TMCnet News
NTT DoCoMo Comes to China with Full-fledged Services(SinoCast China IT Week Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) SHENZHEN, October 29, SinoCast -- Though the Chinese government has not decided when it would issue the 3G licenses, Japan-based NTT DoCoMo comes to this country with its full- fledged services such as mobile ecommerce, mobile TV, and mobile key. In Japan, 3G services are growing by leaps and bounds. So far NTT DoCoMo has received a total of 40 million 3G subscribers. And the services it brought to China are the most successful modes in Japan. Now NTT DoCoMo and UFIDA Software Co., Ltd., one of the leading providers of management software solutions and services in Asia, are waiting for the final approval from Chinese authorities to establish a mobile ecommerce joint venture between the companies. UFIDA announced on February this year that it would set up a joint venture with NTT DoCoMo. UFIDA and its Japanese partner will inject a lot of money into deployment of mobile commerce platform and applications. The UFIDA-NTT partnership is merely a miniature of the actions taken by Chinese and foreign companies to seek proactive position in China's vast TD-SCDMA market. UFIDA has announced its development strategy for mobile commerce in the Eastern China Region, and will deploy the first large-sized mobile commerce platform in China. With completion of the joint venture, it will take the place of UFIDA Mobile, the mobile department of UFIDA. And it will become one of the pillar units of the parent company and the strategic platform of NTT DoCoMo in China. Latest statistics from Analysts International show that China's mobile ecommerce application market will be worth of CNY 30 billion by 2009, with a yearly increase of 30.9% year on year. And as the China's 3G industry is moving forward, mobile ecommerce application market will be brought along. Mobile commerce has drawn close attention with its prospect for enriched and broad applications with the approaching of 3G commercialization. Mobile commerce based on the mobile communication network will have extensive commercial prospect on back of China's enormous mobile phone user base, roughly 500 million, and the preference of Chinese residents for mobile phones. Moreover, mobile commerce is expected to fuel the next round of economic growth. At the moment, the main investment targets of NTT DoCoMo in China are value-added wireless service providers. However, it will deepen the cooperation with its Chinese counterparts in the future after it gets more understanding about China, the company says. What is more, NTT DoCoMo once noted in June this year that after China sees its first 3G license, it will partner with the Chinese telecom carrier with the WCDMA license. And it will probably buy stake in one of Chinese telecom carriers. Copyright 2007 Sinocast LLC, Source: The Financial Times Limited |