infinita inc. News [English]

February, 16-18, 2009: Attending Mobile World Congress - Barcelona

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:24:22 +0900

Christopher and Kei will both be at the upcoming MWC in Barcelona from February 16 to the 18th.
As always, please let us know if you would like to meet up!
See you in Barcelona!

Wake Up World iPhone App released. New Social Video Alarm Clock!

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:09:46 +0900

Infinita has just released Wake Up World on the iTunes App Store. Wake Up World is the world’s first Social Video Alarm Clock for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

Set your alarm and wake up to a video sent to you by a friend, a loved one, or even a stranger. Even on the other side of the world, your friend or family member can send you the perfect morning wake up call.

With a Wake Up World account you can send and receive wake ups by choosing a video (or shooting your own!) and beaming it to your friend. The next time they wake up, it will be to the video you sent.

We will be adding some exciting updates in the near future, but for now check out the app at the iTunes App Store, or learn more at the Wake Up World web site.

December 7, 2009: Speaking at Heroes of The Mobile Screen - London

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:51:46 +0900

Kei has been invited to speak at the event, Heroes of The Mobile Screen, in London this coming Monday.
This will be the last major mobile event this year, with lots of great people speaking about mobile throughout the day.
Check out the list of speakers here.
If you’re in the area, I highly recommend you take a look at who’s around :-)
Look forwards to seeing you there!
and as always, please email me if you would like to meet up!
Kei

November 19, 2009: Speaking at IFRA Digital Media Asia, Singapore

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:39:24 +0900

Christopher will be giving an overview of current and potential future trends in mobile marketing and advertising in the Japanese market during Day 2 of the IFRA Digital Media Asia conference in Singapore Thursday, November 19, 2009.
The conference, which takes place from November 18 to 20 at the Raffles City Convention Center, also features one day each focusing on online media and the e-reading market in Asia, respectively.
Registration is here, and please do get in touch if you are attending (or in Singapore in general, for that matter) and would like to meet.

November 18, 2009: Speaking at Illinois Technology Association - Chicago

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:02:19 +0900

“How can we apply what already works in Japan in our mobile market?” — Christopher will share his views on this ever-popular question in a presentation to the llinois Technology Association’s Mobile Visionary Roundtable event in Chicago on November 18, 2009 at 8:30 am local time. Due to travel schedule constraints, the presentation will be delivered via a live, interactive videocast.
Some of the issues Christopher will touch upon include:
- Understand why 9 in 10 Japanese use the Mobile Internet
- See how mobile phones are being used as digital wallets, TVs, health monitoring devices - and how they can even help to keep your shoes dry
- Discover how operators, handset manufacturers and content providers cooperate to create value
- Learn how mobile advertising became a US$ 1 billion industry
- Find out which players are pushing the boundaries of the medium
- Understand what lessons all of this holds for other markets
You can find more details about the event here, if you are in the Chicago area and would like to participate in this (or future) Mobile Visionary Roundtable events, please contact the Chairs:
Tim Cascio +1 (773) 793-6209
Tim.Cascio@GSMarketingGroup.com
Raymond J. Reinhardt +1 (312) 924-1681
Raymond@Cuddlephish.com

October 21-22, 2009: Speaking at Mobile VAS - Singapore

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:51:48 +0900

Kei will be in Singapore the next few days to give a presentation at Mobile VAS 2009. His presentation will be focusing on the history and success of Japan’s mobile industry.
His appearances will be as follows:
Day 1: October 21, 2009
Time: 9:15 - 9:40
Presentation: Insights into the future: Examining Value Added Services from An Advanced Market and Understanding How and Why It Works
- How did the mobile industry in Japan get so big? The history and unique mechanism of the Japanese mobile industry
- The roles that Japanese Carriers, Content Providers, Technical Enablers and the Clients who utilize the Mobile Platform play to spawn innovation create new user
experiences and generate revenue and traffic.
- VAS examples from the Japanese Carriers, Content Providers, Technical Enablers and Clients
- Innovative services applicable in other markets
- Lessons Learned / Summary
Day 1: October 21, 2009
Time: 12:10 - 13:05
Break-out Group Discussion: The Road Ahead - Future of Mobile VAS in Asia; Opportunities and Challenges
Day 2: October 22, 2009
Time: 12:10 - 13:05
Panel: Mobile Social Networking - Creating a New Kind of Lifestyle for the Mobile Phone Users
- Understanding the market for Mobile Social Networking in Asia
- Presentation of innovative ideas and services available in the market
- Challenges we are looking at and solutions available for us to utilize
- The Future of Mobile Social Networking - What lies ahead the road of Mobile Social Networking
Moderator: Jaime Ocampo, APAC Head, Business Development-Mobile Friendster, Singapore
Panelists: Rohit Sawhney, General Manager, Virgin Mobile, India
John Martinez, Senior Manager, Marketing, Maxis, Malaysia
Will be running around a bit, but please get in touch with me if you want to meet up!

