What Is I-Mode?

i-MODE is a mobile Internet service launched by NTT DoCoMo in 1999. It has been used by more than 32 million users and is the most successful mobile Internet mode in the world. The biggest change is the billing mode, which changes the time-based billing method to use packets (downloads) as a unit. This can greatly reduce users' Internet access costs and accelerate the speed of popularization.

i-MODE is a mobile Internet service launched by NTT DoCoMo in 1999. It has been used by more than 32 million users and is the most successful mobile Internet mode in the world. The biggest change is the billing mode, which changes the time-based billing method to use packets (downloads) as a unit. This can greatly reduce users' Internet access costs and accelerate the speed of popularization.

Chinese name

I-mode

Promote the company

NTT DoCoMo

Implementation time

Year 1999

Mode

Mobile Internet Mode

I-mode I-mode I-mode Introduction

i-Mode technology is a wireless communication technology for users to use Internet services through mobile phones. This technology was developed by Japan's NTT DoCoMo and is based on packet data transmission technology. Based on this, users can use their mobile phones to access the Internet, send and receive email, and browse other information.

i-Mode is technically similar to WAP, but i-Mode cleverly bypasses the standard barriers of WAP and develops a simplified version of HTML, the so-called "Compact Wireless Markup Language" (CWML) Or Compact HTML, which is used to replace the Wireless Markup Language (WML) used by WAP.

This business has evolved mobile phones from "talking phones" to a full range of "information phones." Users can access the Internet through their mobile phones and choose the services they need. As soon as the user applies for the service, they will get an email account, and the user's mobile phone number plus @ docomo.ne.jp will access the Internet. i-Mode's content operation rate does not exceed 9600bit / s, and it only takes 500bit / s to send e-mail. i-Mode users can browse the Internet without dialing, as long as the user is on, they are also connected. The speed of accessing the Internet based on the 3G network's i-Mode technology can reach 2Mbit / s, and users can experience functions such as downloading high-quality music, transmitting TV films, virtual reality games, and real-time video conferencing.

i-Mode has created a successful business model, established a mutually beneficial win-win relationship with content providers, and segmented the user base. It can be said that these two points ensure that providing users with rich, diversified, and personalized real-time information content is also a key factor for i-Mode's success. Stimulated by the success of "i-Mode", from 2001, NTT DoCoMo launched the first WCDMA-based 3G network in the global market.

i-Mode successfully created a new model of mobile data services, and prompted its competitors to introduce mobile data services similar to i-Mode, including J-Phone's J-sky service, KDDI (Au + Tu-ka) Ezweb et al.

When i-MODE was launched, there were only 67 websites, and now there are more than 45,000 websites, providing content services for i-MODE users. The reason for the rapid growth is that i-MODE uses a C-HTML website writing language and is compatible with the existing HTML language commonly used on the Internet. Therefore, ICP operators can quickly transfer existing content services and reduce development time.

Text

Hexin Telecom started active R & D activities after it took a stake in NTT DoCoMo last year, including mobile phone specifications, content website construction and distribution rate calculation. Hexin Telecom is the first market to be launched in Asia except Japan, and the world s first. In three regions, the i-MODE service was launched first in Europe a few months ago, and the matching mobile phone was made by Toshiba.

NTT DoCoMo History of I-mode NTT DoCoMo

In 1992, DoCoMo broke away from its parent company, Japan NTT, and interpreted this i-mode mobile communication mode revolution. Although NTT was the largest telecommunications company in the Japanese market at that time, due to the high degree of monopoly on the market, the business model was very sluggish and rigid, but most employees were still reluctant to leave it and go to work at the new DoCoMo company. So the former leader of DoCoMo, Kouji Ohboshi, was determined to break with tradition. From the beginning, he recruited many new employees from other companies and decided to create a new mobile communication mode, i-mode (I mode). The English meaning is : My model. From this name, you can see the determination of DoCoMo to create a new feature of personal communication.

