Two weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend Web2.0 Expo Europe 2008 in Berlin. There, I met Gen Miyazawa and Ren Ando, of Cirius Technologies, Inc. - a thriving location-based mobile advertising company based in Tokyo. I attended their presentation, “Location-based Mobile Ad: A Lesson From Japan” which had a huge impact on me. Why? Because living in a western, ultra-connected and digital world, we tend to assume we are the real pioneers. Well… the truth is after Gen and Ren’s lesson, I’ll always look East before assuming anything of the sort.

The picture they presented sounded like a forecast of the Future in 10 years time… However it is Japan’s reality, right now. So here are the figures:

- 90% of the subscribers use the mobile web;
- 90% will be on 3G by the end 2008;
- At the Present, almost 1/2 are GPS enabled phones;
- The Mobile commerce market has hit 10B USD*

It is predictable that TV watching (w/ digital TV tuner) and video sharing will soon become a top mobile entertainment. You Tube on mobile and Nico Nico Video Sharing are already becoming a clear trend.

IC wallets are being integrated with mobile phones by default. This mobile electronic payment method already has 28.5 million subscribers (as of Mar 31, 2008) and is accepted in Public transportations, supermarkets and vending machines.

So why did this market grow so rapidly in Japan?
A combination of broad coverage of 3G network, flat-rate data plans and a bigger influence of the operators upon mobile ecosystem than in GSM markets did the trick. Continue reading ‘Mobile Ads: A Lesson From Japan’