November 4, 2009: Speaking at Forum IAB 2009, Warsaw

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:04:07 +0900

Christopher will be in Warsaw to give a presentation at Forum IAB 2009, the biggest online marketing industry conference in Poland. He will be focusing on current trends and future developments in mobile marketing in Japan.
Fun fact in this context: 15% of *all* orders made at McDonald’s Japan involve customers redeeming mobile coupons, with a good number of the transactions being settled via NFC chips.
Other speakers at Forum IAB 2009 include:
Norm Johnston - Global Digital Leader, Mindshare Worldwide, UK
Claude Spasevski, Advertising Business Development Director, Orange, France
Dean Donaldson, Digital Experience Strategist, Eyeblaster, UK
Mariota Essery, Art Director, Tribal DDB Amsterdam, Netherlands
Matt Szymczyk, CEO, Zugara, USA
Looks like a very interesting event - can’t wait to go!
For any meetups on November 4 (unfortunately, I only have time to stay for a day), please get in touch via email.

October 16, 2009: Speaking at Mobile2.0 - San Francisco

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:50:02 +0900

Last minute post, Kei will be on a panel at Mobile 2.0 Developer Day in Mountain View.
Panel: The App Explosion - International Trends & Learnings
Moderator:
Harald Niedhardt, CMO, Smaato Inc.
Panelists:
Laura A. Diaz, Partner Relations Manager, Partner & Developer Programs, NAVTEQ
Kei Shimada, Founder & CEO, Infinita Inc.
Look forwards to seeing you there!

October 1 to 3, 2009: Kei will be in Hong Kong.

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:14:57 +0900

There are a bunch of places that I would love to visit, but there are only a handful that you can an year (unless you are super rich and have all the time you want,,, which unfortunately is not the case for me).
Well, one of those places is Hong Kong, since Christopher mentioned that he was just amazed with the city and people, not to mention the food, the glitz and all…
Short notice, but I will be flying in tomorrow for a stay till Saturday.
As always, give me a ping if you would like to meet up :-)
Kei

Kei quoted in 2 Articles

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:44:28 +0900

Days roll by pretty quickly these days, so I am doing a little catching up now…
Here are two links to articles that I was quoted in recently.
[Date] August 31, 2009
[Media] The Times
[Article] Japan prepares to challenge for global supremacy in mobile phones

[Date] September 15, 2009
[Media] Media of Hong Kong
[Article] Japanese mobile players unite to drive global expansion

Infinita supports Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:38:18 +0900

