- The i-mode Revolution, Ten Years On -

What's the best way to describe i-mode™? Revolutionary service model? Cultural phenomenon? Launching pad for the mobile Internet? Record-setting business? Rather than choose the superlatives ourselves, we spoke with the experts in DOCOMO's Consumer Services Department, namely, Director Yuka Harada (below) and Manager Shigetaka Kurita (below right), both of whom helped to design and launch the world's premier brand of mobile Internet.

Mobility: What made i-mode so successful?

Kurita: Many Japanese still had not experienced the Internet firsthand in 1999, so we developed i-mode as a user-friendly gateway to the world of mobile communication. Another key was to incorporate de facto standards, such as HTTP and HTML, and then provide content providers with extensive support. This enabled providers to rapidly expand the usefulness and entertainment value of i-mode sites.
Harada: The service menu was a well-balanced mixture of information, entertainment, database and transactions, which immediately appealed to users. The menu itself was very user-friendly because it was easy to navigate and highly intuitive. Users also trusted DOCOMO, already the largest mobile phone operator.
Kurita: We also made sure that i-mode appealed to content providers. Besides the balanced content, they loved i-mode's revenue sharing and monthly billing, rather than per-download billing. So our business model was a win-win proposition. And they believed in DOCOMO. Can you imagine conservative banks buying into an all-new technology like i-mode? Well, we had 21 banks online at launch!

Mobility: Did i-mode's success surprise you?

Kurita: In just six months we had one million subscr ibers, which labeled i-mode a success. Our next goal had been 10 million users in three years, but we reached that milestone in just two years! It was amazing the way many of our all-new services immediately caught on. A good example was the explosive popularity of our emoji (pictograms) and Deco-mail™ (animated mail decoration) services for creating attractive, graphically descriptive mails.

Mobility: What has been i-mode's cultural or sociological impact?

Harada: It's brought about huge changes, including, of course, an explosion of mobile mail communication. Moreover, pictograms, emoticons, photos, animation, etc., enable i-mode mail users to express themselves even when words can't. As a result, i-mode has opened up the world to increasingly broader human interaction.
Kurita: It has made a huge difference in people's lives. People quickly began to use i-mode to organize their daily activities and to communicate with text and photos, the precursor of today's blogs. Free time is now used more productively and creatively, for example, to sends mails, search for information, read news or play games.

Mobility: How has i-mode impacted ICT?

Harada: Before i-mode, the mobile ecosystem consisted of only operators and telecom vendors. With the coming of i-mode, however, this broadly expanded to include content providers, content holders and IT vendors.
Kurita: Moreover, the effect has been more than just technological, because i-mode has helped to pioneer new ideas and services in the ICT field.

Mobility: What are you most proud of?

Harada: The way that i-mode has changed people's lifestyles, the way they approach and manage leisure time, and the way they use information.

Mobility: Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

Kurita: We probably should have tried to launch i-mode sooner! (laughs)

Thanks to Harada, Kurita and many others at DOCOMO, i-mode is not only a major feature in Japan's ICT landscape, it is an irreplaceable part of people's lives. Ten years after launch, the i-mode platform continues to synthesize cutting-edge creativity and technologies as exciting new services, shaping not only the mobile world but indeed society itself. Congratulations, i-mode, on a stunningly successful first decade. Lead on!

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