Looking East to Predict the Next Billion-Dollar Mobile Company
As a U.S.-based VC working for SoftBank, one of Japan’s leading Internet companies, I’ve recently been noticing the recurrence of mobile trends moving from East to West. A few years ago, it was the concept of mobile gaming that exploded in Japan and trickled westward to the U.S. Now, there is a clear rise in mobile social networks in the United States, stemming from ideas that first sprouted from the mobile social companies of the East.
Instagram’s billion-dollar sale astounded many in the U.S., but the fact of the matter is that Japan has already seen multiple billion-dollar companies emerge from the mobile sector, including Gree and Dena. Japan is an obvious leader in the mobile market, with 75 percent of its population consuming mobile media, and networks approaching speeds of 110mbps.
Japan has set numerous precedents in the mobile market, consistently staying ahead of the curve and leading many American companies to look to Eastern trends to see what users want, especially when it comes to social gaming and mobile social networks. The next U.S.-based billion-dollar mobile company will be one that can build on a successful Eastern concept by putting a Western spin on it.
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