Mobile Internet, have we seen our neighboring Japan?

In 2001, Japan's largest operator, NTT DoCoMo, began to officially operate the world's first 3G network. To know that Apple is still making ipod music players in that era, Google has just gotten funding from Sequoia and Kleiner, and most of China has not even been popular with mobile phones.

In Japan, NTT DoCoMo set up a closed system called mode–compatible, which in today's view is highly consistent with Apple's Ios+iphone+app store model, where the industry's leading operators are responsible for operating the network, selling their customized mobile terminals, distributing content platforms, charging, This system in 2000 years or so, in the world is extremely advanced.

For a long time in the early part of this century, Japan's mobile internet industry was far ahead of other countries, and in many segments, such as mobile advertising and mobile gaming, Japan was once ahead of several years in other countries, including the United States.

But in 2008, a New American "black Ship Fleet" came, and its influence on the Japanese mobile internet was no less than that of Perry's fleet.

In 2008, SoftBank founder son formally introduced Apple's iphone into Japan, a revolutionary smartphone with a large screen and touch screen that was once unpopular with the Japanese. But then, the iphone swept through Japan, and Apple's App Store model dramatically subverted the mobile internet ecosystem that Japanese operators control.

Before that, few Japanese used foreign-made handsets, and Nokia, Samsung and Motorola all ended up miserably in the Japanese market. Nokia has even shut down its branch in Japan.

People have described the iphone's arrival as a new Black ship landing. Japan's mobile internet industry has been deeply reflected and reformed.

And it is in such drastic changes, Japan's NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank three operators of the fate of the great changes have taken place.

At the same time, Japan has emerged from a group of powerful mobile internet companies such as Gree and Dena. After the function mobile phone transformation smartphone, because the foundation is good, Japan's mobile internet has burst out the new explosive force, has erupted the new vigor.

As Japan's mobile internet as a whole is still ahead of the rest of the world, its years of experience and lessons, as the world's mobile internet treasures, many of the issues still discussed in China, in Japan many years ago has been to ordinary people's homes.

How does the iphone become popular from unsalable?

The white giant Hokkaido model is conspicuously erected in the bustling area of Tokyo's Ginza, where tourists from all over the world can't help pausing to stop and wait. The Hokkaido Dog is a household name in Japan, and its frequent and various star partners appear in a number of soft silver TV commercials, greatly elevating the soft silver in Japan's popularity.

This is SoftBank's flagship store in Tokyo's Ginza, Japan, where, in the past few years, SoftBank founder son will appear in the area, using his well-known face in Japan as the "platform" for new handsets. Every time a new iphone goes on the market, the outside is always filled with young people who are rushing around, and like the rest of the world, they're crazy about the American phone.

In 2008, when SoftBank, Japan's third-largest carrier, son, first introduced the iphone 3G to Japan, the American mobile phone, with its big touch-screen, appeared to be quite different in Japan, but no one was bullish.

People from their pockets to take out the function has been very perfect Japanese brand of the big clamshell mobile phones such as the NTT DoCoMo and KDDI and other operators customized, you can surf the Internet, e-mail, play games, listen to music, fortune-telling, friends, watch TV, swipe card into the subway station ... These phones usually have a button to enter the operator's homepage, which has a variety of mobile internet services. At the time, no country in the world was as powerful as Japan.

Before the iphone was born, Japan had the world's most well-run mobile Internet system.

However, the operator's long-standing closure system has weakened the competitiveness of Japanese local handset makers such as sharp and NEC. In Japan, the best mobile phone design talent is often concentrated in operators, mobile phone manufacturers to some extent into the operator's foundry department.

The CEO of a Chinese manufacturer who designed mobile phones for Japanese carriers in the past recalls to reporters Japan's mobile phone design is too complex, operators require many of the features they want, such as NFC, Mobile TV, mobile phone built-in many operators customized software, Japanese operators on the quality of mobile phones, because of the low production, Mobile phone prices remain high.

"Among Japanese manufacturers, there is a unique craftsman culture. "A Japanese IT company in China, the CEO said that the Japanese it enterprises in the identity of the engineers proud, attaches great importance to product quality, the pursuit of product quality to achieve the ultimate, but often overlooked how many consumers need this product," our company's a product, performance is very strong, But there are fewer sales per year than Lamborghini.

At first, the soft silver iphone was not selling well in Japan. Because the Japanese have not accepted this brand new mobile phone very well, and the iphone price is higher than other mobile phones, at first it will cost a lot of money, every month in the package to spend much money. In addition, the iphone does not join the Japanese mobile phone in the common mobile phone wallet, mobile TV function, but also let the Japanese are not accustomed to. After half a year, the iphone sales in Japan basically stalled.

