Japanese Mobile-content Market Hits US$100B in 2007
Martyn Williams has an interesting look at the Japanese mobile content market. For 2007, more than $100 billion was spent on mobile content. The value of business carried out through cell phones in Japan broke the US$100 billion mark for the first time in 2007, according to government figures.The total was actually $107.5 billion and includes items such as ring tones, Web site subscriptions and e-commerce purchases. E-commerce made up about 65% of the total amount spent and all sorts of transactions were handled including: movie and event ticket sales, travel reservations, air and rail ticket sales, stock trading and online auctions.
The e-commerce part of that was worth ¥7.2 trillion, up 29 percent on the year, fueled by movie and event ticket sales, travel reservations, air and rail ticket sales, stock trading and online auctions. The mobile-content market grew at a slower pace, expanding 16 percent to ¥4.2 trillion, the ministry said.
Maybe the iPhone app store will push other countries to follow suit. While not mentioned in the article, I wonder what percentage of transactions took place via a QR code.
The mobile gaming market jumped 13 percent to ¥848 billion, and the e-book market expanded 220 percent to ¥221 billion