We are pleased to announce our participation in the Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards as a member of the jury - with the mission find the coolest ad-enabled mobile content on the planet. Please contact Harald Neidhardt at Smaato directly if you think you deserve the championship belt.
Full press release follows:
Smaato Mobile Advertising Award open for global entries
Awarding the innovation of mobile developers and publishers for the second year
Berlin, GERMANY / San Francisco, CA - September 09, 2009 - Smaato Inc., a leading mobile ad optimizer, announces the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award 2009. After the success of last year’s competition, Smaato is opening entries to find the coolest ad-enabled mobile content on the planet. This year, the competition will be broken into
three categories: iPhone, mobile website and applications and games running on all other platforms. Participation is for free! More information is provided at www.smaato.com/award.
Smaato will invite the winners of each category to participate at Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona, Spain in February 2010. The event is the world’s largest mobile conference and exhibition and gives the winning companies the chance to strut their stuff in front of the entire mobile community. If that wasn’t enough, Smaato will also make a number of introductions for winners to VC’s at partner level.
Additional prizes are: a booth at M-Days in Munich, Germany in January 2010, free tickets for Mobile World Congress, and many more.
“The Smaato Mobile Advertising Award 2008 was an instant success. With more than 100 entrants in its first year we could not ask for more positive feedback. We think this is a clear indicator that there is a lot of creativity and positive energy in the mobile ecosystem. The best is yet to come!” comments Harald Neidhardt, CMO & Co-Founder of Smaato the competition last year.
The Smaato Award 2009 features a world-class jury of leading influencers in the mobile community: Bambi Francisco (vator.tv), Bena Roberts (GoMoNews), Caroline Lewko (WIP), Giselle Tsirulnik (Mobile Marketer), James Cameron (Camerjam), Jim Cook (MobiAdNews), Kei Shimada (Infinita), Lubna Dajani (Mobile Monday, NYC), Mark Wächter (Mobile Monday, Germany & BVDW), Matthäus Krzykowski (Editor, VB), Matthew Snyder (IAB), Michelle Sklar (bnetTV), Peggy Anne Salz (MSearchGroove), Ragnar Kruse (Smaato Inc.), Rudy De Waele (dotOpen/mTrends), Tim Green (ME UK), Tomi Ahonen (Author), Trey Harvin (mobiThinking). The jury will look at: unique approach, traction in the market, idea, originality, company positioning and branding to name a few.
Deadline for submissions is October 9th, 2009. The winner will be announced at the Mobile 2.0 conference in San Francisco, October 15th, 2009.
Press contact Smaato Inc.
Harald Neidhardt
CMO & Co-Founder
harald@smaato.com
Smaato Inc.
3 Lagoon Drive, Suite 170
Redwood Shores, CA 94065
Phone (USA): +1 (650) 286 11 98
Phone (Europe) +49 (40) 35 71 83 88
www.smaato.com
twitter: @smaato_soma
About Smaato Inc.
Smaato is a pioneering mobile advertising company that operates the
leading mobile ad optimization platform called SOMA (Smaato Open
Mobile Advertising) and partners with mobile publishers, developers,
ad networks and operators.
SOMA’s unique feature is the aggregation of multiple leading ad
networks globally to maximize mobile advertising ARPU. SOMA can be
easily integrated with ad networks, ad inventory owners (publishers,
developers and operators) and 3rd party ad technology providers.
Smaato is an active member of the Mobile Marketing Association, the
dot.mobi Advisory Group and the German Digital Media Association BVDW.
Smaato received a Top 100 Private Company Award by AlwaysOn Media
(2009 & 2007) and was an Andrew Seybold Choice Awards finalist at CTIA
2008 for best Newcomer, among other awards.
Smaato Inc. is based in Redwood Shores, California. The privately held
company was founded in 2005 by an experienced International management
team. The European headquarters are in Hamburg, Germany.

Infinita.tv on YouTube and Facebook

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:25:09 +0900

In order to make Infinita.tv content more easily accessible, we’ve just launched a YouTube channel, and you can also connect with us on Facebook. Of course, the Infinita.tv website itself continues to be available as well.
In related news, check out this write-up of Infinita.tv on MobileCrunch!

September 3, 2009: Speaking at ad:tech - Tokyo 2009

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:49:23 +0900

Kei will be speaking at the first ad:tech conference in Tokyo scheduled to be held on September 2 and 3, 2009.
Panel: Effective Mobile Marketing Tools & Case Studies
Moderator:
Akihiko Tokuhisa, Director, CTO and Head of e-Business Group, D.A.Consortium
Panelists:
John Lagerling, Vice President and General Manager, Japan, admob Inc.
Alvin Foo, VP or Sales, China and SE Asia, Velti
Kei Shimada, Founder & CEO, Infinita Inc.
Time: 2:30pm - 3:25pm
Kei is planning to be there for the two days, so contact him if you want to chat over a latte!

Presentation from Mobile Copenhagen 2009

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:00:18 +0900

Returning to the topic of Denmark, here’s the presentation Christopher recently gave at the Mobile Copenhagen 2009 conference. Topics covered include all sorts of interesting data on what Japanese users buy via mobile, how they pay for it, and how much they spend, along with some cool service examples from the likes of Girlswalker, Otetsudai Networks and Louie Vuitton — check it out:

Future Insight: Mobile Commerce in Japan

View more presentations from Christopher Billich.

Much thanks to the conference organizer, Mr Kasper Haagensen at Mimer Group in Copenhagen!

Infinita Mobile Site is up! (at last) *with video preview

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:13:30 +0900

It’s been some time since we started talking about having our own mobile site.
Yes, we haven’t had one till today, even though we’re also a mobile development company… oops…
So here it is! We think its pretty sexy in Flash…

For those of you accessing from outside of Japan, and have one of those rare devices with a QR code reader, try this static HTML version out.

