As NTT DoCoMo looks to increase its revenue stream having saturated the cell phone market in Japan, they are moving heavily into the next level, that impacts financial services.
asahi.com:DoCoMo dreams big with low-rent credit – ENGLISH
After revolutionizing Internet use with its i-mode service, NTT DoCoMo Inc. aims to create a new way of shopping.The nation's top cellphone carrier today debuts as a credit company, enabling payment by phone. Its DCMX service allows DoCoMo subscribers to buy on credit simply by waving a handset over a reading device. No signature is required.
The implication is that the DoCoMo cell phone becomes a wallet.
Of the 17 million Edy cards issued as of April 1, for example, 3 million are on "wallet phones," according to operator bitWallet Co.
"DoCoMo will develop into a credit card service on its own, using cellphones as its primary tool to attract customers," said Shigeru Takamura, who specializes in card businesses at Japan Research Institute.
Technorati Tags: payments, credit_cards
