DoCoMo

1. Is DoCoMo wise to offer its existing mobile phone rivals access to FeliCa?

As stated in the case, DoCoMo could capture all contactless IC market share if they chose to offer FeliCa as an exclusive feature on their phones. On the other hand, DoCoMo managers were wise to recognize that, with strong network effects, FeliCa applications and reader locations would and could become the accepted form of technology a lot faster and more efficiently if DoCoMo’s rivals also adopted the FeliCa technology. I agree with this argument. This type of technology costs merchants much too much to cater to only one vendor or carrier. DoCoMo executives did not seek exclusive rights for FeliCa and consequently both KDDI and Vodafone quickly announced plans to adopt embedded contactless ICs like FeliCa on their phones. It is important, however, to note that DoCoMo will profit from rivals adopting FeliCa technology since it is a major shareholder of FeliCa Networks and therefore ulterior motives may exist.