Japan Mobile internet Research serial four: DoCoMo How's it going?

The first group of people to do mobile internet, there is little do not know Japan's largest operator NTT DoCoMo, if someone in the future to write a world mobile internet history, DoCoMo to occupy at least one or two chapters.

Source: Micro-letter public number "mobile Watch", Author: Zeng Ai (i, Black Horse net columnist)

From last year to this year, the author and the Nomura integrated research team visited many of the docomo of NTT. The most intuitive feeling is that the company is still unwilling to give up the past glory, adhere to its past vertical integration model, and in this way has been unwilling to bow to Apple.

DoCoMo Android's local custom development to the extreme, and combines Android with mobile credit cards, mobile medical, old-age phones, voice-mail translations, IoT, earthquake prediction and other local services. Since the iphone is a mobile phone designed for Americans, the advantages of local operators are emerging in some local mobile internet services that require the bottom line of the operating system.

Because of the space problem, the story about DoCoMo today can only be a small part of the serialization. If you want to see more stories, please pay attention to the new book published after the end of this series, there are nearly 20,000 words about DoCoMo's story.

Looking out at the huge floor-to-ceiling windows of the NTT DoCoMo headquarters building, the Japanese parliament building is close at hand, the heart of Japanese politics and the centre of the Japanese mobile internet community.

Employees in neat suits, wearing red tags in an orderly way in and out of the building, cautiously worried that they make any noise in the elevator.

10 years ago, this was a pilgrimage place for mobile internet practitioners around the world, just as Apple's headquarters in Silicon Valley is today.

Longwin, vice president of the public comment on the visit in 2003, recalls that at that time, NTT DoCoMo was at its zenith, and the visitors ' room was usually prepared with a variety of language promotional materials, the employee's business card printed with the then very fashionable two-dimensional code, the laboratory has a variety of at the time it looks like "sci-fi "Research and development products, for example, have not yet been popular in China's mobile phone wallet products, so that the road visitors excited.

At that time, the NTT DoCoMo like a Big Mac to control the Japanese mobile internet, at the peak of its market value has exceeded 400 billion U.S. dollars, once became the capital market in Japan, NTT DoCoMo at that time on the Japanese mobile internet to make innovation once in the world to become the object of learning.

Japan's largest operator has been particularly prominent in the history of the world's mobile internet. As early as 2001, NTT DoCoMo operated the world's first commercial 3G network in Japan. Since then, the mode–compatible mobile internet business model created by DoCoMo has been the operator of many countries around the world to emulate one of the most famous students is China Mobile.

But a few years ago, Apple's iphone, like a whirlwind swept the world, Apple replaced the operator as a new mobile internet leader, operators all over the world have to bow to Apple, accept Apple very harsh conditions, and willing to risk being "piped" danger.

Only two major operators in the world insist on not introducing the iphone, one is China Mobile, the other is the NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest operator, which has been regarded by China Mobile as a "teacher".

Several years down, NTT DoCoMo has been tenaciously relying on its own efforts to fight against Apple's erosion, ultimately, it can succeed? DoCoMo the lessons of the confrontation with the pipeline, what will inspire Chinese operators?

NTT DoCoMo refuses to introduce iphone puzzle

By the end of the 2008 iphone landing in Japan, NTT DoCoMo was still competing with SoftBank, another Japanese carrier, for the iphone's sales power in Japan.

But in the end, DoCoMo in the face of Apple's "outrageous" demand, withdrew from the negotiations.

According to the Japanese economic news quoted by the former management of the NTT Group, "Apple issued a promise to DoCoMo sale of the iphone conditions, asking DoCoMo to open all the patents of the NTT Laboratory." We can't do that. "The NTT Institute is Japan's largest research institution, and how it treats its own technology can even affect the competitiveness of the country as a whole." So even if the iphone receives so much attention in the global marketplace, it is impossible to get all the patents for NTT.

In addition, the two sides also in the iphone sales, prices and other differences. But these are not the root of the problem.

In November 2011, DoCoMo published its medium-term business plan to 2015, announcing the transition to the "Integrated services business". The company plans to expand its new business sales by 2.5 times to 1 trillion yen by 2015. With mergers and acquisitions as the main axis, the cultivation of 8 areas: media, health care, environment, finance, E-commerce and so on.

The plan still emphasises the operator's control of the industry chain, so much of this plan can only be achieved through customizable Android systems. And Apple details the software and services installed on the iphone, and the operator's freedom is low, and if the system described in the IPHONE,NTT medium-term business plan collapses.

