The Invisible Revolution
Hints from Asia on the Future of Mobile
Benjamin Joffe, CEO | +8* | www.plus8star.com
Mobile Focus Conference | Stockholm | November 2008

I am going to talk about
Asia
Mobile music
Mobile TV
Mobile advertising
Mobile commerce
Mobile books
Mobile SNS
2008 Trends
What to remember
for 20 minutes

Introduction

Internet Mobile
1.3 billion 3.3 billion
Source: Morgan Stanley, 2007

Johnny Hallyday
The Father of French Rock’n’Roll

Manga: 1991
Animation movie: 1995
Matrix: 1999

General assumption #1
Everything from USA is great

General assumption #2
Everything from Asia is weird
(and sometimes funny)

Who came first?

Where do you get inspiration from?

Innovations are bound to happen

The 7 Mass Media
1st Media Print
2nd Media Recordings
3rd Media Cinema
4th Media Radio
5th Media TV
6th Media Internet
7th Media Mobile
Source: Tomi Ahonen, 2008

Quick overview

3G penetration in Japan and Korea
is over 70%; it is <0.1% in China

100%
80%
USA
60%
3G users
40%
Chin Japa
20% a n
0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
% of Internet connections measured above 5Mbps
(Source: Akamai)

#2 economy, #1 mobile society
#1 mobile & Internet population
#1 digital society

Japan stopped selling 2G
in 2007

Mobile music

Japanese like ring tones
Because they go to karaoke a lot
Anonymous manager at a foreign media company in 2001

More music is sold “online” than
“offline” in China and Korea

90% of digital music
sold in Japan is mobile

Digital music revenues in Japan
Source: Infinity Venture Partners, 2008

Ringback tones were created in
Korea and launched in 2002
They reached 30% penetration
in 9 months
Source: NMS Communications

Mobile TV

Koreans now spend more time on
the Internet than watching TV

Mobile TV penetration in Japan
and Korea is over 30%

37 million mobile TV phones were
sold by June 2008 in Japan
Mobile TV started in May 2006

Over 70% of new handsets in Japan
are mobile TV-enabled

Mobile advertising

Minimum advertisement hides the
maximum potential.
Mobile is today the ultimate proximity
media, and reaching the Mobile is reaching
the Consumer.
Akihisa Fujita
CEO of D2 Communications
(Leading mobile marketing firm)

The mobile ad market in Japan was
over 700 million USD in 2007

Have you heard of?

QR code in a train station
with directions to a hotel
QR code on a web page
QR code printed on chocolate

TV ad
for a show’s website
Train ad Magazine ad
for job portal for cosmetics
Newspaper ad
for health product

Guess who Blyk benchmarked?
Blyk?

Beyond mobile advertising
Mobile Commerce

Moba-Oku (DeNA)
Mobile Auctions
1. Take pic
2. Select category
3. Enter info
4. Check
5. Done!

Over 6 billion USD in 2007

Japan’s m-commerce
=
2x mobile content
=
10x mobile advertising
=
China’s e-commerce

Mobile books

Several best-selling novels in Japan
were written on mobile phones

One full bookshelf
for mobile novels
at Kinokuniya,
Japan’s largest
bookstores chain!

The two volumes of
this book “Koi Sora”
(“Loving sky – story
of a love without
gentleness”) sold…

“Koi Sora” sold over 2 million
volumes (8 EUR / book)
(You can read it for free on mobile)

Even on TV!

Digital books: Internet vs. Mobile
Flat-fee data plans
are introduced
Source: Infinity Venture Partners, 2008

Mobile Social Networks

“Social Networking
Is Not a Business”
MIT Technology Review
July/August 2008

Build communities
with matching games
Attract user
with free games
Chat Avatars
BBS Journal Clubs
Get new users with
Word-of-mouth

Starting date
2004 1997 1999 2004 2006

Registered users
60 mln 500 mln 20 mln 14 mln 10 mln

Country’s Internet users
60 mln 500 mln 20 mln 14 mln n.a.
200 mln 220 mln 35 mln 90 mln 90 mln

Starting date (mobile)
2007 2000 2004 2006 2006

Mobile users (est.)
3 mln 50 mln 6 mln 10 mln 10 mln

Country’s mobile users
3 mln 50 mln 6 mln 10 mln 10 mln
255 mln 580 mln 45 mln 100 mln 100 mln

Revenues 2007 (USD)
150 mln 520 mln ~200 mln 100 mln 150 mln

Profit 2007 (USD)
(50 mln) 225 mln ~100 mln 35 mln ~60 mln

Average Revenue From Users
~0% 87% 80% 5% 50%

Impression unit price
PC
Mobile
April 2005 April 2006 April 2007 May 2008

SNS on the stock market?

