Friday, January 13, 2006
Japan's mobile operators' profits
Overall Japanese mobile operators generate on the order of US$ 10 Billion/year in profits with a rising tendency.
US$ 10 Billion/year profits attract three new entrants to Japan's mobile markets (eMobile, YAHOO-BB and IP-mobile), mobile virtual operators, and attracted Vodafone to acquire J-Phone some time ago.
DoCoMo's domestic profits in particular have been continuously rising to reach the spectacular figure of US$ 8 billion/year recently. However, conspicuous is a US$ 10 billion hole (shown in bright red color in the figure below) in DoCoMo's otherwise impeccable record. This US$ 10 billion losses are DoCoMo's write-offs for investments in KPN-Mobile (Netherlands, Germany and Belgium), Three-Hudginson (UK) and AT&T-Wireless (US). DoCoMo has withdrawn from all three investments and has written off about US$ 10 billion. Most companies on planet earth will not survive a US$ 10 billion write-off - however, DoCoMo's incredible domestic performance allowed DoCoMo to survive this US$ 10 billion write-off without much trouble.
Vodafone's performance in Japan is rather mixed - the results show a zig-zag line with profits one year and losses the next and average profits around zero, if performance is averaged over several years.
US$ 10 Billion/year profits attract three new entrants to Japan's mobile markets (eMobile, YAHOO-BB and IP-mobile), mobile virtual operators, and attracted Vodafone to acquire J-Phone some time ago.
DoCoMo's domestic profits in particular have been continuously rising to reach the spectacular figure of US$ 8 billion/year recently. However, conspicuous is a US$ 10 billion hole (shown in bright red color in the figure below) in DoCoMo's otherwise impeccable record. This US$ 10 billion losses are DoCoMo's write-offs for investments in KPN-Mobile (Netherlands, Germany and Belgium), Three-Hudginson (UK) and AT&T-Wireless (US). DoCoMo has withdrawn from all three investments and has written off about US$ 10 billion. Most companies on planet earth will not survive a US$ 10 billion write-off - however, DoCoMo's incredible domestic performance allowed DoCoMo to survive this US$ 10 billion write-off without much trouble.
Vodafone's performance in Japan is rather mixed - the results show a zig-zag line with profits one year and losses the next and average profits around zero, if performance is averaged over several years.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Japan's full 2005 cellphone subscriber data
Japan's 2005 cellphone subscriber data show:
- Japan's cellphone market continues to grow by more than 4.5 million subscriptions/year
- DoCoMo and KDDI are continuing their head-to-head race
- Since June 2005 Vodafone is consistently gaining customers again (but losing market share)
- Willcom's turn-round is continuing, and Willcom is consistently gaining market share. Willcom is outperforming Vodafone as far as gaining new subscribers is concerned
Month-by-month gain/loss for 2005:
Annual subscriber growth for 2001-2005 shows DoCoMo's and KDDI's head-to-head race, Willcom's turn-round and Vodafone's difficulties to apply GSM-style management to Japan:
Month-by-month growth during 2005 shows that KDDI is moving TuKa customers to AU. (TuKa uses a legacy PDC network - a technology developed by KDDI's competitor NTT, while AU uses Qualcomm's CDMA2000):
More details in our J-Comm report
- Japan's cellphone market continues to grow by more than 4.5 million subscriptions/year
- DoCoMo and KDDI are continuing their head-to-head race
- Since June 2005 Vodafone is consistently gaining customers again (but losing market share)
- Willcom's turn-round is continuing, and Willcom is consistently gaining market share. Willcom is outperforming Vodafone as far as gaining new subscribers is concerned
Month-by-month gain/loss for 2005:
Annual subscriber growth for 2001-2005 shows DoCoMo's and KDDI's head-to-head race, Willcom's turn-round and Vodafone's difficulties to apply GSM-style management to Japan:
Month-by-month growth during 2005 shows that KDDI is moving TuKa customers to AU. (TuKa uses a legacy PDC network - a technology developed by KDDI's competitor NTT, while AU uses Qualcomm's CDMA2000):
More details in our J-Comm report
