It's noteworthy that smaller companies grounded in traditional retail are racking up some of the most impressive successes online. But in my view, the company that continues to blow everyone out of the water is Bandai. The company has attracted an astounding 600,000 users to this 100 yen per month service. That's about twice as many subscribers as all Internet users in Hong Kong and Singapore combined. NTT DoCoMo has done a brilliant job of creating a closed, proprietary subset of the Internet at large.
Wireless access eliminates the distinction between home and workplace use.
Portal deals as ineffective in Japan as in U.S. Portal deals are very poor investments. As a branding move, it might make sense.