If not, you can always type in the URL which is:
http://www.infinita.co.jp/en/mobile/_index.html
*please note that this site may not show up properly on some devices outside Japan.
If you’re looking for a mobile developer in Japan, look no further because you have come to the right guys.
Feel free to give us a ping (or ring) for any inquiries!
Kei

June 3, 2009: Speaking at Mobile Marketing Forum - New York 2009

Wed, 20 May 2009 12:47:30 +0900

Kei will be speaking at the Mobile Marketing Forum event again, but this time in New York at the Grand Hyatt on June 3.
He will be joining a panel with other international experts and to be moderated by Mr. Harald Neidhardt, who is CMO & Co-Founder of Smaato Inc., to share some insights into what innovations are currently happening in hotspots across the globe.
Panel: International Innovation in Mobile. What are trends for the future?
Panelists:
Federico Pisani Massamormile: CEO, Hanzo
Andrew Scott: Rummble
Elif Tozge: Velti
Kei Shimada: Founder & CEO, Infinita
Time: 12:40pm - 1:10pm
The mobile advertising ecosystem is growing and evolving continuously, even in these days. But there are so many players in the ecosystem that the question is: Who are the innovation leaders and what is hot or not? Panel will be demonstrating together with international experts the innovation that is happening globally in mobile. The panel touches upon: mobile advertising, mobile social communities, mobile payments and location based services.
Kei will be there from Monday, leaving Saturday morning, so contact him if you want to chat over coffee!

Starring on prime time television - in Denmark!

Thu, 14 May 2009 16:12:20 +0900

Well, not exactly, but Chikara and Kei are now somewhat well known people in Denmark.
The Danish Broadcasting Corporation aired a program on “the way we communicate” on May 11, where we were both interviewed on how we utilize mobile as an important means of communicating. Here is the link.
**The Danish Broadcast Corporation is the biggest television provider in Denmark. The program is called Horisont (or Horizon), and is broadcasted every Monday night at 21.25 on the main channel.

April 28, 2009: Speaking at Mobile Marketing Forum - Singapore 2009

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:00:50 +0900

Late announcement!
Kei will be speaking at the Mobile Marketing Forum - Singapore 2009 event at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre next week on April 28.
He will be joining Mr. Harald Neidhardt, who is CMO & Co-Founder of Smaato Inc., to share some insights into mobile services that may seem futuristic, but already in commercial use in Japan.
Session: Best of the world and future gazing: Innovations, trends, services that makes you believe in the future …
Time: 9:35am - 10:05am
This session will demonstrate the innovation that is happening globally in mobile. Passionate entrepreneurs working tirelessly to push the boundaries of mobile devices and services as we know it. Insights into the latest innovations, trends around media, advertising m-commerce / payments and social communities in the future - and what is hot today.
Kei will be there from Monday, leaving Thursday morning, so contact him if you want to chat over coffee!

Mobile TV (but not the way you think): Infinita.TV

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:39:24 +0900

Wouldn’t it be great if you could check out what’s happening in the world’s most cutting edge mobile Internet market (hint: it’s an island where the average train delay is six seconds) without actually having to be there, read long, boring articles or pay through the nose for detailed information?
Well, it turns out we just made that possible - pop over to Infinita.TV and register to get your instant fix (it’s free and doesn’t even take a minute).
We are happy to announce the launch of Infinita.TV, a free, fun series of videos documenting the state of the mobile industry in Japan and providing glimpses of the fast-approaching future:
The most mind-bending mobile applications. Device technologies straight out of Star Trek. Deep insights into user behavior. Fresh market data. All filmed in HD video. For free, with no strings attached (you might want to buy us a drink sometime, though).
The first two episodes of Infinita.TV, available now, are part of an 8-chapter series focusing on the question
“How on Earth did the mobile Internet in Japan get so big?”
We will update the site with a new episode every two weeks (we might crank up the pace if you start kicking down our doors). Once we’re through with the first eight, we will start covering everything else, from
* the hottest innovations in mobile content, applications and marketing, to…
* what the latest handsets can do, to…
* the evolution of user behavior, to…
* operator strategy, and…
* interviews with key industry figures.
And because information is not a one-way street, if you let us know what topic you want us to cover next, we will do our best to give it to you.
All you need to do - and it might be a good idea to do that right now before you forget - is to point your browser to www.infinita.tv and register.
We are looking forward to seeing you on the other side of the screen.
Yours truly,
Everyone at Infinita Inc.
PS: The tagline for Infinita.TV is “Knowledge is Power” because we truly believe that no one working in the mobile space (or any related industry, which increasingly means: any industry) can afford to not know what’s what is happening in the most advanced mobile market in the world. Fortunately for you, you can now power up at the most affordable price ever: Zero, whatever your currency.