Later, SoftBank adjusted its strategy for selling iphones, such as slashing prices, strengthening marketing campaigns, and strengthening the direction of iphone use in stores. In addition, SoftBank has a large number of WiFi hotspots in Japan, with the most cloth among Japanese operators. Soft silver for many businesses such as McDonald's and convenience stores free cloth points, at McDonald's door affixed with soft silver WiFi free use of the logo, attracted a large number of consumers.

Min Hailan, who is studying in Japan at the time, recalls that the popularity of social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, has also helped to sell iphones in Japan, because the experience of these social networking sites on smartphones is much better.

"The Japanese are actually sensitive to international internet services such as Facebook and Twitter, and it's very convenient for the iphone to connect to these social networks directly via app." And Apple is an international brand, and young people in Japan actually adore this strange international brand, and they feel cool about taking the iphone. "Min Hailan said.

Earthquake in communication market

At first, the popularity of Japanese smartphones lagged far behind those in Europe and the United States, or even China.

The two biggest carriers, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, have been slow to switch to smartphones because they have been too successful in the era of functional handsets. KDDI Even 2011 years before the start of large-scale promotion of smartphones.

Reporters went to Japan two years ago, the operator's business hall there are many features mobile phone for sale. And recently went to the operator's business hall, found the most prominent position all give way to the smartphone.

NTT DoCoMo and KDDI have increased the sales of Androd custom smartphones, which are much more customizable than any other country in the world. For example, the smart phones of NTT DoCoMo include the phone wallet, mobile TV and other hardware features, and the iphone lacks these features. KDDI, on the other hand, adds the unique features of the Smartpass package service to its customized Android smartphone.

Hit by SoftBank, Japan's first-largest operator, NTT DoCoMo, and the second-largest operator, KDDI, have been hit by a large chunk of the market share of new users being robbed of soft silver.

The iphone's selling in Japan is devastating for Japanese handset makers, their last surviving market and powerful outsiders.

NEC, for example, was one of the world's largest IT and telecoms companies, after two years of losses and a 90% decline in market capitalisation, and NEC is selling its handset sales department and cutting 10,000 mobile-related jobs. Analysts say NEC is no longer able to compete with Apple and Samsung.

In the era of functional mobile phone, Japan has been born a large number of such as index, Camobile, Cibird, Klab, such as SP company, in the smart phone after the tide hit, most of the company's days began to become difficult.

These SP companies, which used to be attached to carriers and have a steady income, are now starting to suffer from many Japanese SP companies, and more companies are turning to smartphones, such as D2C, Japan's biggest mobile advertising company, which is now making a big transition to gaming.

The market structure of Japanese operators has also changed dramatically, with SoftBank relying on the iphone's best-selling market share to rise sharply. and NTT DoCoMo and KDDI began to transform.

The popularity of smartphones has exposed operators to "plumbing" threats. Japanese operators are still very enthusiastic about the sale of smartphones, as a mature market for mobile communications, the Japanese voice market has long been saturated, so operators believe that smart phones can effectively pull users to use mobile traffic, thereby pulling the operator's income.

Enokiya Qi, founder of Japan's mode–compatible business, pointed out that the way operators avoid plumbing is to develop into peripheral businesses.

Starting from 2010, NTT DoCoMo began to expand beyond telecommunications in 8 major areas, such as financial and settlement business, multimedia business, business services, medical and health services, IoT, integration and platform services, environmental services, safety and security service, and the future operators are becoming more and more unlike a simple mobile communication enterprise.

Over the past few years, the DoCoMo of NTT's 8 dah-shin business has exceeded 10% per cent. NTT DoCoMo hopes that by 2015 these new businesses will earn 1 trillion yen and continue to drive the growth of the NTT DoCoMo as its main business becomes more saturated.

This kind of business expansion of NTT DoCoMo, much like China Telecom recently proposed "go to the telecommunication" train of thought, namely through the main business of Telecom's advantage to the periphery industry expands, in order to reduce the threat that the pipeline brings.

Mobile Internet Nirvana Reborn

After the Labour throes of the transition period, Japan's mobile internet has recently shown an astonishing burst of power, thanks to its better foundation. In many ways, such as mobile games, mobile gaming, and social networking, Japan has grown much faster than other countries.

Of the world's top 15 mobile gaming companies in 2012, 4 were from Japan. Since the end of 2012, Japan overtook the United States as the first country to play revenue in Google Play. 88% of Google Play's income in Japan comes from games.

