“heat map” of mobile ad impressions in Tokyo
The picture they presented sounded like a forecast of the Future in 10 years time… However it is Japan’s reality, right now. So here are the figures:
- 90% of the subscribers use the mobile web;
- 90% will be on 3G by the end 2008;
- At the Present, almost 1/2 are GPS enabled phones;
- The Mobile commerce market has hit 10B USD*
It is predictable that TV watching (w/ digital TV tuner) and video sharing will soon become a top mobile entertainment. You Tube on mobile and Nico Nico Video Sharing are already becoming a clear trend.
IC wallets are being integrated with mobile phones by default. This mobile electronic payment method already has 28.5 million subscribers (as of Mar 31, 2008) and is accepted in Public transportations, supermarkets and vending machines.
So why did this market grow so rapidly in Japan?
A combination of broad coverage of 3G network, flat-rate data plans and a bigger influence of the operators upon mobile ecosystem than in GSM markets did the trick.
Regarding the mobile ad market, the latest trends clearly promote the mobile ad market expansion:
- A new governmental regulation imposed GPS for all 3G phones by default (for security reasons);
- Top 2 operators have integrated Google as default search (thus enabling Google AdWords revenue);
- Massive growth of “non-official” sites (the Long Tail effect on mobile content).
The forecast for overall Mobile Ad Spending in Japan is 1.284 million USD by 2011.**
Sponsored listings and Location-based mobile ads are growing rapidly, due to:
- Strong publisher network in Japan;
- Proved performance for advertisers (Local Ads have 395% Greater CTR*** than Non-Local Ads);
- Proved performance for publishers (Local Ads have 826% Greater CPM*** than Non-Local Ads).
The most successful categories of advertisers are: Food & Restaurant, Educational Institutions, Local Jobs and Employment, Educational Institutions, Beauty salons and Car dealers.
*Source: Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
**Source: DentsuInc., 2007
***CTR:Click-through rate
CPM:Cost per mille