Nina Young wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I work for Jupiter Communications, an Internet market research firm and
> I cover Japan..
>
> I am writing a report on access platforms in Japan, and of course,
> i-mode will be a main focus.
>
> Could somebody humour me and tell me what sites are on the front menu
> level? (I do not have an i-mode phone unfortunately) I cannot believe
> that they simply have to fulfill a couple of requirements, to be
> official- none of which are monetary...For example, Yahoo! Japan, I am
> sure, will not be happy being a 3rd level menu option and will probably
> pay the big bucks for more prominent placement..They are quite late in
> announcing their mobile strategy ..
>
There are near 300 sites on the I-Menu now...a complete list would be
tough. But there's:
* over 150 banks including Citibank and all the major large banks
* 4 financial services including DLJ Direct, Nikko, and Daiwa
* Zagat Tokyo Restaurant Guide
* Tons of entertainment sites
* All the major newspapers
* Music/video info from Tsutaya, Sony, HMV...
Don't really know what Yahoo's doing...they had access for a week or so
(mobile.yahoo.co.jp) but no one can seem to get in anymore...maybe they'll
show up on the top menu, maybe they won't (they could destroy the top menu
by having more contents potentially...don't know what the relationship is
between yahoo and DoCoMo, but considering yahoo is SoftBank, I can imagine
they have a less than perfect relationship).
> Do you know of any i-mode site rankings sites? Also, the most popular
> services? (i know bandai's Kyarappa service is incredibly popular-any
> others?)
>
The most popular service is not web at all, it's email. For web services
chaku-mero (downloading new ringtones like the latest pop songs, etc.) is
incredibly popular, as well as kyarappa, fortune-telling, and the surf
report.
There's also near 10,000 unofficial sites (not on the I-Menu) including
several search engines (http://www.ohnew.co.jp/i/,
http://www.fromtokyo.com/is/indexpc.htm).
A good intro to unofficial sites is gigaherz:
www.gigahz.net
>
> Do the subscribers to this mailing list use their i-mode phones mostly
> for fun?
>
Most I-Mode contents are focused mainly on entertainment. There is only
recently a movement into B2B/corporate services, but still the dominant
theme is entertainment. However, I expect a major expansion of enterprise
services with the 503i series handsets due out later this year.
r e n
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Received on Tue Apr 25 03:41:43 2000