When i-mode started, it was not optimistic for the public, because before that Japan had been behind the Internet in Europe and the United States. Under the monopoly of NTT (DoCoMo's parent company), the Internet access fee was very expensive. Even now only 13% of Japanese are used Computer surfing. This brings huge business opportunities for mobile Internet access.

In 1997, DoCoMo hired Takeshi Natsuno from an Internet company as the director of the media business of the Gateway Commercial Department. Natsuno said: The communication model carried out by DoCoMo did not completely fix the idea on the phone technology, and WAP was not available at the time. In the absence of choice, DoCoMo decided to use HTML-based technology. It turns out that i-Mode benefits from having no choice in technology because DoCoMo has considered the business model of wireless data services from the beginning, focused on creating business revenue points, and studied the possibility of public acceptance, Natsuno said: We set up a new Internet business model, i-mode, not just the wireless Internet model, because we do nt need a dedicated wireless content provider. Our overall goal is to move wireless phone technology closer to traditional content providers and provide mobile phone users with a variety of Required services.

Through the i-mode network, users' mobile phones can always be online, can access more than 7000 websites, can buy stocks through online banking, check traffic maps, exchange photos with friends, buy train tickets and more services, and new i-mode mobile phones Provide color LCD display, can explain voice commands and more.

When telecommunications companies around the world are distressed by the shrinking mobile communications market, i-mode has sounded the horn of success in the face of the world. At present, it is already the fastest growing company in the world and the most advanced mobile phone company. Japan's largest ISP, and even more enviable is that DoCoMo is profitable. Under the general downturn in the mobile communications world, i-mode can earn $ 13 per month from each user, and according to the company's latest information, as of July 15, 2001, i The number of users of -mode has reached 25,531,000, and there is still a lot of room for growth. It currently has a market capital of more than $ 350 billion, making it one of the most valuable companies at present, ranking behind only Microsoft and General Electric.

DoCoMo is synonymous with "mobile communication" and "wherever", and i-mode is synonymous with mobile Internet.

i-mode I-mode i-mode success cheats

Content, standard, price, mobile phone mentions NTT DoCoMo's i-mode (i system), maybe it will have to mention its designer, Ms. Mari Matsunaga, who was selected by the six Fortune Asia companies in the United States last year. One of the business elite women, she once said, "I have no children, but I have a childlike heart." It is this childlike heart that shines in this increasingly complex world of technology, because people face Many complex machine commands and instructions have been at a loss, and the biggest business winner is someone who understands what technology ordinary people need. It is interesting that this designer has never been on the Internet before 1997, or it is this experience that made her better understand the psychological needs of those who would not, and would not use computers, and developed this kind of service called "The technology-i-mode, the core of i-mode is very simple, is to provide a variety of services to the public, its success secrets are: content, standard, price, mobile phone.

1.Content

NTT DoCoMo has been widely admired as a pioneer of mobile Internet. Many admirers even say that it was genius who created i-mode, but the fact is that DoCoMo first realized that consumers should be willing to pay for content, which should be put into a very important position. So what kind of content can make users so willing to pay?

Mr. Natsuno, who is in charge of media power, said that the quality of content is the key to success, especially with four criteria as the most important:

First, it must be fresh, even if updating once a day is too slow.

Secondly, it must be deep, no longer limited to short message SMS, and it must be able to develop towards a deeper place.

Thirdly, users should be encouraged to visit multiple times, such as playing online games with mobile phones.

Fourth, users should be able to see the benefits of this mobile Internet connection.

When i-mode was launched, DoCoMo signed an application service partnership with 67 units, and those traditional service providers also became i-mode's "real estate" on mobile phone screens. Such cooperative units have now exceeded 245, and i-mode related websites in Japan have nearly 40,000, many of which are "unofficial" websites, Natsuno calls this method a "benign cycle", this virtuous circle will drive the development of the Internet economy It constitutes a win-win situation, because good content will attract users, and users pay DoCoMo for content, and DoCoMo will withdraw a part to pay content providers, which in turn promotes the development of content websites.

