DoCoMo, Google say tying up to grow in Japan
TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's leading mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. and US search-engine giant Google Inc. said Thursday they were tying up as both companies try to steal a march amid tough competition.
DoCoMo will incorporate Google's search and e-mail features into its popular "i-mode" Internet service as part of a broader alliance that may lead to the development of new functions and handsets, officials of the two companies said.
DoCoMo is hoping to fight off resurgent competitors by upgrading its services, while Google wants to expand its presence in the lucrative Japanese market where it has lagged behind rival search-engine Yahoo.
"This alliance in Japan -- the most advanced market for mobile services with the most sophisticated users -- is very important not only for Google Japan but also for Google's strategy as a whole," Google Japan president Norio Murakami told a news conference.
The tie-up, however, comes nearly two years after DoCoMo's domestic rival KDDI Corp. made a similar alliance with Google.
Starting as early as the spring, DoCoMo users will be able to conduct Google searches as advanced as those done on a personal computer, company officials said.
Google Maps and other services will also become standard pre-installed applications on upcoming DoCoMo handsets.
"The difference between other companies' and our new services is that we will offer all of the services that Google has," said Takeshi Natsuno, managing director of the multimedia services department at NTT DoCoMo.
DoCoMo, while remaining a dominant force in the domestic mobile market, has lost subscribers to rivals since 2006 when a rule change allowed users to switch carriers without changing their phone numbers.
Google in turn has remained behind Yahoo Japan Corp. in the Japanese search engine market.
Google said it was expanding its services to another segment by tapping Japanese cellular customers. DoCoMo accounts for more than half of the mobile phone subscriptions in Japan.
Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of Google, said the tie-up aimed at "really bringing the Internet to a mobile user."
"We view that those barriers between the PC and mobile devices are long gone in sophisticated markets like Japan, and that a lot of new users are really experiencing the Internet through mobile devices primarily," he said.
DoCoMo was the pioneer of third-generation telephones, which allow customers to access the Internet, type emails and other advanced functions.
DoCoMo's rival KDDI made a similar tie-up with Google in May 2006.
Third-ranked Softbank, which entered the competitive industry in 2006 by buying British giant Vodafone's struggling local unit, has tied up with Yahoo Japan.
In a sign of the competition, both the search-engine and telecom industries saw new entrants this week.
US entertainment giant Disney entered the cellular business in Japan through a deal with Softbank, while China's leading search-engine Baidu.com launched a Japanese-language site.
