has mobile marketing evolved in Japan and what lessons does this hold for other markets?
++ How are the players working together to scale the mobile marketing opportunity?
++ How are the traditional players in the advertising industry approaching the mobile channel?
++ Which advertising formats have proven successful in the mobile environment?
++ Which mobile marketing campaigns are successful, which aren’t, and why?
++ How will mobile marketing develop in years to come?
Who should read this report
Operators, advertisers, media, agencies and technical enablers anywhere that are looking for mobile marketing insights and best practices from the world’s most advanced mobile society to leverage in their local markets. 188 pages, dozens of charts, graphs and tables.
Published April 2008, the report is priced at $1,500 per single copy.
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Japan Mobile Report: Carriers, Handsets, Content and Services
The huge popularity and stunning revenues generated by Japan’s mobile Internet ecosystem have been widely reported, but the reasons behind the success and how these lessons apply to other markets are little understood outside of Japan. Infinita Inc. and Mobikyo KK, publisher of Wireless Watch Japan, have teamed up to produce this in-depth research report explaining the regulatory, technology and business decisions that made and make the mobile Internet in Japan work – getting deep into carrier strategy, service case studies, user behavior and enabling technologies.
Japan is arguably the world’s most advanced mobile market: 40 percent of mobile data revenues worldwide are generated here, three-quarters of the population use the mobile web, and 4-in-5 users are on 3G devices. More than $8 billion in revenues are generated from official mobile content and mobile commerce alone each year, in addition to data access and mobile advertising revenues.
Preview our free 50-page sample [.PDF], read an excerpt from the forward section with condensed chapter list and to learn which lessons from Japan can be applied to create success in other markets worldwide, and which are unique to this country and may not easily transfer elsewhere. Get the complete background story, as well as detailed information on the hottest current developments that are bound to hit other markets as well:
Carrier Strategy and Ecosystem Approach:
How carriers, content providers and handset manufacturers work together in creating compelling service offerings
Mobile Search:
How search is transforming the mobile industry and breaking down the walls of the operator’s walled gardens – how this affects the entire value chain, and what new alliances are emerging as a result
Mobile Music:
How flat rates for full track downloads and cross-platform (PC/mobile) music stores are changing the game, and how mobile music consumption compares to other digital music distribution channels
Mobile Social Networking and User-Generated Content:
Why what’s in its nascent stages elsewhere is fast becoming a mainstream market in Japan – learn how service providers and carriers tie in mobile gaming, avatars, news and more with mobile social media
Mobile Payment and NFC Applications:
Why operators are pursing non-traffic business opportunities in wireless payments, and how Japanese consumers are using their phones as digital cash, credit cards, train tickets and keys
Mobile TV:
Why reception of mobile TV broadcasts is free in Japan, and how operators, broadcasters and marketers are working together to create new advertising formats
Location-Based Services:
Why location is a feature, not a service – and how mobile applications make use of locational information in anything from navigation to security and entertainment
Mobile Advertising:
How it became a $300 million market, expected to triple in the next 3 years – and how mobile advertising is shifting from traditional to search-based advertising and affiliate models
Fixed-Mobile Convergence:
How content providers deliver a seamless user experience across the PC and the mobile, and how carriers integrate their service offerings across both channels
Handset Catalogue:
Complete device specs for fifty models, spanning all major operators, released in Japan in 2007
Who should buy this report?
If you are a mobile operator looking to benchmark some of the most innovative carriers worldwide, a marketer trying to understand where mobile advertising is headed and how brands should interact with their customers via the small screen, a mobile content provider looking for cutting-edge service ideas, a hardware manufacturer or an analyst in search of comprehensive information on the world’s most advanced mobile internet market – this is what you should be reading.
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Published: September, 2007
Authors: Christopher Billich, Infinita Inc.
Daniel Scuka & Lawrence Cosh-Ishii, Mobikyo K.K.
Pages: 202 – Tables and Figures.
Price: Individual (student, Academic institution): $2,500 – Corporate Entity: $5,000