Japanese mobile social networking hits the UK
/v3-uk/news/1973464/japanese-mobile-social-networking-hits-uk
30 Jul 2007, Andrew Charlesworth , V3
A mobile social networking service from Japan has been launched in the UK.
Mobikade, popular among Japan's urban youth, enables friends to provide each other with a constant stream of where-I-am and what-I'm-doing pseudo-news via a website accessible from their mobiles.
Every action earns participants points, which can be used to send text messages to friends, or they can be saved and entered in a monthly prize draw. Users can also download games, mostly puzzles like Sudoku.
The service faces a number of hurdles before it is successful in the UK, however. "A direct consumer play could be a problem," Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum's consumer practice, told vnunet.com.
"The brand is unknown in the UK, so they might do better allying with a known mobile or online brand."
A safer bet for success would be mobile features added to an existing popular social networking service, added Zoller.
Furthermore, in Japan, where conventional PC adoption is lower, accessing the web from a mobile is more established than it is in the UK.
UK mobile operators have struggled for years to increase the data proportion of their revenues, which are still only a tiny percentage compared to voice traffic.
In Japan, Sogo Shosha ITOCHU and Excite Japan, the companies behind Mobikade, fund the service principally from advertising.
Because mobile web access is so popular in Japan, the mobile ad market grew 35 per cent last year to a value of £156m.
But this model is largely unproven outside Japan and advertising could be turn-off for UK users, according to Zoller.
"In the context of social networking, advertising is even more sensitive. Social networking is inherently personal and people are possessive of their pages and see advertising as intrusive," she said. "In short, they will struggle."
Mobikade's owners expect that the mushrooming popularity of social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, combined with the universality of mobile phones, will make Mobikade a roaring success.
"My aim is to successfully introduce Japanese mobile strategies to the UK and Europe. Mobikade is so cool it will change the lives of mobile users," said Atul Sasane, head of new business at Global Network Solutions, the European arm of Sogo Shosha ITOCHU.
"We will use this experience to bring in more innovative businesses from Japan to Europe."
Do you agree?
Re: PC Web Adoption in Japan
"Furthermore, in Japan, where conventional PC adoption is lower, accessing the web from a mobile is more established than it is in the UK."
The standard urban legend about lack of fixed-line adoption in Japan being the reason for its mobile web success is simply not based in fact.
The ITU (Intl. Telcomm. Union) has global stats for 1999, the year i-mode launched, which clearly shows Japanese internet subscribers per 100 (9.59) & Users per 1,000 (213.66) is on par or ahead of France, Germany, Italy and the UK at that time.
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/icteye/Reporting/ShowReportFrame.aspx?ReportName=/WTI/InformationTechnologyPublic&RP_intYear=1999&RP_intLanguageID=1
They also have the numbers for 2001 here:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/Internet01.pdf
kind regards,
L.Cosh-Ishii
www.wirelesswatch.jp
Posted by L.Cosh-Ishii, 31 Jul 2007
Big in Japan?
I don't know, perhaps they are on to something here. Mobile phones are getting bigger again, and with the likes of the Operamini browser getting a decent amount of info on your display is getting easier and easier. Combine this with faster download speeds and maybe you have got Facebook meets mobile? As an added bonus they've got a pretty impressive array of games over at mobikade.com which are all free for their users. Whether it catches on, I guess time will tell..
Posted by Simon Jackson, 26 Sep 2007