DoCoMo pays great attention to the positioning of the market and is very fancy to users aged 24 to 35. It believes that people in this age group are most eager to access the Internet no matter what market they are in, and they have certain economic strength, especially at the age of 20. The above women are not married and have a stable income, so in order to attract young women, DoCoMo chose the famous female star Ryoku Hirosue in the service advertisement, and then chose the actor Tamura as an icon for people around 40 years old. To cater to their prudent style.

DoCoMo is constantly innovating, and new service items are increasing. It is dizzying. At present, DoCoMo has cooperated with more than 155 banks. Users can buy stocks through online banking, transfer money, and even see the real-time stock market update on the mobile phone screen. Quotes, such as cooperating with Matsushita in January to establish a joint venture investment for the construction of music download sites. Initially, it only cooperated with MP3 music players or downloaded some episodes. Now it is said to have worked with 30 companies. The music company cooperated. At the same time, Mitsui Co., Ltd. and its partner company Increment P announced the launch of a new service called iMapFan. The service is map navigation, providing real-time information on restaurants, coffee, bars, parking, etc. Another killer is that NTT DoCoMo and DoCoMo AOL will provide an email service "AOLi" for sharing mailboxes between mobile phones and personal computers from June 1 this year. The service of AOLi is: DoCoMo i-mode users only need to become AOLi members. Get a mailbox that can be shared on i-mode and DoCoMo AOL. Users can see the e-mails in their mailboxes on their i-mode phones as well as on their personal computers. The number of words received in the AOLi mailbox can reach 25,000. The number of emails that can be saved has also increased from 100 to 1,000. This has led to a surge in i-mode users. However, the latest service was only introduced earlier this month. On July 3, DoCoMo announced that the company will provide digital telephone services to Japanese airlines via satellite transmission. In the past, analog phones could only be used at altitudes below 5000 meters, while mobile digital phones were not restricted.

It is precisely because of the continuous follow-up of content services, i-mode users are more and more like using mobile phones to surf the Internet. In July last year, only 35% of i-mode users purchased other services online, and this number has more than doubled.

2.Standard

No matter 2G, 2.5G, or 3G that people are looking forward to, there is a unified standard, at least in some regions. However, the standard of the i-mode system is a standard developed by DoCoMo itself. It uses the compact HTML language as the web programming language, which is similar to the text language used in ordinary web pages. Mr. Natsuno said, this is a bit like kindergarten English, simple and effective. Compared with it, WAP / WML is a completely different language. Why should i-mode use this standard? Because its designer's idea is to make wireless communication technology proactively go to the Internet, so that you can directly use the content of existing websites without having to build any wireless network service provider.

But Mr. Natsuno said that currently DoCoMo engineers are also looking for a way to get i-mode to approach WAP, and he proudly said, "We are giving the right direction to the application direction of WAP to make wireless Internet Applications can achieve a greater degree of unification. "And as a" failed "WAP advocate, said: Although the WAP protocol is complex, it can solve a variety of standard mobile communication problems, but they praised i-mode The market that has been occupied on the wireless Internet and has achieved great success.

A wireless data expert in the United States, Jane Zweig, said: At the time, i-mode used HTML and went to the market as its main reason to beat WAP. However, she does not recommend that WAP also use HTML. She said: using compact HTML makes it easy for developers to create content, but the development of web languages will eventually become XHTML / XML, and it is unnecessary to use compact HTML. Already.

However, in addition to the compact HTML standard, DoCoMo also currently introduces Java APIs, and Java-enabled mobile phones have also come out.

