Japan: Mobile Commerce to Have Explosive Growth

Japanese people are crazy for mobile phones. Japan has a very high teledensity and almost everyone owns a cell phone. Mobile phone operators are giving a lot of services. Retail shopping through mobile phone is becoming popular among the people here. Mobile commerce (m-commerce) has become a $US3.5 billion industry in Japan and the future is very bright too. This figure is even higher than US. I found a very informative article about m-commerce in Japan in Cnet.com.au. It reported:

Japan’s $US30 billion ($A39 billion) e-commerce market is one-fifth of the size of the market in the United States.

But the $US3.5 billion ($A4.5 billion) mobile commerce, or m-commerce, market is flying ahead of other developed markets and is expected to show explosive growth in years to come.

Single mother Masumi Nakagawa, 35, said she is too busy working and caring for her child to go shopping.

“With a mobile phone, I can shop anytime, anywhere like in a Shinkansen (bullet train) or in bed,” she said.

Her habit of buying items such as accessories and supplements through websites via her mobile typifies a growing trend in Japan, where phones serve a multitude of purposes, such as credit cards, portable music players and train tickets.

Mobile phone is used for buying many things. Life is getting busier for most people in Japan. So, mobile phone is perhaps now the best companion here. However, the service providers and law enforcing agencies should be careful about safety of the transactions. Except this problem, I can see a very bright future of m-commerce in Japan. I guess m-commerce is going to flourish in Korea and Japan too. Thus East Asia is going to be the market leader in this sector.