Masataka Matsumoto

Former CEO of PIM Co. In 2000, he joined Yahoo! Japan via a merger. He joined the mobile division after several management positions. He is now a general manager of front-end development and R&D. He believed that mobile phones rather than PCs would be the future of web interaction in Japan even before becoming a manager of Yahoo’s mobile division. He has been developing services and applications for mobile devices since 2000. At Yahoo, he coordinates mobile strategies covering PC and mobiles including cellphones and smartphones.

Session: Yahoo! Japan’s Strategic Approach to Smartphones

Yahoo! Japan has been actively developing services for smartphones since the introduction of iPhone in July 2008. Starting with optimized version of the homepage, now 80% of Yahoo's services work in smartphones. 2.5 million unique users currently access Yahoo! Japan via smartphones, with a total of 300 million page views per month. As the popularity of the iPhone continues to grow in Japan, more people are starting to use the iPhone and other smartphones. It is certain that Yahoo! Japan can not ignore smartphones as part of our mobile strategy. In this session, we will discuss Yahoo’s recent efforts on smartphone optimization, and the future of the mobile market in Japan.