But the success of i-mode also depends on DoCoMo's packet switching network: DoPa, which is DoCoMo's main PDC system (personal digital cellular personal digital cellular system), and it can reach a speed of 28.8kbps. However, the small display of the mobile phone means that the bandwidth used by users cannot meet such high requirements. The average homepage size is only 1.2K, and each email is limited to 500 bytes (each phone can store 100 emails). The i-mode system currently has a transmission rate of 9600bps, so DoPa is fully capable. The second is packet switching technology. The packet switching network allows users' mobile phones to be always online. So users do nt need to dial again when they visit content websites. Mr. Natsuno described i-mode as a transition solution from 2.3G to 2.5G. It is this kind of GPRS-like solution. Once it came out, Japan s original two major operators, DDI and IDO, were defeated in the market. Both of them are implementing CDMA1X systems, so the two operators soon merged. , And launched their own service network EZweb, which is based on the WAP protocol. EZweb is currently a big challenge for i-mode, because EZweb has signed up 100,000 users in 3 weeks, they are very interested in 64kbps packet-based services, while i-mode can only provide 28kbps. Or this is exactly why DoCoMo is researching 3G. The company spends nearly 7.6 billion US dollars every year to build the world's first W-CDMA system, and in order to lead the trend, DoCoMo currently claims to enter 4G and 5G.

price

Users in other countries around the world have probably been spoiled by the free Internet and are very sensitive to payment issues. Therefore, when DoCoMo benefits from user payments, operators in various countries are full of envy. In fact, the reason is very simple, i-mode users pay 70 dollars per month, then the data transmission fee of 17 dollars. In addition, when users send data packets or engage in e-commerce activities, as long as it is through the network For data exchange, DoCoMo has to charge a commission. For example, for every dollar a user pays, DoCoMo adds 9 cents in revenue, even if the user spends $ 1 on downloading the icon of a favorite character.

Mobile phone

Different people have different opinions on the success of i-mode. Fujitsu Mobile Phone Group has been providing mobile phones for DoCoMo. Its general manager Yoshikuni Toko attributed the rapid growth of i-mode to its broad content services, reasonable prices and The popular mobile phone style, especially the mobile phone style, emphasizes that it is similar to the ordinary mobile phone, and the PDA mode is abandoned.

Tsujimura, i-mode's overseas market leader, also said that mobile phones in the US and European markets look like 13-inch black and white TVs. When people saw this i-mode mobile phone with a foldable color LCD screen, they had to be stunned. The i-Mode phone is lightweight (approximately 100 grams), has a color screen display, a built-in Web browser, and has messaging and other functions. The price is around $ 300. It is very popular among young Japanese and has become fashionable equipment. At present, there are many mobile phone manufacturers that cooperate with DoCoMo. According to user feedback, new mobile phones are continuously launched.

What's next for DoCoMo?

In summary, it can be seen that DoCoMo is constantly changing with the development of the Internet. As the domestic market is becoming more saturated, while expanding new business, i-mode's tentacles have also been extended overseas. Europe, America, and Asia Pacific have become its eager markets.

In the United States, NTT DoCoMo purchased 16% of AT & T's shares last year. Earlier next year, NTT DoCoMo could provide its well-known i-mode wireless Internet service in the United States through cooperation with AT & T. This service makes US users can send e-mails via mobile phones, check stock prices and order meals, buy movie tickets or other information services. Americans using i-mode services will also be able to access many i-mode-supported service content sites, such as CNN News and Disney are expected to expand from Seattle to the entire United States in a year or two.

In Europe, NTT DoCoMo bought the shares of KPN Mobile of the Netherlands, launched i-mode business in the Netherlands, and then reached a non-stop cooperation agreement with TIM (Telecom Italy Mobile) of Italy's largest telecommunications company. In addition to this, in March of this year, in addition to the wireless Internet business in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, the Japanese i-mode system will also be used in Italy. DoCoMo is also partnering with 3GVK Holtings in the UK to launch i-mode and buy a 20% stake in it. So far, DoCoMo's "i-mode" will be popularized among 20 million mobile phone users in Italy, France, Austria, and Spain.

NTT DoCoMo is currently looking for breakthroughs in Asia, such as the Korean market, but they would not disclose more companies.

