The result of the conference mentioned in the previous message (from WSJ Interactive). Very interesting!
January 7, 2000
Seven-Eleven Japan to Set Up Joint Venture for E-Commerce
By PETER LANDERS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
TOKYO -- Seven-Eleven Japan Co. said it will tie up with Sony Corp. and five other companies in a venture that hopes to lure Japanese into buying travel packages and music over their mobile phones and paying for the merchandise at convenience stores.
The venture, called 7dream.com, may offer one of the first comprehensive pictures of an e-commerce strategy that differs significantly from the main U.S. models. Analysts say the more than 50,000 convenience stores in Japan
could play a key role in e-commerce, because few Japanese use credit cards and because the major store chains already have sophisticated computer and distribution expertise.
Seven-Eleven Japan had hinted since last year that it was preparing to offer a wide range of online services, helping its stock price to nearly double in 1999. But until now it had only started an online-books venture with Softbank Corp.
Seven-Eleven Japan will take a 51% stake in the new joint venture. Sony and its marketing subsidiary will hold a combined 13% stake and NEC Corp. and Nomura Research Institute Ltd., a think tank affiliated with Nomura
Securities Co., will also hold 13% each.
Mitsui & Co., a trading company, owns 6%. Japan Travel Bureau Inc., a leading travel agency, owns 2%. Kinotrope Inc., which designs Web sites, owns 2%.
Two Principal Channels
The venture envisions two principal e-commerce channels. One is the 7dream.com Web site to be launched in June, which will offer music CDs, vacation tours, books and other goods. Makoto Usui, a Seven-Eleven Japan managing director, said the site will especially target Japan's 60 million mobile-phone users, a growing number of whom can access the Internet.
Instead of paying by credit card, customers would pick up their tickets or CDs at a 7-Eleven store and pay in cash. That's similar to the setup of the chain's existing online-books venture in Japan, except that the portal for the new services will be controlled by Seven-Eleven Japan, not by Softbank, Japan's giant technology holding company.
The other e-commerce channel will be a terminal placed in all 8,000 7-Eleven stores in Japan by June 2001. The terminal will offer the same services as the Web site, and include a printer for instant printouts of photos taken by digital cameras.
Big Plans
"This is a platform well-suited to the lifestyle of Japanese people," said Junichi Kodera, Sony's executive deputy president. Mr. Usui of Seven-Eleven Japan,
asked how Japan is different from the U.S., said online stores and traditional stores are usually run separately in the U.S., whereas in Japan he believes successful companies will "make a link between what is inside the Internet and
what is outside."
The companies hope to handle 150 billion yen ($1.4 billion) of merchandise in the year ending March 31, 2002, and aim to be "Japan's largest e-commerce venture," said Mr. Usui.
Ito-Yokado Co., a major Japanese supermarket operator, owns a majority stake in Seven-Eleven Japan, which is also listed separately on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Ito-Yokado and Seven-Eleven Japan together own a majority stake in 7-Eleven Inc., which operates 7-Eleven stores in the U.S. Seven-Eleven Japan said it hopes to expand e-commerce services eventually to 7-Eleven stores in the U.S. and Asia but gave no specifics. |