Market-listed SNS
2006.12 2004.06 2006.09 2005.02
100 bln HKD 87 bln JPY 104 bln JPY
76 mln EUR 10 bln EUR 700 mln EUR 830 mln EUR

Market-listed SNS

2008 Trends

SH906iTV for NTT DoCoMo
(June 2008)
Mobile TV service “One Seg”
Twist screen
with data menu overlay
Decorated and animated mobile
Internet browsing (left)
messaging

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
• 1 | Music & video channel | Overnight download of • 13 | GPS | Location info, maps and navigation
programs via 3G network • 14 | Area Mail | Public alert information service
• 2 | “One seg” | Terrestrial digital mobile TV • 15 | Phone backup | Contacts, messages and pictures
• 3 | iMotion Video Clip | Up to 10MB/video automatic Internet backup during idle time
• 4 | 3D games with motion sensor • 16 | Remote lock | Remote locking of the phone
• 5 | Full track music download • 17 | Phone search service | Locate your phone if you
• 6 | Flat fee unlimited music lost or forgot it
• 7 | Deco-mail | Rich HTML mobile push email • 18 | Wallet phone | Contacless chip for transportation,
• 8 | Deco animation | Animated Flash mobile email membership cards, shopping (offline and online), credit
card, key/ID
• 9 | Receiver status message | Displays the receiver’s
status message when calling him/her • 19 | World Wing | 3G + GSM international roaming
• 10 | Video phone • 20 | Translator | Speak to the phone to get a translation
to and from English or Chinese
• 11 | 2-in-1 | Use two separate phoner numbers and
mobile email addresses on a single device • 21 | High-speed | HSDPA with up to 7.2Mbps download
speed
• 12 | i-Channel | Information service

Mobile service trend
Mobile TV Mobile web browsing service
Video phone call Mobile widget

Mobile lifestyle
infrastructure

Mobile  Media

3G
+
Flat-fee data

For content, media and advertising:
New service & revenue models

For mobile carriers:
indirect effects of innovations

Music service helps KDDI
double its new subs
Monthly growth index
1.50
New subs share /
Market share Ring songs
December 2002 Full Song Downloads
November 2004
1.00
0.50
0.00
Nov-01
Nov-02
Nov-03
Nov-04
Nov-05
Nov-06
May-01
May-02
May-03
May-04
May-05
May-06
Aug-01
Feb-02
Aug-02
Feb-03
Aug-03
Feb-04
Aug-04
Feb-05
Aug-05
Feb-06
Aug-06
-0.50
Source: Telecommunications Carriers Association, 2007

More revenues from indirect effects?
Revenue in 2006
0.2 EUR / song
Content fee (revenue share) 10 MEUR
50M full songs
44 EUR monthly ARPU
New subs thanks to innovation
330 MEUR
(~50% of subscribers increase)
1.25M new users
1bln
EUR!
Increased usage of existing subs 4.5 EUR monthly ARPU
(~50% of data increase from 2.5G 648 MEUR
to 3G) 12M 3G users
Source: [+8*] estimates based on KDDI figures

To remember from the KDDI case
KDDI do not get much revenues directly
from music
but record companies do and mobile
music is still growing!
KDDI makes HUGE money thanks to “halo
effect” & indirect revenues from music
data packages
new subscribers
churn reduction

Thanks!

Thanks!
& Rock’n’Roll :-)

About +8*

There are more ideas
outside your country
than inside
Tom Kelley
CEO, IDEO
The 10 faces of Innovation

“Innovation Arbitrage”
• About us
– +8* | Plus Eight Star is the leading cross-market and cross-cultural consultancy in Asia.
– We provide local expertise & global perspective on mobile and Internet innovation from
China, Japan and South Korea to add value to and accelerate the development of our
clients’ businesses.
• Our services
– Analysis of proven best practices and business models from Asia
– Other services: executive study trips, market entry strategy, M&A advisory, partners
identification, negotiation support.
• Founder & CEO: Benjamin Joffe
– 9 years experience with mobile & Internet in Asia
– Selected among “China’s Top 100 mobile industry influencers” in 2007
– Regular speaker at events on mobile and Internet in Asia
– Fluent in English, Japanese, French with working knowledge of Mandarin, Korean and
Spanish

Selected References
• Adidas | E-commerce strategy for China, Japan & Korea
• Bouygues Telecom | Cases studies of leading Asian Web 2.0 services
and virtual worlds
• Deutsche Telekom / T-Online | Benchmark of Korean mobile & Internet
convergence strategies
• Hemisphere | Analysis of mobile marketing best practices in Japan and
South Korea (Hemisphere is a leading digital advertising agency),
analysis of leading social platforms (SNS, virtual worlds, online games).
• Microsoft | Analysis of Japan’s key players and market catalysts for
mobile commerce market positioning in China
• DeNA | Case studies of the best practices of leading social networks in
China and South Korea (DeNA operates Mobile Game Town, Japan’s
leading mobile SNS service)
• China Mobile | Benchmark of Korean leading online communities
• Sands Capital Management | Evaluation of China’s investment
opportunities in social networks in China

Social Work
• Mobile Monday
– Founder of the Mobile Monday forum in Beijing since 2006 (3,000+
members, 23 events, over 80 presentations).
• Media
– Monthly column on Asian innovation for Asian Business Leaders (one of
the leading Chinese business magazines), numerous interviews in
international media.
• Events
– Regular keynote speaker and moderator at Internet, Telecom, Media and
Investment events
e.g. ITU Asia, Asia Venture Capital Forum, China Mobility International Summit,
O’Reilly’s Graphing Social Patterns, Red Herring Asia, Media 08 Conference,
Wireless Developer Forum, Open Web Asia, XMediaLab, Mobile Monday Global
Summit, etc.)

Contact Us
www.plus8star.com
benjamin@plus8star.com
benjamin0123 +81 | Japan
+82 | Korea
http://twitter.com/plus8star +86 | China
Telecom & Internet
www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjoffe + Added Value
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