PPS: Needless to say, we swear on our ancestors’ graves to never share, sell or otherwise misuse your private data. We’re nice people.

June 15, 2009: Speaking at Mobile Copenhagen 2009

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:22:00 +0900

Looks a lot like it’s events announcement week here.
If you happen to be around Copenhagen, Denmark around mid-June, check out the Mobile Copenhagen 2009 conference, a one-day event focusing on Mobile Commerce and Mobile Advertising/Marketing put together expertly by the Mimer Group.
Christopher will be there to share some insights into the current state and future of mobile commerce in Japan, and distill best practice lessons relevant to other markets:
- A US$ 900 million market: Why 1 in 3 Japanese mobile Internet users use their mobile to shop, and how
- How operators, retailers and financial service providers work together to create a compelling mobile shopping experience
- Similarities and differences: Internet shopping vs. mobile commerce
- The present and the future: From mobile online shopping to contactless transactions
The program of the one-day event includes presentations from and sessions with Nokia Interactive Advertising, AdMob, Ericsson and others, which you can check out here.

May 29, 2009: Speaking at WAN congress in Barcelona

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:59:44 +0900

We are very happy and honored to have been invited to the 19th World Newspaper Advertising Conference. As the press release has it:
“Newspaper industry strategists looking to finally exploit the potential of mobile advertising inevitably have to go to Japan - or they talk to Christopher Billich, who has joined the programme of the World Newspaper Advertising Conference and Expo, to be held in Barcelona, Spain, on 28 and 29 May.”
In the presentation, I will shed some light on how the Japanese mobile industry works, examine successful business strategies in terms of mobile advertising, and provide perspective on what’s in it for print publishers.
The full conference program can be found here.

May 14, 2009: Chairing panel at Mobile Advertising 2009, Amsterdam

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:45:21 +0900

Christopher will be chairing a panel discussion at the IIR Mobile Advertising 2009 conference in Amsterdam that will try to come up with solutions on how to reduce device fragmentation, tidy up the value chain and create valid metrics. Luckily, he’s the one asking the questions. ;-)
Seriously though, here’s the deal:
Thursday, May 14, 2009
16.55-17.20
NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam
Topic: “What are the biggest challenges facing the mobile advertising industry in the next 12 months?”
During this discussion, panellists will examine the biggest challenges facing the mobile advertising industry including user engagement, measurement, planning methodologies and growing a nascent industry.
Panelists:
Nilam Grin, Mobile Advertising Project Manager, TELEFÓNICA GROUP
Alex Rahaman, Director of Mobile, UNANIMIS
Sven Huberts, International Account Director, MARVELLOUS MOBILE
With a heavyweight lineup of presenters and topics, the event promises to be an exciting three days. See you there!

February 23 to 28, 2009: Kei will be in San Francisco.

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:47:44 +0900

It’s been 4 years since I last traveled to my home country, the US, but will be back to speak at a seminar and meet with people to learn more about the mobile market there.
We have been getting many pings and inquiries from around the globe about trends and developments on the Japanese market, and my mission is to assess and see how Infinita can convey this information to people and companies to help them grow their existing revenue streams, make new ones or do something plainly cool from inspiration.
Due to the lack of English references (if any), Japan still remains pretty much unknown in terms of why the mobile market is so advanced and why it works, so please feel free to ping me for a meet up if you want to hear more.
You can also find an archive of our past reports here.
I would love to meet up with people who are interested in;
a) hearing / learning about best practices in Japan
b) finding what can possibly be applied to their local mobile markets
and finally
c) hearing about simply cool stuff that rocks.
You can contact me at our info address on our web site for a meet up, and I will get back to as soon as I can.
Look forwards to seeing you in San Francisco!!!
Kei

