M-COMMERCE Internationally - China - Japan - Europe

This page last updated 2001 Nov 23
 

m-commerce around the world

"UK Wireless Usage Poised for  'Hypergrowth'  By Nora Macaluso, E-Commerce Times June 8, 2000   www.ecommercetimes.com/news/articles2000/000608-7.shtml   Macaluso writes "All new mobile phones sold in the UK will be Internet-enabled by mid-2001, according to  a report from Forrester Research.  www.forrester.com/Home/0,3257,1,FF.html as the price of wireless application protocol (WAP)  technology continues to fall, consumers will snap up the phones in a "two-year period of hypergrowth." "Customer uptake will increase rapidly, creating a market of 41 million mobile Internet users in the UK by 2005,"

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m-commerce in China                     m-commerce in China

"Wireless B2B E-Commerce  Developing in China" By Jim Romeo, E-Commerce Times,  January 21, 2000 Romeo's story is based on a report by the Yankee Group. In this report, Romeo notes that "One of the major potential roadblocks to the growth of  e-commerce in China is a dearth of PCs in the country. Wireless communication companies, however, stand ready tostep in to provide e-commerce services if there are not enough PCs." Who is "getting in on this action"?, the Yankee Group notes that " MeetChina.com, China's official cross-border Internet trade portal, recently signed an agreement with Motorola, Inc. and China Wireless Information Network to broadcast B2B purchase inquiries to a potential audience of over two million people using Motorola wireless communication devices in China."   . We used to think in 1998 and 1999 that the steadily upward spiralling growth of new online users might soon flatten out as the world maximized the number of PCs that internet connections. We are not finding that having a PC to connect to the Net is not a limitation, and in fact will ironically lead some countries to skip a technological step as the move directly to wireless internet access through PDAs, lending itself to moving directly into wireless e-commerce. WTGR .

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m-commerce in China                         m-commerce in China                         m-commerce in China                                 m-commerce in China

The article is on Digitrend's site and written by Mark Evans, Managing Director, Deloitte & Touche's Technology & Communications Group "Will China Look West for Wireless?"  http://www.digitrends.net/marketing/13642_14696.html Who is building it "almost all of the country's subscribers use the global system for mobile communications (GSM) format promoted by European countries. " China Unicom however has expressed interest in Qualcomm's current code division multiple access (CDMA) technology  "Qualcomm ... found that it wasn't exactly a welcome guest in China. After launching a trial of its code division multiple access (CDMA) cell-phone technology in  cities like Shanghai and Beijing, last June Qualcomm found itself out on its ear when China's number-two state telecom carrier, China Unicom, decided to scrap deployment plans. Then, in  October [2000], the China Unicom reversed itself and announced that it will build networks using Qualcomm's CDMA" Size of the market "China's 1.3 billion population has long been irresistible to Western companies. While analysts     note the very low penetration rate - 4.5 percent - of mobile wireless users in China, the raw numbers are impressive. "Yes, penetration is very low," says George Koo, Deloitte & Touche's director of Pacific Rim Services."But in terms of gross numbers, it's quite high at 60 million subscribers, and it's growing at 30 percent a year."   . The "Environments" Political / Legal / Regulatory Environment "The Chinese governmental officials can be difficult to deal with and aren't always what they seem," says Elizabeth Harr Brickson, vice president of international publications at The Strategis Group. She points out that even with admission to the WTO, the Chinese government has pledged to allow only 25 percent of foreign stakes in the country's two mobile companies, increasing it to 49 percent after three years. "It's not very enticing for foreign firms to come in and establish some kind of ownership," she says.  Content Control "The Chinese government wants to regulate content and control service. It's wrestling with how to do that and allowing that part to grow" George Koo Technology Control "The Chinese government is doing everything in its power to promote home-grown technology standards and domestic handset vendors, including putting penalties on foreign-made handsets." Harr Brickson . Payment Systems "Those markets have 80 to 90 percent prepaid subscribers,  which shows the effect prepaid services can have in an economy in which people don't have a lot of  disposable income. This is important since China is a cash economy. It allows operators to tap into a huge market of people they weren't getting before."  "Billing systems are very weak in China,... You can only get an itemized bill for something after you pay for it" says Harr Brickson Technology "Of course, with an expanding market, China will have to move ahead with next generation technology. Third generation, or 3G, technology accommodates more users than the current GSM standard. It also offers users greater access to the kind of bandwidth-intensive applications Chinese new adopters are looking for, like wireless access protocol (WAP). Indeed, even as China remains undecided about which technology format to adopt, the country is already rolling out WAP. Even taking into account the often-stated problems with WAP, such as limited screen size and slow download speeds, AsiaInfo's Chief Strategy Officer Michael Zhao notes that, "The idea of using WAP is very popular right now. In big cities, you see billboards advertising WAP-based cell phones everywhere." Chinese Players "basically two players, China Mobile Communications Corp., with the largest geographic coverage and more than 90 percent of subscribers, and China Unicom. To spur competition, China's Ministry of Information Industry has allowed Unicom some pricing flexibility." Foreign Players Qualcomm - building networks for China Unicom Lucent Technologies - signed a technology partnership with China Unicom to develop next generation networking solutions in areas that include wireless.

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m-commerce in Japan

http://www.japaninc.net/mag/comp/2000/11/nov00_wireless.html A long, but very thorough article on mobile developments in Japan. This article covers all the latest [Nov 2000] developments being considered. points from the article  by Daniel Scuka  NTT DoCoMo's combo wireless network-and-ISP service that can be accessed by PHS phones and laptop wireless cards. As of August [2000], there were some 17 million Internet-enabled cellphone subscribers in Japan, and that number was growing by more than 550,000 per week.  cellphone handset development is booming, and the big Japanese manufacturers (NEC, Sanyo, Kyocera, Sony, Panasonic) together with Nokia and Ericsson are now producing models with color screens, IR connectivity, and 300-hour-plus battery lifetimes that weigh in at about 70 grams, 3G cellphones that can show moving pictures !!

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