>>I would be interested in your views on the winners in net business in Japan<<
Aloha GST,
I left Japan about two years ago, so to be honest, I don't know much either... It seems though (and I was just there last week) that the winners there are the same as the winners here. AOL partnered with Nikkei and in two years (?) went from nothing to number one in internet subscribership. Yahoo Japan, basically a proxy for Yahoo, has risen six or seven-fold in the last year. And Amazon (name recognition) seems to be doing well also. I have always been highly skeptical of Softbank (a couple of years ago, their finances and ultimate survival were rumored very suspect), but as a result of the big gains on Yahoo, E*Trade and others, they are well in the black, and the stock, with all-time highs last week, is doing very well.
Sony, by sheer bigness, seems likely to do well (remember what they did with PlayStation?). They have a popular ISP unit called SONET. I can't see stodgy Toyota doing much other than selling cars online. Anyway, I think it far more profitable to play the US internet stocks---that's what I'm doing. Even though Japan is experiencing an internet boom, it is still a fraction of what we have in the US. Until NTT comes up with a flat-rate or more reasonably priced plan for local internet connection, the market there really can't take off. When it does, however, the AOLs and Yahoos should be the winners. Hope this helps and all IMHO.
Aloha,
da Zipstah |