It is worth mentioning that NTT DoCoMo has not given up on the introduction of the iphone in Japan, but because of the harsh conditions of Apple, the successful introduction of the iphone is very difficult.

DoCoMo, then president and CEO Yamada, said, "We have not given up on the desire to introduce the iphone," but Apple generally requires operators to promise very large sales, "if the introduction of the iphone led to the majority of our products market share is it, then this will be a difficult result of our digestion." ”

Apple Shock Wave

Before SoftBank began selling iphones in Japan in 2008, the operator was the undisputed hegemon in the mobile market.

February 1999, NTT DoCoMo launched the Mode–compatible service model that later affected the global mobile Internet. It is this business that makes the Japanese mobile internet reach its peak and become the world's target of worship. At its peak, the number of users in mode–compatible even surpassed AOL, which is being reported by major media outlets in Europe and the United States.

After the launch of Mode–compatible, NTT DoCoMo became a star company in the global IT industry, and its shares began to soar. At that time, the rich and DoCoMo in the world to buy a big, 9.8 billion of dollars to buy at&t16% shares.

In Asia, NTT DoCoMo invested heavily in Hong Kong and 24.1% per cent of the telecoms company, holding 4.7% per cent of the Taiwan tele-transmission company and holding 14.1% per cent of the Philippine operator long Distance telephone.

In Europe, NTT DoCoMo and the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and other countries to cooperate in the launch of local mode–compatible services.

In the era of the birth of mode–compatible, the definition of mobile phone is still simple phone call, text messaging function, the phone is completely defined as a communication tool.

The so-called mode–compatible, in short, is to allow users to enjoy a variety of mobile phone internet services, including sending and receiving mail, watching news information, receiving meteorological information, transfer inquiries, booking train ticket service, online shopping, these services to mobile Internet data flow settlement, the price is lower.

From a business model, mode–compatible is built by operators (DoCoMo) a set of ecosystems, a large number of content providers (CP) to its platform to provide services, and then operators and CP Revenue Split (91 points, CP take 9, operators take 1).

Mode–compatible in essence and Apple's App Store business model is very close to all by an industry leader responsible for mobile phone terminals, platform construction, sales channels, billing, the only difference is that in Japan, the mobile internet industry is the dominant operator, while in the United States is Apple.

The system has worked well for many years in Japan, and for a long time made Japan the world's most mobile internet market, and Japan's mobile phone payments, mobile music, mobile gaming, cell phone reading, mobile advertising and other fields, have been the world's leading.

But smartphones, represented by the iphone, have since increased significantly in the user experience than the native Japanese handsets. Compared with the Japanese feature handsets, the American-style smartphone allows users to easily download very rich mobile apps on the internet, making smartphones much more versatile.

In fact, as a set of technological systems developed at the beginning of this century, DoCoMo's mode–compatible system has lagged behind for 07 or 08 years, and one developer has described to the author that developing iOS and Android is simply a pleasure compared to the old mode–compatible development system.

Since 2008, SoftBank has officially sold iphones in Japan, and by the year 2012, the iphone has become the real handset overlord in the Japanese market.

According to IDC, the 2012 iphone share of the entire handset market in Japan reached 23.3%, the first time to win the championship. The following were Fujitsu 18%, Sharp 14%, Sony 8.4%, Kyocera 8%.

If only smart phones, the iphone's share of the 33.1%, is the second Fujitsu 16.5% full twice times, the advantage is extremely obvious. The three to five digits were sharp 12.2%, Sony 11.8%, Samsung 9.3%.

In the second half of 2012, IPhone5 officially began sales in Japan, SoftBank and KDDI two major operators of IPhone5 advertising began in Japan's streets and alleys of the overwhelming.

For Japan's only company that does not sell iphones, DoCoMo pressure is starting to grow.

On January 30, 2013, NTT DoCoMo released its earnings for the first three quarters of the 2012 fiscal year (2012 4 ~ December) (US accounting standards). Sales increased by 6.2% to 3.3707 trillion yen Year-on-year, operating profit was reduced by 5.6% to 702.1 billion yen, showing a "income reduction" status. The main reason for the DoCoMo profit reduction is the significant increase in DoCoMo promotional costs and investment in new areas such as DoCoMo cloud services.

Meanwhile, after SoftBank and KDDI began selling iPhone5 in Japan in September 2012, DoCoMo's MNP (with number transfer network) transferred more than 534,000 people, a record low. Only 201,500 users were added.

