株式会社ディー・エヌ・エー 南場 智子代表取締役社長 インタビュー
Business has world in its pocket
Internet startup dials in to burgeoning mobile markets
By SHINICHI TERADA
Staff writer
Tomoko Namba, founder and CEO of the Internet startup DeNA Co., Ltd. gives a description -- a woman with hair colored pink and wearing a hat, wanting, like just about all women, to buy fashionable and glamorous clothes, clothes to make her look attractive and sexy.
The 43-year-old Namba is not describing herself. She is talking about her avatar, her virtual figure in her newly launched business, Mobile Game Town (mbga.jp).
|
| Tomoko Namba, CEO of the Internet startup firm DeNA Co., shows her cell phone displaying Mobile Game Town, one of the DeNA-operated popular Web sites for mobile phones. |
The mobile game's basic service is free, but revenue is made through the sale of digital goodies for players' avatars -- hairstyles, clothing and accessories. Members purchase Mobile Gold, a virtual currency, with real cash.
Namba's online game site was an immediate hit. More than 100,000 users have registered with the site since DeNA began offering the service in early February.
The mobile game market is big business and becoming bigger. It was worth an estimated 41.2 billion yen or $349 million in 2004, up an eye-popping 153 percent from 27 billion yen in 2003, according to Mobile Contents Forum, the industry group of mobile-phone contents providers.
"Japan leads the world in mobile phones and mobile-phone markets. The U.S. leads in personal computers," Namba points out.
DeNA, which also operates a Web commerce business and solutions business in addition to its mobile businesses, first gained recognition with the 2004 launch of its mobile-phone auction site, Mobile Auction (mbok.jp), and its mobile-phone shopping Web site, Pocket bidders (pokb.jp).
Together, DeNA's mobile businesses posted 816 million yen in revenues, 47 percent of its total revenues for last year's October to December quarter. The 6-year-old company went public on Mothers for startup last February.
Last July, after the company began charging a 315 yen monthly membership fee for its Mobile Auction users, membership initially dipped, but later climbed to surpass its goal of 500,000 three months ahead of schedule.
At the end of February, DeNA claimed to boast registered members numbering 560,000 and the site lists more than 2 million items.
In recognition of these achievements, Namba was ranked No. 6 among noted women of the year for 2006 by Nikkei Women magazine. The magazine recognizes the country's most successful and innovative businesswomen in Japan's male-dominated business environment.
Namba claims she does not feel particulary handicapped by her gender. "I've never thought of what a woman can and cannot do, just because I am a woman. I think that women have more choices in life than men. Thus, women should be happier, " she says.
The boom in the mobile-phone market is certainly something Namba is happy about.
According to her, shopping by mobile phone has picked up rapidly among teenage girls and women in their early 20s. They will "go shopping" for accessories, clothing and other goods just about anywhere and anytime.
In fact, she says Mobile Auction is especially popular from about 8 p.m. to after midnight. Women will flick through magazines while lying in bed, then buy clothes they see in the magazines with a push of a few buttons on their phones.
Mobile phones have become must-have items, even fashion statements, and have long been no longer restricted to just phone calls. They are used for sending and receiving e-mail, taking photos, downloading music and shopping.
More than half of Japan's nearly 91 million mobile-phone subscribers have high-speed 3G or third generation networks, enabling them to surf the Internet at high speeds, according to the Telecommunications Carriers Association.
The market looks bright, highlighted by DeNA's unique services, which prompted the Net-savvy users to take out their wallets.
As a result, with mobile businesses continuing to expand, DeNA, on a consolidated basis, saw its revenues rise 120 percent to 1.75 billion yen for the October to December quarter compared with the previous year. Consolidated revenues this year ending in March are estimated at 6.2 billion yen.
In addition to its mobile businesses, the shopping Web site bidders. co. jp, offering gadgets, fashion goods, and even pets, continues to gain ground. Registered members grew in number from about 3 million a year ago to more than 4 million and the site lists more than 1.92 million items, according to the most recent data available.
On the site, the company compiles a directory of sellers and buyers.
There is no charge for a listing fee. Instead it charges a 2.5 percent commission from sales.
The site also has a "shopping mall" from which is collected a monthly fee from "tenants." Revenue also comes in from advertising.
Namba says DeNA's mission is to create a society where sellers and buyers can get together stress-free.
"For example, suppose that you're about to throw away something you used for a long time. Wait a minute! There may be someone, somewhere in the country who needs it. By selling secondhand goods, you make money and the buyer is happy to get something for less," Namba points out.
The demand for online auctions is growing, Namba explains, due to the diversification of consumer purchasing habits.
"These days, consumers have more choices about how to find what they need -- TV, Internet, word of mouth, and Web logs, " she says.
This is why "(DeNA) needs to be a place and offer places where people can purchase what they want without stress."
In addition, the Internet has helped Japanese to boost their buying and selling power, says the Harvard-educated Namba. The Japanese, due to a reluctance to accept money from neighbors or friends, never warmed to the idea of garage sales, extremely common in the U.S.
Thanks to the Internet, and there being no need to identify buyers or sellers, the Japanese have become enthusiastic sellers, she says.
The Internet enabled consumers to be freed from the limitations of the former buyer-seller relationship, Namba explains.
"IT and mobile phones just helped people to further explore their desires."
New communication tools, such as SNSs and Web logs, may also have accelerated the phenomenon. "Such media allowed individuals to carry out their own business. Auction sites represent what the Internet should be," she says.
