The Wall Street Journal-20080123-Disney Cellphone Service In Japan to Target Women
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Disney Cellphone Service In Japan to Target Women
TOKYO -- Walt Disney Co., which shut down its U.S. cellphone service last year, is starting a similar service in Japan. But this time it is targeting different customers: adult women instead of children.
Disney's Japan unit said yesterday that its new Disney Mobile service will start March 1 in partnership with Softbank Mobile Corp., Japan's third-largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers. It plans to offer content including ring tones, videos and games to female Disney fans in their 20s and 30s. Users also will be able to customize phone screens and emails with Disney-theme graphics.
"We believe there's a big audience out there for the service we're offering," Duncan Orrell-Jones, senior vice president of Disney's Internet division in Asia, said at a news conference.
Disney has a particularly strong base of adult fans in Japan. The Tokyo Disney Resort theme park, which is operated by a Japanese company under an agreement with Disney, is a popular dating destination that was visited by nearly 26 million people in the fiscal year ended March 2007. Disney, which already offers nearly 90 mobile Web sites on existing mobile operators' networks in Japan, said 75% of the 3.5 million subscribers to those sites were women older than age 20.
Disney started a cellphone service that targeted kids and their parents in the U.S. in 2006 in a network-leasing deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. Last year, Disney closed the service after failing to find enough outlets to sell its phones and related services.
In Japan, the company has reached a more collaborative and lower- risk agreement with Softbank Mobile, a unit of Softbank Corp., in which Softbank Mobile will handle all of the back-end operations, including customer service and sales of Disney Mobile service through its network of 2,500 Softbank Mobile stores. Disney Mobile also will be available through major electronics retailers as well as its own Web site.
Disney said it plans to introduce three new models of phones a year. The first, made by Sharp Corp., includes digital-television-viewing capabilities as well as a chip that stores electronic money and lets owners use their phones like a debit card or train pass. Disney Mobile subscribers also will receive a Disney email address.
In keeping with its goal of appealing to young women, Disney said its first phone was designed to look sophisticated in three metallic colors -- pink, gold and silver -- with a subtle Disney theme. The cover of the phone includes a monogrammed pattern of Mickey Mouse's silhouette.
The company declined to comment on the price of the phone or the number of subscribers it is targeting in the first year. It said service price plans will be the same as those offered by Softbank Mobile to its subscribers.
