Japan's M-Commerce

In the era of technology, mobile phone is becoming more and more essential in part of our daily routine. There are over 4.6 billion active mobile subscriptions in 2010 (greater than the world’s population) and over a billion mobiles are sold annually.

For this post, I will be introducing you some interesting mobile service in Japan, that hopefully, we will be able to see it in Australia and other countries around the world.

Few years ago, the new mobile payment system was introduced in Japan; it allows people to pay for goods and services without any cash or cards, people just simply pay by swiping their cell phones on an electronic pad and that’s all… no paper work, no signature needed - everything is so convenience.

Just check out this video:

And how about applying this to a business?

McDonald's has created a mobile coupon system that is used in an astounding 15% of all transactions in their stores in Japan. The site has 14 million users, and the coupon/payment application they developed has been downloaded 4 million times. From this amount of users, surely McDonalds had made people talking.

On the other hand, having mobile payment system is convenience, but how about if your mobile were stolen, as it acts just like a credit card (and perhaps more valuable), this could lead to a disaster. All of your account details etc. stored in the phone can easily be taken. And possibly in the future, if people can hack your computer then your phone will be next!



Source: http://www.slideshare.net/shanew/the-mobile-industry-ecosystem

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