Jump to COMMENTARY

Japan will have ten million Internet users by year 2000, says MEDIA BANK

Japan will have 10 million Internet users by the year 2000, according to Internet connectivity service provider MEDIA BANK, a joint venture between NTT DATA COMMUNICATIONS and SOFTBANK. MEDIA BANK plans to have 100,000 dialup subscribers by the end of 1997, double its initial projection of 50,000, a company spokesman said. The company concentrates on providing dialup access to individual consumers rather than corporations, and will by fall increase from 20 to 60 the number of access points it shares with NTT DATA. The company plans to focus on novice users in its new subscriber marketing effort.


NTT, other industry giants to form Internet promotion association

NTT, MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL, CASIO COMPUTER, and 15 other companies will by September establish the Easy Internet Association, a multi-industry organization whose purpose is to promote the use of consumer electronics products that enable Internet access. Televisions, word processors, and other devices equipped with Internet connection functions are expected to hit the market in Japan within the year, and members of the new organization hope to use their world-leading expertise in the consumer electronics arena to catch up to the U.S. in the Internet sector, where Japan has lagged. Other members of the new group will include JAPAN VICTOR, ITOCHU, and ACCESS. A group spokesman said he expects the organization to have about 50 members when it officially gets underway in September.


IIJ to greatly expand international Internet bandwidth

Tokyo-based INTERNET INITIATIVE JAPAN (IIJ), Japan's largest Internet connectivity provider, will in mid-July upgrade its Osaka-New York connection from 1.5Mbps to 45Mbps, effectively doubling its Japan-to-U.S. bandwidth. IIJ currently has a 45Mbps Tokyo-San Jose connection. The company also plans in September to become Japan's first provider to establish a direct Japan-Europe Internet connection. Meanwhile, IIJ affiliate ASIAN INTERNET HOLDING (AIH) continues to build connections with ten Asian nations, supporting IIJ's effort to build a global Internet trunk line network centered in Japan.


DIBA to license low-priced Internet terminals to Japanese firms

California-based startup DIBA will license three of its Interactive Digital Electronic Appliances (IDEAs) to Japanese firms through INTEGRATED SYSTEMS JAPAN, the Tokyo unit of the company that developed the pSOS operating system for the IDEA terminals. IDEA terminals are designed to accomplish a limited set of specific tasks, and will be available in the U.S. for under $300, according to DIBA. Initially DIBA plans to license its Diba Kitchen, Diba Internet, and Diba Mail terminals in Japan.


Another cable operator planning move into Internet connectivity service business

Cable television operator JOETSU CABLEVISION (JCV) will use its CATV network to move into the Internet connectivity business in spring of 1997. JVC will offer connectivity services itself and plans to lease its CATV network Internet connectivity service to other providers as well. The company will install cable modems this fall and begin experimenting under a plan to apply to MPT for a Type I telecommunications carrier permit.


JCB partners with MICROSOFT to seek secure online transaction settlement solution

Credit card giant JCB of Tokyo and MICROSOFT of the U.S. have agreed to team up to cooperatively develop a mechanism for safely and efficiently settling credit card transactions on the Internet. JCB plans to start an experimental electronic commerce serviced dubbed Planet at the end of this year and eventually develop it into an interactive multimedia shopping service.


SOFTBANK acquires 30% stake in ONLIVE TECHNOLOGIES

SOFTBANK, continuing its string of Internet-related acquisitions, bought a 30% stake in chat software developer ONLIVE TECHNOLOGIES to become the company's leading shareholder. SOFTBANK paid $23 million for its stake in ONLIVE, which developed software that allows multi-participant real-time voice communication between users. The software will be released worldwide July 7.


Have a beer, play some pinball, surf some 'Net?

Patrons in Japanese restaurants, bars, and amusement halls may soon be able to surf the Internet using prepaid cards dispensed by on-site vending machines. Nagano-based computer equipment seller/software developer MICROPAC has developed a system designed to let proprietors of such establishments sell online time, using prepaid cards just like the telephone cards that are enormously popular for making pay phone calls in Japan. The system consists of a PC, prepaid cards, a card reader, and a card vending machine that dispenses a 2,000 yen ($18) card that enables 100 minutes of Internet use. The standard system configuration will be priced at 700,000 yen ($6,422).


Commentary

While the Internet market in the U.S. is clearly more advanced than it is in Japan, in some areas Japanese users seem to have leapfrogged their U.S. counterparts with innovative Internet-related marketing applications.

For example, condominiums designed specifically for Internet users went on sale June 15 in Tokyo's Hamamatsu district. The condos, designed by developer MC CORPORATION, feature a dedicated 192Kbps line shared by all units, 10 BASE-T outlets in every room, a firewall (!) for each owner, battery power backup good for five minutes, and dedicated technical support (MC is also an ISP).

The dedicated line and individual account fees are included in the condominium maintenance fees, and are transparent to the owners. No word yet on how the units are selling.

Meanwhile, coin and prepaid card-operated Internet surfing terminals seem destined to appear alongside video games and other amusement devices in Japanese bars, restaurants, and karaoke rooms. And Japan seems to have been the first nation (correct us if we're wrong) to commercialize free Internet access services supported entirely by advertising revenues. Those readers who have spent time in Japan know the incredible zeal with which Japan's product developers and marketers will discern the essence of an application, then transfer, modify, expand, contract, or otherwise tweak to exploit it in effective new ways. What an amazing market!

Later this month we will release a research report on the Japanese Internet market. This report will cover a number of areas that may be of interest to JIR readers, including:

- Demographics of Japan's Internet users
- Case studies of effective use of the Japanese language Internet
- Estimates of user numbers and projections for the future
- Chronologies of Internet-related actions taken by Japanese corporations

The table of contents for this report is available at:

http://www.tkai.com/services/research/1996.html

The report is based on over 2,000 responses by Japanese Internet users to a detailed questionnaire, plus case studies, projections and data supplied by Digitized Information of Tokyo, which has been monitoring Japanese high technology developments on a daily basis since 1984.

Next month we hope to start an occasional series of interviews with industry insiders - look forward to it.

Tim Clark
Editor


Copyright@1996 by Digitized Information and TKAI
All rights reserved

NOTE: Some JIR industry briefs appear later in Computing Japan magazine under modified titles.

JIR is co-sponsored by Digitized Information, Inc. of Tokyo, a leader in providing daily English language coverage of electronics industry developments in Japan.