Hanging out in Japan
So I have arrived in Japan and a friend of mine here complained that I only blog about business. I guess that’s my life these days. A list of the things I would like to blog about if I wasn’t blogging about business:
1. Fighting: If I could start training again I would become a professional fighter
2. Traveling: The kind of travel you do when you are not waking up at 6AM for meetings
3. Women: Sure, I could blog about it now but it wouldn’t be very interesting 
But while we are on the topic of business, in Japan there is a convince store every 2000 feet. So if FON could sign a deal with a convince store we could have coverage throughout most major metropolitan cities in Japan. You might wonder, why would someone want to use WiFi in a convince store? I’ve thought of similar companies in America that we could partner and when I ran the idea friends they weren’t to excited about it. But the important thing to remember is that it is not about where people are using it, but how. It’s about ubiquity! Once you have ubiquity then NEW applications and services will become possible. Just imagine how would you use the internet if it were everywhere all the time? If you were a business, how would you take advantage of helping to provide internet everywhere for everyone?
December 29th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Usage grows based on availability. Remember when you first got broadband (for those folks who remember modems) and could all of a sudden download movie trailers in less than 3 days, or how the iTunes store has created a market for digital copies of music and television programs.
Convenience stores seem like a good starting point, but you’d have to convince someone of the long term potential. If you build it, they will come.
December 30th, 2005 at 5:57 am
CS guys are notorius for not wanting to do things, I have worked with them on some projects and you will be amazed by their ultra-conservative stance on business. Besides many of them are franchises owned by local store owners who sold their local grocery store to the francise and they have no clue on how to do things other than moving atoms. But you are right there is significant biz oppurtunities if you can get them on board.
December 30th, 2005 at 5:59 pm
Good point kentaro. Probably won’t be as easy as walking into one office in converting 20K stores. Good idea. Why don’t you try for us?
January 4th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
I just finished your book this morning and found it interesting. I have an interest in technology (power user at most) and martial arts so the book was a great read. If you’re in Osaka, the best martial arts to be found are in Suita City at the Dojo of Abe Seiseki Sensei. He does amazing and impossible things.
Another martial artist to look up is Ushiro Kenji Sensei. He teaches Shindo-ryu karate. At the age of 56 he is unstoppable. His techniques are soft yet highly effective. One particluar K-1 champion went to his dojo after winning and learned something quite amazing.
January 5th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
think laterally about it too … what about all the people who provide services to these convenience stores - the guys who run the cctv system, the guy who sets up the background music, the guy who maintains the tills. They could all be potential sales channels for us.
(I know the joke will come so I will say it now, in Ireland the natural partner would obviously be Guinness.)