DoCoMo Buys Into Tower Records Japan To Push Mobile Money

from the does-it-help? dept

Mon, Nov 7th 2005 1:00am — Mike Masnick

We've noted recently that Korean telcos have been buying up entertainment firms to try to to jumpstart mobile entertainment offerings, so, you might think that Japan's NTT DoCoMo deciding to become the majority shareholder in Tower Records Japan would have the same reasoning. However, from the article, it sounds like the reasoning is quite different. DoCoMo is looking to use the purchase to get more people to use their mobile payment solution, FeliCa, that is built into many of the phones they offer. Still, this seems like an odd move. Picking out a single retailer might not do much to get other retailers interested, and, in fact, could scare some off from getting involved, since they may not like the idea of DoCoMo competing with them on the retail side. Then, of course, there's the other side of the equation where people may ask who actually buys CDs from a retail record shop any more?

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