Infinita supports newly launched m.LOVE initiative

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:19:46 +0900

Former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt famously said, “if you’ve got visions, you should go see a doctor” - we kindly disagree.
We are happy to announce our participation in the m.LOVE initiative, a movement aiming to make the mobile world a better place by gathering people passionate about mobile, to share their ideas and visions about the future.
For further details, please see the full press release below, and get involved via the m.LOVE website, the Facebook group and YouTube.
PRESS RELEASE
m.LOVE seeks mobile passionistas for Future of Mobile
Mobile World Congress, Valentine’s Day, Barcelona - Spain: Today “m.LOVE” is launching a world wide search for passionate people for the future of mobile. As the world looks to Barcelona, Spain during the next week for news and trends during Mobile World Congress a small group of mobile enthusiasts is starting to talk about m.LOVE and how to make the mobile world a better place.
m.LOVE started grass roots from a small group of “mobile passionistas” and is planning a summer camp event to meet and elaborate on the future of mobile.
“We call out to passionate people worldwide - that are pushing the envelope of the mobile economy - to meet at m.LOVE and share ideas, visions and make new friends,” says Harald Neidhardt, initiator of m.LOVE and CMO at Smaato Inc. “We want to see how mobile advertising, mobile social communities and the society find solutions to be more engaging in the mobile media of the future.”
m.LOVE originated from a first brain storm weekend in the German Alps January 2009 where a group of passionate people started the m.LOVE idea. The group came from mobile operators, advertising agencies, service providers, game developers and mobile entrepreneurs from the USA, UK, France, Germany and Japan. Now the call goes out to passionate people globally to participate in the conversation.
“We are at the cusp of positive change and every single one of us can do their part. Mobile is the new medium of choice to foster global understanding and m.LOVE is a catalyst for this change to happen,” comments Jonathan MacDonald, a London based mobile futurist.
“m.LOVE was the most inspiring weekend ever”, adds Michael Schade, CEO of mobile game developer Fishlabs.
“Japan provides a glimpse of how mobile will be used in the future, and how this shapes society. By being a part of m.LOVE, we are aiming to help drive mobile innovation globally”, says Christopher Billich, SVP Research & Strategy at Tokyo-based Infinita, Inc.

About
m.LOVE is a movement that brings together people with a passion for mobile from around the world. With a focus on small format conferences, local meet-ups and by-annual gatherings - m.LOVE brings together mobile passionistas in an atmosphere of communication, learning and understanding. m.LOVE participants debates about the future of mobile and how little things can make the world a better place.
Founded in January 2009, m.LOVE was initiated by Harald Neidhardt, CMO & Co-Founder of Smaato Inc. Harald is driving forward the notion that passionate people thrive on inspiration and exchange of ideas in a free flow environment with peers.
Throughout 2009 and 2010, m.LOVE plans to organize several events to invite more people to join the conversation and present their vision for the future of mobile. The m.LOVE tour includes: London, New York, Singapore, Barcelona, San Francisco, Hamburg, Milan and Tokyo.
Contact
Email: press@mlovesociety.org
Twitter: @mlovesociety #mlove
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/bsyddz

Background

“Mobile Passionistas”

The term passionistas was coined for a market research study presented by Yahoo together with Mediavest for online behavior of “Passionistas: The New Empowered Consumers”:

Passionistas seek relevant and timely information, including ads that look and feel like content […] and customized suggestions […] according to the research.
They hold their brands to a high standard - and expect intelligent advertising, new approaches and authenticity. These consumers are more likely than average to remix content as a way to play with a brand, using online tools that make it increasingly easy for them to create movies, songs or slideshows to share with their friends.
“Being passionate today means digital content sharing and influencing others’ brand perceptions and purchase behaviors,” said Mark McLaughlin, Vice President of Audience Strategies at Yahoo!, “Marketers who build their campaigns from the start with the goal of tapping into passions are inviting consumers to get engaged and create an authentic dialogue.”
While this was published in 2007 for the online world, the m.LOVE group is convinced the digital passionistas of today are using mobile as their medium of choice when it comes to sharing and communicating with their friends and peers.

Mobile passionistas live around the world. She might be an avid “pro-sumer” that is talking back to her operator and is active within her local community to drive for better service. Or she is an entrepreneur starting or running a company that is pushing the envelope with a mobile application, service or social community site. And by all means there might be passionistas still in hiding in larger corporations such as mobile operators that use the larger set up to drive the agenda for mobile innovation from within.