President Keiji Tachikawa said: The company's future focus will be on the Asia-Pacific region, which has acquired a 19% stake in Hutchison of Hong Kong, China. According to Stephen Ngan, Hutchison's sales and marketing manager, Hutchison attracted not only i-mode technology but its content and new business models.

As discussed at the beginning of this article, if China's accession to the WTO, is the opening of the telecommunications market the most attractive market for DoCoMo?

Fourth, can i-mode be used? When many mobile companies in the world bet their treasures on WAP, the market turned their attention to i-mode. DoCoMo's profit made almost all senior officials of telecommunications companies ask themselves such questions: "Can the same good thing happen to us?" So they flew to Tokyo again and again to learn from DoCoMo. Doctrine is not enough.

Joseph O'Konek is the president of FarEasTone in Taiwan, China. He believes that the success of Japan and its national conditions have an inseparable effect.

In Japan, the mobile communications market is highly controlled by operator-centric groups. why? Because it is the operators that provide various services, and in Japanese culture, providing services is a very serious matter and respected. Therefore, people are more or less submissive to operators, and operators are absolutely responsible for users. After all, Users only "belong to" the operator. A more favorable factor is that the Japanese authorities respect the unique NTT company, which is the former owner of NTT DoCoMo, so love the house and Ukraine, so there is no doubt that NTT DoCoMo's advantage in the market is DoCoMo's advantage to mobile phone manufacturers and services. The degree of control of business, infrastructure businessmen, etc. is also beyond anyone's reach. Just look at how Big D quickly launched a Java-based service that supports i-Appli mobile phones, and the Java standard is a standard customized by DoCoMo itself. Which operator in the world can implement its own standards so cleanly? Customized to the service?

Therefore we can draw the conclusion that the Japanese mobile Internet giant DoCoMo has the following characteristics that other operators cannot learn.

First, with complete control over the technology and development of handset makers, DoCoMo directly told NEC, Sony, Panasonic and other handset makers exactly what features are needed for the handset.

Secondly, do you want to buy a new and cool Sony phone under the control of sales? Don't tell Sony that you should tell the operator, or a publisher that relies on the operator, because the mobile phone operator can get funding subsidies from the operator.

Again, for the definition and control of standards, do you want to build an i-mode website? Or an i-mode Java application? You don't need to find a programming language standard or any open standards organization website such as the W3C to find any Java API functions. Once again you just need to find the operator. It will tell you everything.

Finally, for the management and control of the content website, if DoCoMo does not choose the content of your website, you decide to go against it and find a way to "block" it. Then you are wrong, because there are many more content providers waiting for it.

It is precisely because of the above several domestic characteristics that determine the success of i-mode. However, these factors are not fully available in other countries. Therefore, no one can follow the old path of DoCoMo, and the purpose of learning it is to provide a business model that it serves the public.

Incidentally, the GSM Association in London issued a statement on the M-Services initiative to counter i-mode. The M-Services initiative provides various services for GPRS users, such as enhanced pictures, music, video, games, ringtones, screen savers or other services, which sounds like i-mode services. Initiative has received extensive support, including operators and mobile phone manufacturers. It seems that it has already obtained the basic elements necessary for i-mode to succeed in Japan. M-Services includes all the specifications, just like DoCoMo has defined, such as how the website works, what kind of performance the phone should have, and what color the display is in. However, i-mode has already entered the UK, will this move make up for it?

I. Overview

& nbspI-MODE is a mobile Internet business model launched by NTT DoCoMo in February 1999. It provides wireless data transmission services. This is a PDC-based mobile phone value-added service. The business development method is to provide users with services from various sectors of the community. Operators charge users for network usage fees based on usage, and content providers and application developers charge users for information service fees based on different service content. (The information service fee is usually collected by the operator, and the content provider, application developer, etc. pay the operator a certain percentage of commission).

