CLUE Case Study

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

COMPANY PROFILE

NTT DOCOMO, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is Japan’s leading mobile communications operator. The company accounts for more than half of Japan’s mobile phone market and has one of the largest subscriber bases of any mobile phone company in the world.

COMPANY HISTORY

Established in July 1992 to take over the mobile communications business of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), NTT DOCOMO launched its first digital cellular phone service in the next year.

NTT DoCoMo: Mobile BeeTV Service

Connected Life Experiences on the Move

Challenge/Opportunity

NTT DoCoMo faces a mature mobile market in Japan with minimal growth expectations from traditional wireless voice services. After a period of rapid expansion, the Japanese mobile communications market has entered a mature phase. Now that total subscriptions exceed 100 million, it is difficult to expect further growth on a significant level unless breakthroughs are made. In addition, customers’ values have diversified, and their demands have become increasingly sophisticated. NTT DoCoMo also experienced decreased average revenue per user (ARPU):

● Aggregate cellular ARPU for FY2008 dropped 10.2 percent year-on-year to ¥5,710.

● Aggregate cellular ARPU for the single quarter of FY2008/4Q was ¥5,390, down 10.9 percent compared

to ¥6,050 for the same period of last fiscal year.

● The primary reason for the decline in aggregate ARPU was a decrease in voice ARPU of ¥830 year-on-year.

● Increased discount rates were offered in proportion to the length of subscriptions and the optimization of

billing plans.

NTT DoCoMo needed to find a differentiated service to add to its mobile service portfolio that could be offered to its large mobile subscriber base to generate top-line growth and increase ARPU.

Alliances/Partnerships

● BeeTV is available on DoCoMo’s i-mode, an exclusive mobile web service for DoCoMo’s 50 million cell

phone subscribers. NTT can leverage its large installed base to add subscribers for this new service.

● Because BeeTV produces original content, it can widen its revenue streams with DVD, book, and

movie spinoffs.

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● NTT DoCoMo formed a joint venture company, Avex Broadcasting & Communications Inc., with Avex

Entertainment Inc. (AEI), a subsidiary of Avex Group Holdings Inc., for the production and on-demand

distribution of video content packaged for the mobile phone environment. ◦ AEI is a part of the Avex Group, one of Japan’s biggest music and movie entertainment companies, with

operations involving the production, packaging, sale/distribution (including web), and rights management of

music and visual content not only in Japan but other markets of Asia as well. ◦ DoCoMo provides its IT infrastructure, advanced mobile technologies, and broad experience in providing

mobile customers with popular video content. AEI contributes its expertise in the fields of content creation,

artist management, and services centered on intellectual property. ◦ The venture brings customers eight channels (including drama, comedy, music, cartoons, and

edutainment) through a partnership with Fuji-TV, Hori-Pro (one of the largest talent management offices for

actors/actresses/models/comedians), TV production studios such as East, HowFull’s (famous for producing

top-rated TV programs), Robot Communications, Inc. (an animation studio best known for one of its directors,

Kunio Kato, who won an Academy Award in 2009 for Best Animated Short Film ), and Oz (led by a producer

who arranged Hollywood reproduction rights licensing of Japanese films like The Curse and Ring 0: Birthday). ◦ AEI was started with capital of ¥3.5B and capital reserves of ¥3.5B, 30 percent from NTT DoCoMo and

70 percent from AEI.

● This service will enable the users to download or stream the video content, which has nearly 47 channels

such as movies, news etc. via NTT DoCoMo’s “mopera” mobile Internet service.

Strategy

BeeTV (Launched at May 2009)

● Unlike most mobile-content companies that distribute video works that were originally developed for movie

theaters and DVD systems, BeeTV will produce and distribute content developed specifically for the small

screens of mobile phones, giving special consideration to scripting, editing, photography, etc. tailored for the

mobile phone environment.

● An especially distinctive feature of the programming is the length of each episode: never more than

10 minutes, and usually between two and five minutes. Although such brevity would never be well received

by viewers sitting on their living room couches, BeeTV has found that mobile customers on the go like short,

highly focused episodes. The trend is another example of how mobile phones are changing modern society

with new culture and new lifestyles, as well as incredible convenience and flexibility.

● In addition to original programming, BeeTV edits trendy new programs, including popular U.S. TV dramas

such as Foreign Body and Sorority Forever.

Success Factors/Metrics/Monetization

● BeeTV is based on revenue sharing with content providers, and it has a business scheme that allows

producers and performers to earn royalties in addition to base fees, in proportion to how many times each

of their works has been watched.

● The company has revised downward the basic monthly charges for both of its flat-rate data plans, cutting

the cost to ¥390 from ¥490 (both including tax). The reduced charges will encourage more customers to use

NTT DoCoMo services such as BeeTV™ video streaming.

● In total, hundreds of episodes are available for unlimited, on-demand viewing, all for just ¥315 (about US$3)

per month.

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● BeeTV currently has no ads. However, the company has an advantage as an advertising tool because

content based on the demand of paying viewers can be more effective than conventional TV for targeted

advertising. So it has the potential of raising additional advertising revenues.

● The clearest proof of BeeTV’s success is its customer growth: about 80 percent of those who experience

the free one-week trial eventually sign up, which enabled the company to attract 550,000 subscribers by

July, barely two months after launch.

Company Background

In 1999, DOCOMO launched i-mode™, the world’s most popular platform for mobile Internet services including e-mail, browsing, downloading and more. Over 48 million DOCOMO subscribers now use i-mode.

In 2001, DOCOMO introduced FOMA™, the world’s first 3G commercial mobile service based on W-CDMA, which has transformed the mobile landscape in Japan while bringing the DOCOMO brand global recognition.

The role of mobile phones as “lifestyle tools” was cemented when DOCOMO launched Osaifu-Keitai™, a mobile wallet platform enabling quick, contactless transactions for cash, credit, ID, and more. More than 35 million phones equipped for Osaifu-Keitai services are now in use.

“We believe expansion of data usage is indispensable for us to achieve the goals presented in our medium-term vision. To this end, advancement of handset functionality and enrichment of content play an important role. We, therefore, plan to install “Inline FLASH” technology in some of our summer model handsets to enhance their expressiveness. In the area of content, we would like to expand the adoption of video, which has so far been used primarily for entertainment applications, to other fields, such as tourism, navigation, or medical services. In the field of entertainment, we intend to promote BeeTV service, which is provided through the collaboration with AVEX, and other new services.” —Ryuji Yamada, President and CEO, NTT DoCoMo (Source : FY2008 Earnings Statement, April 2009)

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References

www.wikinvest.com/stock/NTT_Docomo_(DCM)

http://asiajin.com/blog/2009/05/01/avex-and-ntt-docomo-launch-tv-station-exclusively-for-cellphone-users/

www.nttdocomo.com/binary/press/mobility_doc_25.pdf

http://unified.cbronline.com/news/ntt_docomo_and_avex_to_form_joint_venture_company

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