Walt Disney on i-mode

First of all, compliments to your fine magazine, which I personally read every month and find very informative. In your November issue's article "Supplying New Ideas: Wireless Lights Up," you mention that Walt Disney Internet Group launched services for i-mode from August. Your comment on this launch is that it may be "late" as the service "comes two years after i-mode first talked to Disney." Let me make a brief comment on your impression.

We at Walt Disney Internet Group believe that our timing to enter the wireless-Internet space in Japan with our "Disney-i" service is appropriate as follows:

We are among the first US-based corporations to have a service on i-mode. Our traditional international competitors do not yet exist in the space.
We have an extremely strong brand and characters that Japanese consumers know and love. As such, we can afford to wait and launch the business at an appropriate time when the wireless-Internet market reaches a certain level of business maturity.
Protection of our assets and how they get presented is of utmost importance to our company. At the time we launched our i-mode service, the available technology allowed us to present our assets in high-quality fashion; i.e. color and harmonized sound. We are also very much looking forward to further advances such as Java and 3G.
Finally, let me assure you that our wireless-Internet service on i-mode, Disney-i, is doing very well and among the fastest growing services in terms of consumer subscriptions on the entire i-mode platform.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that it is never too late to get in on a good thing if you have a great brand and superior products.

Best wishes for your magazine's continued success.

Birathon "B" Kasemsri
Vice President & General Manager
Walt Disney Internet Group (Japan)