I-MODE users can connect to the Internet at any time to browse. Unlike ordinary PC dial-up Internet access, I-MODE is more like a dedicated line for Internet access. It stays online as long as it is turned on. This method of transmitting information anytime and anywhere is loved by users. The average I-MODE mobile phone costs about 30,000 yen (about 3,000 yuan), and online browsing is charged by data traffic, 0.3 yen per 128 bytes. Once the I-MODE mobile phone was launched, it quickly became popular in Japan. Since its launch in February 1999, I-MODE users have rapidly increased to more than 23 million. Some people claim that I-MODE has played a role in changing the history of the Internet in Japan, and even changed the classic model of PC dominating the Internet created by the United States.

Since more than half of the users using I-MODE are for sightseeing and entertainment information, DoCoMo is also strengthening services in this area, such as online music, game downloads, online games, movie trailers, etc. There are also I-MODE battle games, users can download games and favorite character images, and can choose gender, constellation, genre (karate, sumo, etc.) to create their own characters. The connection of mobile phones and wireless application devices to the network has become a new business opportunity for the communications industry.

Years ago, when NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile communications company, opened its wireless Internet business, it was not completely sure of the prospect of the I-MODE business. Now Japanese people almost have an I-MODE mobile phone, which uses it to surf the Internet, send and receive emails, check accounts, exchange photos, and even play games. I-MODE has become Japan's largest consumer fashion.

Analysis of I-MODE business model

& nbsp The business model adopted by I-MODE is the "mobile portal", that is, DoCoMo's I-MODE platform is used for various business activities and information exchanges, and extensive and in-depth cooperation with content providers to provide convenience for users Access service. DoCoMo is now a formal partner with more than 600 content providers, with thousands of informal partners. There are more than 16,000 websites that users can browse through I-MODE mobile phones. For example, in the current cooperation project with Disney, users can watch Disney cartoon images and listen to Disney music through I-MODE mobile phones. DoCoMo charges users about $ 1 a month for this service, and 100,000 users have applied for it. This service.

Unlike European competitors' "WAP" service, I-MODE users can browse the Internet without dialing-as long as the user is on, he is online. At the same time, I-MODE will also allow network engineers to make web pages in HTML, which means that traditional Internet content providers can easily provide I-MODE content services. The language used by WAP is WML. To provide WAP content services, traditional Internet content providers need to rebuild a WAP website.

Despite the advantages of I-MODEe, analysts point out that it is unknown whether DoCoMo can take full advantage of these advantages. For example, DoCoMo has its own I-MODE portal site, which is also the default site for users to turn on. However, DoCoMo has no traditional Internet portal operation experience. In this regard, DoCoMo's approach is to cooperate with those traditional Internet portal giants. Recently, DoCoMo just concluded negotiations with AOL. The two parties first established a joint venture in Japan and then expanded their business to the United States.

The trickiest part is how to handle relationships with other content providers. At present, DoCoMo's strategy is to "keep a safe distance" with most content providers and take a neutral stance. Just like YAHOO, put the most popular content first. For those content providers who are best able to promote I-MODE services, DoCoMo has adopted a capital injection approach to maintain close cooperation, especially those game providers.

Three, the successful factor analysis of I-MODE mode

The total number of I-MODE users in Japan currently exceeds 23 million. The information content website has grown from the original 67 websites to about 1,000 protocol sites and 18,700 non-protocol sites with great success. The creator of I-MODEe, Japan's DoCoMo, has also become the world's largest non-multinational mobile operator and the world's most valuable mobile phone company. So why did I-MODE succeed?

& nbsp1. Rational technology choice

& nbspI-MODE's success is first and foremost a technology choice. Since DoCoMo only started to provide I-MODE mobile Internet services in 1999, it technically abandoned the CSD technology used in GSM and PHS and chose the most advanced packet switching technology at present. This move gave I-MODE the most advanced Internet access technology in the world. As a result, the transmission rate of I-MODE can reach 9.6kbit / s higher than WAP, and the network usage fee is very low.

