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May 17, 2000
WIRED
WIRELESS: GADGETS &
E-COMMERCE IN JAPAN
One of the prevailing
stereotypes of Japanese is that they're gadget-crazy. So it didn't surprise
me when I saw during a visit in the mid-1980s that most of the people of
Tokyo seemed to be publicly engrossed in private conversations, cellular
phones held to their ears while they walked the sidewalks of the city.
| The name of the leading Japanese cell phone brand, "DoCoMo," means "everywhere." |
These phones were smaller and cooler than cellular phones available at the time in the U.S., and even though the gadgetry didn't surprise me, the ubiquitousness of the little things -- they truly were everywhere I looked -- amazed me. In fact, the name of the leading Japanese cell phone brand, "DoCoMo," means "everywhere."
The new millennium hasn't slowed down the popularity or the development of these tiny technological marvels. The U.S. cell phone market has grown and our phones have shrunk too, but Japanese cell users still have newer services Americans won't see for a couple of years. The "iMode" phone has taken off in the past couple of years, offering instant messaging between phones which are always turned on -- instead of phone calls, users check their handheld units for messages from fellow iModers.
iMode phones also allow users to swap e-mails and photos (some come with built-in lenses to snap digital photos to send instantly), check weather and news much like Americans do with pagers. The access speed is currently slower than personal computers -- 9.6 kbps as opposed to most standard modems' 56 kbps -- but by 2003, the "bandwidth" for data transfer for iMode phone is expected to be less a trickle of bits and bytes out of a garden sprayer and more like a flood of digital data through a firehose. This faster pipeline will allow video, digital music downloads and even real-time video-conferencing.
For now, not surprisingly, the iMode's instant message feature is most popular with young people -- especially teenagers (much like instant messages on services such as AOL and Yahoo are a popular way for U.S. teens to stay in touch with each other). But gadgets such as cell phones with instant messaging will become a standard for doing business in Japan.
The opportunities to reach consumers through such devices is enormous, and will change the way everyone shops. Because of GPS satellite technology, it will be possible for someone using a iMode phone to receive an Instant Message from a clothing store as they walk by one, announcing a sale on the brand of clothes they've bought before.
Don't think Japan is the only market worth pursuing with new ways to do business on the Internet, either. Much of East Asia's exploding business markets, including Hong Kong and Korea, are already ahead of Japan in numbers of wireless phone and Internet access (Japanese aren't the only Asians who are gadget crazy).
There's a lot to think about when considering an online business venture in Japan.
But one man in Boulder, Colorado is working tirelessly to establish an online business for Japanese Web users. Kei Izawa is a Japanese entrepreneur who settled in Boulder with his family, but is aiming his Web business, Unkai.com, directly at the Japanese market. His Web site is a Japanese-language site that offers "American goods at American prices" for Japanese consumers, as well as an e-mail newsletter about the Boulder lifestyle. He has also been asked to be a monthly guest on a Japanese radio show to promote Colorado and Boulder (and his e-commerce Web site) on a Japanese radio station.
Izawa-san is currently in Japan, lining up distribution deals and marketing his company to the Japanese consumers he's trying to reach. I have no doubt that he'll be successful, because he understands the Internet's potential from a Western entrepreneurial perspective, while also understanding the culture and business philosophies of his roots.
The Internet isn't the same mass medium as in the U.S. -- because of high telephone connection rates, the Internet industry hasn't grown as quickly, and there aren't as many Web surfers. In fact, the number of customers for the national phone company, NTT dropped from 61.5 million in 1996 to 58.5 million in '98. When documents need to be sent, it’s most often done with facsimile machines, because faxes handle the Kanji alphabet problems that keyboards often can’t.
Unlike American workers, most companies don't have Internet access at the office, and even if they do, surfing the Web during work is rare. It's frowned upon by American employers too, but Japanese workers are much less likely to sneak a peek at their news or stock prices and spend money at e-commerce Web sites. And unlike the U.S., where the Internet began as a male-dominated medium and women have taken years to reach parity online, the market for women in Japan is catching on faster. They're home more than American women, do all the shopping and purchasing for the family, and their online usage reflects the increase in home computer sales.
There are other side-effects of a culture known for games and gadgets. The younger generation has grown up not using keyboards but instead pushing buttons on hand-held devices such as Game Boys and Nintendos. That, combined with the affluent society and an earlier start than most countries for kids to become familiar with technology, means that Japan's Internet industry will grow fastest in devices other than our standard, the personal computer.
These are the types of issues that face those of us who conduct business online in the global marketplace. Things are changing -- and fast. Anyone interested in business across borders will need to be aware of every nuance of the Internet, because it isn't just a Western phenomenon, and the World Wide Web is just that -- world-wide, with people out there who speak every language and represent every corner of the world.
It'll take smart people like Kei Izawa to make the Internet connection a strong, two-way bridge for commerce and culture.