There are a lot of mobile phone companies in Japan. For example, au, docomo and softbank. All of these companies have their own history and there are the people who established the companies. They overcame many difficulties to stand their companies
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au
docomo
softbank
1.au
Do you know the meaning of au? ZYXYZ, the company that developed the au brand, says that the two letters “au” are a simple way of expressing the realization of a world where encounters（会う） with various people and things are created through cell phones, and where all values come together through these encounters, starting with “meeting” and ending with “meeting”. On the other hand, according to au, it is composed of A (Access, Always, Amenity, etc.) and U (Unique, Universal, User, etc.). It also implies “access to u (you)”.
“au” as a brand first began in July 2000 as a mobile business brand integrating IDO and the eight DDI cellular group companies in Kansai, Kyushu, Chugoku, Tohoku, Hokkaido, Hokuriku, Shikoku, and Okinawa.
In October of the same year, DDI was merged with IDO and KDD to form KDDI, and the mobile communications business was launched in the Kanto and Nagoya regions, including the Tokyo metropolitan area. In November of the following year, seven cellular companies, excluding Okinawa, merged to form A.U. Inc. However, in December, it was announced that A.U. Inc. would become a wholly owned subsidiary of KDDI in March 2001, and in October 2001, KDDI Corporation merged with A.U. Inc. to set up a follow-up.
As for the Tucka companies, KDDI merged them into KDDI in October 2005 and terminated their services by March 2008, completing their integration into au services.
After that, in order to promote FMC, the portal site au one was launched in September 2007, and at the same time, the name of the Internet service provider business was changed from DION to au one net, the name of the fixed-line phone service was collectively changed to au Ouchi Denwa in August 2008, and the name of the optical fiber service was changed to au Hikari in January 2010.
In March 2012, as part of the 3M strategy, the au one brand was changed to the au brand, which has developed into a full-fledged integrated brand. For these reasons, it is not uncommon for the term to be used as a proper noun to refer to KDDI itself.
2.docomo
The name “docomo” is an acronym for “Do Communications over the Mobile network.”
The brand slogan since January 2015 has been “Someday, it will be natural.”
NTT DoCoMo’s origins date back to July 1, 1968, when Japanese Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation launched a mobile communication service called “pager”. In February 1990, after the privatization of Japanese Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, the Japanese government decided to separate the mobile communications business from Japanese Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, and NTT Mobile Communications Planning Corporation was established on August 14, 1991. In July 1993, the company was spun off to provide services under the NTT DOCOMO brand.
3.softbank
When we talk about “softbank”, we cannot avoid to talk about the person “Son Masayoshi”.
The history of Softbank began in 1981 when Masayoshi Son (25 years old at the time) founded Japan Softbank in Yombancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. In 1976, Masayoshi Son sold the rights to the portable translator to Sharp through Mr. Tadashi Sasaki for about 100 million yen, and through this event, Masayoshi Son had built a relationship of trust with Mr. Sasaki of Sharp. Mr. Sasaki also took a risk to support Masayoshi Son by privately guaranteeing a loan from Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank when Softbank was in its early stages.
In the early 1980s, personal computers were gradually becoming popular in Japan, and although software was produced by countless small and medium-sized companies, there were no software wholesalers in Japan. The software makers had trouble finding customers, and the distributors had trouble determining which were the leading software makers. This made it difficult for both manufacturers and distributors to expand software sales.
In 1981, Masayoshi Son formed an alliance with Ueshin Denki, a leading consumer electronics retailer, and obtained the exclusive right for Softbank to deliver PC software. The reason why Softbank, which had just been established, was able to tie up with Kamishin Denki was because Mr. Tadashi Sasaki of Sharp trusted Masayoshi Son, and Kamishin Denki understood this. In addition, Softbank signed an exclusive contract with Hudson, a software maker, and took control of two powerful software makers and powerful sales points. By 1986, Softbank had taken control of 7,000 retail merchants and secured the No. 1 share of the software wholesale market. Softbank also entered the PC software publishing business, nurturing it into a business that would support its wholesale business, and keeping its competitor ASCII in check.
As a result, throughout the 1980s Softbank achieved rapid growth as a software wholesaler, posting sales of 19 billion yen and profits of 1.3 billion yen in fiscal 1988, its seventh year of existence. In the early years of the company, Yasuhiko Omori, who was introduced by Tadashi Sasaki of Sharp Corporation, served as president and chairman of Softbank to support the management of the still young Masayoshi Son. However, Omori said, “President Son has some good ideas. He has seen my way of management, and I think he will be able to do well as he gains experience. I don’t think he needs me anymore.” He stepped down as chairman of Softbank in 1989.
In the latter half of the 1980s, the faces of the leading manufacturers in the software industry became fixed, and manufacturers began to prefer to deal directly with dealers. As a result, the future of the software wholesaling business on which Softbank was based became doubtful, and in the early 1990s, the profit margin of Softbank Japan declined. In 1990, Masayoshi Son announced that he was going to start a new company.
In 1990, Masayoshi Son set a goal of going public in two years and moved the head office to Tokyo Takanawa (NS Building), but the listing was postponed due to poor performance. Softbank’s management policy went astray as the company moved from Takanawa to Nihonbashi to save on rent. In 1996, “Software Japan,” the second largest software wholesaler, went bankrupt, and in 1997, “ASCII,” led by Kazuhiko Nishi, a rival of Masayoshi Son, went insolvent.
In response, Masayoshi Son focused not only on “software” but also on “networks” and started selling computer network equipment in 1991. This led to a turnaround in business performance, and in 1994, Softbank went public. In 1994, Softbank acquired the exhibition hall division of Ziff Davis in the U.S. for about 20 billion yen, gradually reducing the ratio of sales of shiftware wholesalers in Japan. Incidentally, Softbank paid Morgan Stanley 1 billion yen as an advisory fee for the acquisition.
The acquisition of Ziff Davis gave Masayoshi Son the chance to invest in the U.S. venture company Yahoo, and he accelerated his investment in Internet ventures. As a result, throughout the 1990s, Softbank transformed itself from a software company into an “investment company” that owned shares in various Internet companies.
There are many companies about mobile phone. When you want to choose one of the mobile phone, how about trying to know about the history of these companies?
[References]
https://www.irasutoya.com/2014/11/blog-post_362.html
https://hdhaouadi.blogspot.com/2020/01/200_46.html
https://sandrayoldi.blogspot.com/2020/02/blog-post_972.html
https://lagoadaptrata15.blogspot.com/2019/12/blog-post_272.html