& nbsp2. Business model of virtuous circle

Of course, technical success is not the same as market success. The virtuous cycle business model created by DoCoMo is a key to the market's recognition of this technology. Driven by technology and the market, information content sites in Japan have grown from the original 67 sites to about 1,000 official sites and 18,700 unofficial sites. Obviously, the abundance of online content has also greatly contributed to the blossoming of wireless internet in Japan.

& nbspDoCoMo's I-MODE content charging service mode enables users and ICP to enter the network with low barriers to entry, and promotes the entire ecological chain into a virtuous circle.

First, the Internet services provided by I-MODE are charged, and users can afford it. Second, I-MODE divides the collected service fees with the ICP that provides content services for profit sharing, which promotes the development of information sources.

Although DoCoMo only charges a 90% handling fee for ICP, its revenue from packet communication fees and basic charges is much higher than ICP's income. The ratio of DoCoMo's revenue to ICP's revenue is about 7: 3. It can be seen that the benefits of access fees brought by content charging are huge.

& nbsp 3. Complete revenue model

& nbspDoCoMo's revenue mainly comes from telephone service fees, data packet transfer fees and e-commerce payment commissions. For example, a user downloads one of the 15 cartoon characters, and in addition to paying $ 1, he also pays 9% to DoCoMo. Now that the monthly online transaction amount has exceeded 400 million yen, DoCoMo can take a commission of 3600 yen. I-MODE has become an important mobile business center. The company has partnered with 150 banks, and users can use mobile phones to transfer money and buy and sell stock.

& nbsp4. Good brand and service

At the same time, I-MODEe's success comes from its brand and services, which can provide the best communications, entertainment, advertising and other services. However, the fatal point of I-MODE is that it is based on Japanese mobile communication systems instead of being built on open standards. This is a regional wireless system in Japan, and it is not integrated with GSM, etc. Therefore, I-MODE cannot be used on the GSM network used by the vast majority of users in Europe and Asia, which limits the global promotion of I-MODE. However, according to expert analysis, if technical agreement can be reached, the future I-MODE and WAP are likely to merge.

In addition, it cannot be ignored that Japan has the best and most suitable mobile Internet consumer group in the world. Japan's gross national product is high, and people's consumption levels are also quite high. At the same time, the population is large and the population density is high. Most working people basically live on the move. Therefore, mobile Internet consumption has a broad base of people. In addition, Japanese characters are difficult to input because they are not used to keyboards. It is not as good as the United States, but the opposite is true for personal electronic devices. The simple use of I-MODE mobile phones, without dialing and always online, has made consumers more and more accustomed to using their mobile phones to browse Web pages, send and receive emails, view stock market quotes, and watch TV program previews.

& nbsp5. Rich online content

Thanks to I-MODE's good profit sharing model, the information content website has grown from the original 67 websites to about 1,000 official sites and 18,700 unofficial sites. Some of these sites are free, and some charge 100-300 yen per month. The official I-MODE sites are generally divided into 9 categories: news information, mobile banking, financial stock insurance, travel, lifestyle, food, entertainment, town information, dictionary tools and so on.

& nbsp6. Smart phone and easy to use

& nbspI-MODE mobile phones are very light and convenient. The display is larger than that of ordinary mobile phones, and some can display 256 colors. Most I-MODE phones can display active pictures and play music.

& nbspI-MODEe is easy to operate. Basic operations can be completed by 4 keys: cursor forward, cursor backward, selection and return. Just press the "i" button on your phone and you will be connected to an Internet home page in 10 seconds.

Users can also customize personalized homepage through I-MODE, users can enter their customized service content by opening the mobile phone.

Finally, it should be pointed out that although people's enthusiasm for I-MODE has lasted for a long time, many people are still skeptical about whether I-MODE, which has achieved great success in Japan, can be transplanted to other countries. A lot of evidence shows that the I-MODE phenomenon can only occur in Japan, because the characteristics of the Japanese market are unique. When I-MODE was launched two years ago, Internet penetration was well below 20%-not to mention that mobile phones were subsidized in this market. It is also questionable whether I-MODE's "pay-per-download" business model will work in other markets, especially the US and European markets.