The Entertaining Way to M-Commerce: Japan's Approach to the Mobile Internet - A Model for Europe?

Japan's i-Mode system has exceeded expected subscriber rates while the usage of European WAP services is below forecasts. One of the main differences besides the technical platform is that i-Mode is focusing on entertainment applications while WAP service providers concentrate on professional business offerings. It is often argued that i-Mode's success has to be attributed to its cultural background and cannot be replicated easily in other environments. Challenging this view we view the technical, market related, cultural and consumer-group-specific success factors of i-Mode. Additional insights are derived from positioning the i-Mode and WAP approach in the framework of reach and richness. Based on our analysis we argue that the main factors for i-Mode's success are not merely cultural thus enabling European companies to build on the Japanese experiences.