The best performance was the Japanese GungHo company, which became the biggest operator in Google Play. GungHo by virtue of "Wisdom Dragon Fan City" (Puzzle & Dragons) and other mobile games, the market capitalisation of more than 10 billion U.S. dollars, become the world's most profitable mobile gaming companies.

In addition, the line, which has a "Japanese version of the micro-letter", is also booming in Japan, with users already over 150 million and starting to commercialize earlier than the micro-letter. Line revenues reached 5.82 billion yen (about 58.9 million U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2013, up 92% from the fourth quarter of last year, with 80% per cent from the Japanese market. Line is now the main revenue from the game and the application of the pay expression.

Japan's achievements on the mobile internet have proved that a good industrial base is critical. In particular, Japanese operators have laid a very solid foundation for the development of the Japanese mobile internet and have taken up their responsibilities in the industry.

Japan Mobile Internet development is good, and Japanese operators commonly used "double plane package" inseparable. This billing method allows users to ease the use of mobile Internet traffic, greatly promoting the development of mobile Internet in Japan.

In the early 3G business development, Japanese operators in accordance with the actual use of user traffic charges, or the adoption of monthly flow does not cap the use of packages. But the flow does not cap packages expensive (the monthly price of about 4,000 yen, more than 200 yuan), which causes many users dare not open the use of mobile traffic, to some extent, will limit the development of mobile Internet in Japan.

Since then, KDDI first launched a "dual-plane billing package." The so-called "double plane", is to set a threshold very low monthly flow of minimum consumption (about 70 yuan), and then set a maximum consumption (about 300 yuan or so), the user in the minimum consumption and the highest consumption charges, according to the actual use of the amount of charge, regardless of how users use traffic, Fees will not exceed the maximum consumption.

Such tariff settings have greatly facilitated the enthusiasm of Japanese users to use mobile traffic, making them open to the use of mobile internet services. Since then, other Japanese operators have also followed the adoption of a dual-plane billing method.

By contrast, the flow rates of Chinese operators are now expensive. The main monthly packages of Chinese operators typically limit the maximum usage (1G) of the month, and the excess traffic is expensive, so many mobile internet companies reflect that the user's activity is often slashed at the end of the month because users are afraid to continue using traffic.

The quality of Japan's mobile communication network is very good, which is why the Japanese mobile internet broke out. From 2010 onwards, Japan's three major operators began the era of large-scale popularization of 4G network.

The 4G subscribers to the NTT DoCoMo have broken 10 million by the beginning of 2012, as the price of the 4G package and the price of the 3G package are close, and a large number of Japanese choose the 4G network when they switch their new handsets. In addition, the number of 4G users KDDI and SoftBank has also increased dramatically.

The popularity of 4G is a major boon for Japan's mobile internet start-up companies. For example, the network telephone function that line relies on to start, under 4G condition will be more stable. In addition, Japan's most lucrative mobile phone game card games, but also high demand for the network.

In the mobile internet era of operator-led features, Japanese users have accumulated good pay habits and people are willing to pay for the content of mobile Internet, which has built up a good foundation for the new outbreak of mobile internet in Japan.

In addition, the world is shocked by the capital from Japan's mobile internet community. In October 2012, SoftBank announced that it was spending 20 billion of billions of dollars to buy Sprint, the third-largest operator in the United States.

In addition, Japan's mobile internet industry in recent years, the world has a lot of money, such as SoftBank spent 200 million of dollars invested in mobile advertising company Inmobi,dena 400 million U.S. dollars to buy the United States gaming company Ngmoco,gree $100 million to buy social gaming platform OpenFeint. At present, the mobile Internet industry from Japan is also looking for mergers and acquisitions opportunities in the Chinese market.

As the world's most mature mobile internet market, Japan's past years of exploration has actually provided China with a very important reference, such as mobile wallet, mobile advertising, O2O, mobile medicine, but also in China to explore the new mobile Internet, in fact, has long been operating in Japan for many years.

Take the O2O industry as an example, the more O2O down the development of the more need the whole social maturity to do the foundation. Japan's highly mature social business environment has laid a good foundation for its O2O development. The country's income gap is small, from the northernmost Hokkaido to the southernmost Okinawa, where people's living standards are almost the same.

In addition, the concentration of Japanese businesses, such as Japan's 7-11, the family, Rosen and other chain convenience stores have firmly occupied the center of people's lives, some Japanese VCs pointed out that the further development of mobile Internet, the more the need for the maturity of the social business environment as a tie, Japan is likely to become the global mobile Internet new round of experimental plots, is expected to lead the emergence of some innovative business model.