Internet
ò Yahoo Japan said it is looking to the sales of digital content, such as music and games as a bigger contributor than advertising to its cell phone service. Observers point to this business model as different from that of YahooÆs main PC-based service, which earns most of its sales from advertising. Internet giants including Yahoo and Google are rolling out new services for mobile phones in Japan. Earlier, Google started a Japanese-language news service for mobile phones this week, ahead of other markets. According to the Digital Content Association of Japan, its market for digital content posted a 12 percent rise to 2.5 trillion yen ($21.2 billion) in 2005 from a year earlier, with about 15 percent coming from mobile phones. In six months, pageviews for Yahoo Japan's mobile services went up by 7.7 percent to 1.5 billion ($12.5 million) in September, outpacing the combined 0.5 percent gain for its PC and mobile sites. Yahoo Japan is working with Softbank Corp. to expand its mobile service.
ò Oki Electric Industry announced the unveiling of two new internet protocol telephony systems to be offered in Japan and abroad, beginning with China in December. The company said it aims to sell 100,000 units of the new telephone systems IPstage MX and IPstage SX in Japan and overseas within three years. Oki Electric said the telephone systems are best suited for offices with less than 100 employees. The IPstage MX targets offices with 100 extensions or less, while the IPstage SX targets those with 30 or less.
Mobile/Wireless
ò NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced the unveiling of 14 new 3G-cell phones ahead of the introduction later this month of mobile number portability in the country. Mobile number portability will debut October 24. Under the system, users will be allowed to keep the same mobile phone numbers even after switching from one operator to another. Of the 14 new phones, DoCoMo said 11 are in its 903i series and can have improved music-downloading and game services. KDDI, the country's No. 2 mobile phone carrier known for its au brand, said in August it would debut 12 new models for the fall and winter. Softbank Corp. said last month it would market 15 new mobile phone models by the end of this year.
ò Google Inc. announced that it has started offering a free Japanese-language news service for mobile phone handsets. The internet firm will collect news articles on sites of newspapers and broadcasters then categorize them into politics, the economy and other news areas, and by clicking their headlines, handset owners can read those articles. GoogleÆs launch is expected to spur free distribution of information to mobile phones.
ò Mobile payment solution company Danal announced that it would enter the online game market. A company official explained the move as aiming at enhancing their online music service business. Last month the company signed an agreement with an online game developer. The game, titled ôOn-Air Onlineö, is an online dance game developed by G&P Entertainment and will be serviced on DanalÆs music streaming site, Ohdio.com.
Semiconductors
ò NEC Electronics announced its shipment of a chip compatible with both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats in next-generation DVDs, a move that is seen as bridging a format problem that has divided the electronics industry. NEC said that the chips go on sale for 10,000 yen ($84), roughly the same price as NEC Electronics' chips which read only Blu-ray or only HD DVD formats. Observers note that if other hybrid technology is developed, the new chip could bring down costs to build dual-format players, helping consumers and the movie industry sidestep the rivalry between the two opposing camps. NEC Electronics is targeting monthly shipments of 300,000 during the business year starting April 2007.
Hardware
ò KDDI announced its move to purchase the optical fiber operations of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) in a deal that could be worth about $960 million. The two firms said the move is aimed at increasing their competitiveness against telecom market leader and former state monopoly Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. Under the deal, Tepco, the world's largest private power provider, will separate its optical fibre business in January and transfer it to KDDI. In return, KDDI will give 144,569 shares of its stock to Tepco.
Ventures/Investments
ò Softbank CorpÆs founder reportedly pledged a record amount of collateral to refinance $10.7 billion of debt used in the acquisition of Vodafone K.K. Media sources said that Softbank has offered all of the assets, income and shares of Vodafone K.K. as security for $12 billion bonds and loans it plans to sell next month. Softbank acquired Vodafone Group Plc's Japanese business for $15 billion. The deal gives the company some 15 million mobile-phone users in the world's second-largest economy. SoftbankÆs founder Son, whose net worth is $7 billion, according to Forbes Asia, agreed to provide more security because Softbank needs the money to repay 1.2 trillion yen ($10.7 billion) in short-term financing. Vodafone K.K. originally paid interest on the loan of 250 basis points more than a lending benchmark, the Tokyo inter-bank rate. That premium rose to 300 basis points when Softbank was unable to arrange new financing by the end of September. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Mizuho Financial Group arranged the initial loan with four more banks and are organising the refinancing, helped by 15 more firms including WestLB AG, Calyon and Royal Bank of Scotland Group. No other details of the deal were disclosed. Analysts are saying that Softbank's deal may be imitated by companies seeking acquisitions in Japan, noting that already there are as many as 10 Japanese companies considering similar deals.
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