1. CLUE Case Study
NTT DoCoMo: Mobile BeeTV Service
Connected Life Experiences on the Move
Challenge/Opportunity
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
NTT DoCoMo faces a mature mobile market in Japan with
COMPANY PROFILE
NTT DOCOMO, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, minimal growth expectations from traditional wireless voice
is Japan’s leading mobile communications services. After a period of rapid expansion, the Japanese mobile
operator. The company accounts for more than
half of Japan’s mobile phone market and has communications market has entered a mature phase. Now that
one of the largest subscriber bases of any
mobile phone company in the world. total subscriptions exceed 100 million, it is difficult to expect
COMPANY HISTORY further growth on a significant level unless breakthroughs are
Established in July 1992 to take over the mobile made. In addition, customers’ values have diversified, and their
communications business of Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone Corporation (NTT), NTT DOCOMO demands have become increasingly sophisticated. NTT
launched its first digital cellular phone service in
the next year. 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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2. CLUE Case Study
● 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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3. CLUE Case Study
● 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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4. CLUE Case Study
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
Printed in USA FLGD 08867 02/10
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