The response of the NTT DoCoMo: to the Telecommunications

Not selling the iphone doesn't mean that NTT DoCoMo is ready to sit down. In fact, NTT DoCoMo is being transformed from a simple operator to an integrated company.

　　

Mode–compatible, the founder of the DoCoMo, a former Enokiya Qi of the Japanese mobile internet, said in an interview that the operator's plumbing is inevitable, but people's mobile phones are 24 hours a year, 365 days a day, around the mobile phone's various businesses, operators have many opportunities.

He cited the author as an example, the Japanese Railway Company (JR) was initially a simple railway company, but later did a real estate, shopping malls and other diversified business.

"I was talking to the Japanese railroad, Jr, who was originally a transporter and cargo." During the 2-hour ride of the Tokyo-Osaka Shinkansen, customers were unable to get off the bus during this period, which meant that the railroad company could earn revenue by selling anything on the train during that time. Mobile phones are similar to trains, people do not leave their phones all the while, in theory, you can sell everything around the phone to make money. Enokiya Qi pointed out.

In fact, this kind of reference is very much like China Telecom recently put forward the idea of "go telecom", that is, operators are no longer a simple operator, to the telecom industry to expand.

Since 2010, NTT has docomo to expand the eight areas of finance and settlement business, multimedia business, business services, medical and health services, internet for things, integration and platform, environmental services, and safety and security services.

NTT executive director of the DoCoMo strategy, Gize, said that compared to Google and other Internet companies, operators have a number of advantages, the most important advantage is that operators have the hands of others do not have user behavior data, this data can support operators to the surrounding many industries to develop.

In this way, NTT DoCoMo acquired a 34% stake in Mitsui Sumitomo to enter the financial industry and began issuing mobile credit cards.

NTT DoCoMo also has a joint venture with Omron to set up a mobile medical company. It is intended to manage the data obtained from smartphones and health devices (fat gauges and sphygmomanometer, etc.) through DoCoMo cloud services, and to provide customers with existing products and services, such as the Radishbo-ya Company's health ingredients and DoCoMo insurance.

In addition, NTT DoCoMo and Japan McDonald's set up a joint venture, the company through the accurate mining of user behavior information to provide users with accurate phone McDonald coupons, has been quite successful.

The author many times to Japan interview, a very intuitive feeling is NTT DoCoMo developed a large number of suitable for the use of Japanese nationals of the application services, greatly enhance the standard of living of Japanese nationals.

For example, the combination of the NTT DoCoMo and Fujitsu Mobile phone, the cumulative sales of more than 10 million units in Japan is a serious population aging country, these old people's mobile phone function is very suitable for the elderly in Japan. Since then, DoCoMo has also introduced smartphones for the elderly, which are hard to provide for foreign manufacturers such as Apple.

The mobile wallet business, launched by NTT DoCoMo, is also suitable for its nationals. Because Japan has a large monetary unit, the use of cash payments often faces the trouble of change. The NTT docomo near-field payment function is implanted into its custom handsets, which have been widely spread in Japan for many years, and Apple iphones sold in Japan do not have the function of mobile phone payment.

DoCoMo's services are mostly based on its own cloud computing platform, Gize points out, as operators have their own network, and can master the speed of the network, as well as the network latency and so on, these and Google and other interconnected companies is an advantage.

Now, DoCoMo is around the telecommunications industry, to create a huge life circle, covering all aspects of people's daily necessities, DoCoMo hope that these businesses add up, can greatly enhance their comprehensive income.

Services, voice services Shabette Concier and D video are excellent. By the beginning of 2013, the number of installations of Shabette Concier exceeded 7 million, and the number of utilization had exceeded 280 million times. D video has also increased the number of signings to 3.7 million.

However, as DoCoMo's line of business is too long, the company's executive power will be able to keep up with the next challenges it needs to face.

In addition, unlike SoftBank, DoCoMo seems to like to think about what he has and what he wants to do, but as far as these things are not what consumers really need, they mention less.

In any case, the race between the operator and Apple is still not final. In this race, who can go to the end, for consumers around the world, this is a topic worthy of concern.

If you see the fun, tomorrow we continue to give you a series on the DoCoMo of NTT is responsible for the development of strategic high-level Gize in-depth interview, I believe that China Mobile has been watching DoCoMo every move, DoCoMo is not only the teacher of China Mobile, but also the mirror Chinese. What will be the ultimate fate of operators?

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