A new company soon expects to offer business-to-business mobile commerce services in Japan using software NTT DoCoMo uses in its wildly popular i-mode Internet applications for consumers.
Redwood City, Calif.-based BroadVision Inc., venture capitalist H&Q Asia Pacific and three Japanese partners announced last week they plan to establish B-Mobile Corp. on Oct. 1. The new company will offer BroadVision’s One-to-One electronic business technology, Access Co. Ltd.’s mobile microbrowser software (used by NTT DoCoMo for its i-mode platform), Itochu Techno-Science Corp.’s systems integration and Itochu Corp.’s global promotion services.
Together, the companies will pool $10 million in initial capital to get B-Mobile off the ground.
“Everybody has money, but what we wanted to bring under one roof was the technology, and we did it in less than six months,” said Ta-Lin Hsu, chairman of H&Q Asia Pacific.
Company customers of B-Mobile will be able to wirelessly communicate among themselves, as well as conduct Internet-based business transactions with mobile clients using cellular phones and personal digital assistants, the companies said.
Pehong Chen, chief executive officer of BroadVision, said the company will focus on business rather than consumer applications because there are more opportunities in that market. NTT DoCoMo’s business-to-consumer portfolio already contains more than 10,000 services.
“The new company will be the first in Japan, and perhaps the world, to provide the crucial B2B link between an enterprise and all its mobile constituencies,” Chen said.
Toru Arakawa, president and CEO of Access, said he believes the next big trend will be in B2B mobile-commerce applications. Chen added that Japan is the perfect place to push m-commerce because its wireless market is large and one of the most advanced in the world.
Slated to begin offering services in January 2001, B-Mobile will be headquartered in Tokyo.
