DoCoMo dreams big with “cell phone wallet”

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.

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