The m.LOVE idea

m.LOVE held a first weekend workshop during January 2009 in a castle, high up in the German Alps. Invited by Harald Neidhardt (CMO & Co-Founder of Smaato, Inc.) an international group met and discussed the future of mobile with the notion: “What would you do to change the world if you had all power and resources at your command”.

While this was a very open start of discussion, the different work groups came almost to a similar conclusion: we as individuals and collectively in the mobile industry are shaping the future of communication and media - and we need to use it wisely.

Throughout the many travels to conferences as speaker or attendee, Harald met some great people in the mobile industry - from start-ups, operators, media or service companies. But like most of us, there are sometimes those special people that become almost friends right away, because you feel a connection.

For Harald, people with a passion for mobile and those who are in the drivers seat pushing the envelope are the most interesting to stay connected with. But, as everybody goes back to their busy lives, the idea was born to build a forum for some of those passionistas to meet and extend the time together and discuss about leading edge ideas and innovation.
The Context

Alvin Toffler, one of the most important futurologists of the 20th century, predicted a future in which technology changes faster than people are able adopt it. As a result people remain in a constant status of shock - a future shock - not capable to handle the enormous amount of change and information they will be confronted with.
Toffler’s imagination 40 years ago became part of our daily lives. Frequency and number of sources of information increase every day as well as the quantity of communication channels. Besides news supplied by traditional media like TV, newspapers and email, people provide their thoughts, ideas and impressions on blogs, twitter and to anyone they are connected with on social networks. Due to the fact that mobile internet has grown, all these stories, opinions and states of minds are accessible or even forwarded to your mobile where ever you are, every time - all the time. Evaluation of this increasing amount of information absorbs a major part of our attention. The volume of information transforms into noise and induces an information overload which handicaps any kind of decision-making or progress.

We, as communication enthusiasts, believe that it is our responsibility to reduce the noise surrounding us and create an environment for the richest and most valuable experience: social interaction. In order to achieve this target we need help - help to create noise cancelling devices, services, communities or plain “filters”. In quoting Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon: “The task is not to design information-distribution systems but intelligent information-filtering systems.”

We do think future begins when we start to imagine it; therefore M.LOVE is introducing a first theme:

L.E.A.R.N. - LIFE EXPERIENCE AND REDUCED NOISE. This may become a framework for filtering information based on emotions, explicit preferences, implicit activities and external factors in order to give us time for understanding and accessing truth. Join the discussion how to reduce noise.

In order to start to learn about the future we launched m.LOVE, an environment for authentic communication and trust, where communication technologies are discussed in a holistic and sustainable way - an environment where future begins.

Inspiration

m.LOVE is inspired by movements for the future of advertising like “Every Single One of Us” (Jonathan MacDonald), communication frame works like “love marks” from Saatchi & Saatchi as well as the early work of www.attentiontrust.org (Seth Goldstein) and authors Guy Kawasaki, Clay Shirky and Seth Godin - to name a few.

Infinita to present to World Association of Newspapers delegation

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:33:32 +0900

We are very much honored and pleased to have been chosen as the only company not directly related to newspaper publishing and/or advertising to give a presentation for delegates from around the World participating in the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) Asia 2009 Tour. The aim of the study tour is to help the delegation gain a thorough understanding of mobile and Internet innovations in Japan and Korea, and discuss application possibilities for print publishers in other markets, which we will gladly contribute our 20 yen to.
The fact that WAN picked these two countries as the destination for their tour once again demonstrates that when it comes to mobile innovation, Narita (along with Incheon) is the airport you want to get off the plane. Needless to say, if you had a Japanese phone, you could use it to board on the way back contactlessly, of course.

Back from Munich - Presentation from m-days Conference

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:50:38 +0900

A few days ago I returned from a whirlwind tour of German-speaking Europe, including a quick visit to the m-days conference in Munich. While there, I gave a presentation outlining why mobile web usage in Japan is so huge, featuring a few examples of all the great and sometimes crazy services and device features: from integrated couponing and payment via NFC to NIKE’s “Phone Call Olympics” campaign to waterproof phones and what people do with them.
I also threw in my current favorite mobile marketing campaign, AXE’s “Chocoman Hunter” - which is somewhat of a pyramid scheme-meets-QR codes scenario: users need to collect QR codes, which can be scanned off campaign collateral, as well as - the real kicker - from other users’ mobiles’ displays. So basically, the more people you can recruit to participate in the campaign, the better your chances of winning the grand prize get (which is 1% of AXE’s sales of its new “Chocolate” deodorant, during the quarter the campaign ran). Needless to say, the whole thing then turns fiercely competitive as anyone you recruit immediately becomes your enemy (you can check everyone’s progress online).
You can check the presentation out here (note: as usual, it would be even better if you could hear me talk):

