HONG KONG -(Dow Jones)- NTT DoCoMo is planning to enter the electronic payment market in Hong Kong when it brings its i-mode service to the city at the end of this year.
Takeshi Natsuno, senior vice president of Japan's biggest mobile phone company by subscribers, said Hong Kong will be the first overseas market where it will offer i-mode's wallet-phone service, which enables a handset equipped with a contactless integrated circuit (IC) card to provide services including electronic payment and ticket booking.
The i-mode service allows users fast access to Web sites customized for mobile phones. The service has more than 46 million subscribers in Japan, offering access to over 5,700 sites.
About 12 million i-mode users are now using the wallet-phone service in Japan.
"Hong Kong is especially important to the (electronic wallet) product," he said, adding Hong Kong people are already accustomed to electronic money, with millions of people using the Octopus smart card every day for purchases ranging from subway rides to meals at fast-food chains.
Natsuno said DoCoMo and its Hong Kong partner Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) hadn't yet held talks with Octopus Card Ltd. But a Hutchison spokeswoman said Octopus management attended a press conference last week to announce the launch of DoCoMo's i-mode service and handsets using Hutchison Telecom (Hong Kong)'s mobile network in Hong Kong and Macau at the end of this year.
Hutchison Telecom (Hong Kong) is a unit of Hutchison Telecommunications International.
There are 15 similar i-mode alliances in the world, including carriers in Spain, Greece, the U.K., Taiwan, and Singapore.
Natsuno said the IC card used in i-mode phones is based on Sony Corp.'s technology, which means it will involve no hardware change for use with the Octopus system.
He said the company would offer five to six i-mode handsets when it launches the i-mode service in Hong Kong.
Unlike mobile data platforms adopted by other carriers in Hong Kong, where users can view a diverse range of content bought from selected providers, i-mode users can access independent content providers' Web sites directly.
Natsuno said i-mode in Hong Kong will adopt a similar strategy to the one used in Japan to attract quality content providers, taking only 10%-15% of the amount content providers charge users. "We have to be fair to content providers," said Natsuno.
He wouldn't say how many Web sites would be available for i-mode users when the service is launched at the end of this year, but said about 60 to 100 Web sites were available when i-mode was launched in France and Spain.
-By Ernest Kong, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; ernest.kong@dowjones.com
-Edited by Theresa Davidovitz
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 5th June 2006
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