DoCoMo ushers in i-mode era; IPOs on GEM
Plus: HealthAnswers in Hong Kong; Need2Buy-Asia
By Bill Clifford, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 3:58 AM ET Feb 23, 2000
Japan tends to mark its long history in terms of eras. Perhaps the Zeitgeist calls for dubbing this the i-mode era.
NTT DoCoMo, which lays claim to 57 percent of Japan's 49 million cellular phone users, will this summer begin equipping all of its new handsets with its popular i-mode Internet access function.
This, folks, is tantamount to printing money. Since NTT DoCoMo launched i-mode a year ago, 4.24 million Japanese have signed up, paying a basic monthly fee of 300 yen ($2.70). Because they love to spend more time checking their horoscopes, playing quiz games and of course sending email (12 million a day) than they do simply talking on their phones, their monthly bills tend to go up.
NTT DoCoMo (NMCNY: news, msgs) now projects it'll have 10 million i-mode customers by the end of December -- a year ahead of schedule. And even though call rates are falling, users of i-mode mobile phones will no doubt spend even more time downloading game software into their handsets, listening to music, sending and receiving action video. This brave new era is already upon us. |