Why People use the Mobile Web in Japan…and some Really Crazy Stuff

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: japan mobile)

Afterwards, I had the great pleasure of being on a panel with Stefanie Hoffmann of Berlin-based startup Aka-Aki (a mobile social networking play heavily featuring location/presence information) and Marc Ribot of mobile design agency ribot in the UK, who gave a killer presentation on mobile user experience design:

Mobile UX - the intricacies of designing for mobile devices

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: ui mobile)

Thanks again also to Harald Neidhardt from Smaato who put the whole session together!

New presentation on Mobile TV in Japan

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:20:55 +0900

We recently hosted a study group from a European think tank and research organization deeply involved in mobile, who came to Japan to take a close look at the current status and future potential for Mobile TV…unfortunately, I’m a little short on time and can’t comment in detail on the information provided in this presentation, but I think most of it speaks for itself anyway.

Mobile TV In Japan

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: mobiletv japan)

Please do get in touch with us anytime at billich [at] infinita.co.jp for inquiries on the mobile strategy workshops we conduct, if you’re looking for a speaker for your industry event or simply…because you’d like to know what we want for Christmas (we have a few ideas).

December 9&10, 2008: Speaking in San Francisco [Update: via video]

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:16:26 +0900

[Update Dec 4, 2008]: Unfortunately, I had to cancel this trip on short notice. However, I will deliver my presentation to the conference delegates via video, with a later call-in for Q&A.

I’ll [not be] be traveling to the West Coast to participate in the Mobile Media Investors Conference, put together expertly by The Strategy Institute, which has a great line-up of speakers from all corners of the Industry.

My own presentation will be focusing on mobagetown, the by now well-known Japanese mobile service that combines free mobile games with social networking - making lots of cash on a revenue model combining digital goods/avatars and mobile advertising.

The service reached 11.6 million users, generated 15.3 billion monthly page views (that’s 1,319 per user!) last month and raked in close to US$ 50 million in revenues last quarter, at a 47.4% total operating profit margin for parent company DeNA (which runs several other businesses as well).

December 9, 2008, 10:45 AM

Hotel Nikko, San Francisco

Japan Mobile Web Case Study: Why It Works and How to Implement It

The massive adoption of mobile internet usage in Japan has accelerated the popularity and growth of mobagetown - a mobile site offering gaming, social networking and more. Learn the inner workings of a site that touts [Note: should say “touted”, since this data refers to summer 2007] six million users just 18 months after its launch.

* Features available for consumers

* Demographics and usage patterns

* Integrated business model and revenue streams

I’ll be spending a few days in the US as part of that trip, if you would like to meet up, please ping me.

3 New Presentations up

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:14:25 +0900

I spent the better part of September on the road, (amongst other things) giving three presentations which I’ll post here.

The first one is from the Youth Marketing Forum 2008 in Singapore, which featured several interesting presentations that had little to do with mobile and online stuff (none of which I can find online, lamentably). My own focused on how youth brands in Japan utilize mobile marketing and advertising:

Harnessing Mobile Marketing To Connect With Today's Youth - How Youth Brands In Japan Do It Right

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: infinita japan)

After that, I spoke at Mobile Monday Germany (Duesseldorf chapter) about the Japanese approach to Mobile UI design and usability:

The Big Small Screen: Mobile UI in Japan

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: infinita design)

A couple days later, I played yet another home game (in fact, 500 meters from the home stadium of Fortuna Duesseldorf, which kicked ass for a brief period of time in the late Seventies, but is currently playing in the third (!) division) presenting at Online Marketing Duesseldorf, Germany’s biggest event for the industry:

Next Exit Tokyo: Mobile in Japan

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: advertising marketing)

Enjoy!

Development for iPhone 3G/iPod Touch

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:36:05 +0900

Infinita Inc. is pleased to announce that we have started development for the iPhone 3G. Needless to say, we’ll be catering to the iPod Touch as well.
Thanks to the global standard platform, we’ll be able to service any customer in any country where these devices are available.
Give us a ring! Or contact us via email at info@infinita.co.jp for further details.
The Infinita Team