A Web Maverick Sparks Revolution In Wiring Japan
Two years ago, Masayoshi Son stormed into the Tokyo office of Masaru Fujino, an official in Japan's telecommunications ministry, wielding a cheap cigarette lighter. "This is the end," the president of Softbank Corp. recalls shouting at the startled Mr. Fujino, who confirms the incident. "If you don't help me, I'm going to pour gasoline all over myself right here and set myself on fire with this $1 lighter."
Mr. Son didn't need to use his lighter that day. Mr. Fujino gave him what he wanted: assistance setting up a service that offered high-speed Internet access. But the mercurial Mr. Son, a key early backer of Yahoo Inc., went on to ignite a remarkable revolution in his country's long-sleepy telecommunications industry, propelling Japan past the U.S. to become one of the world's most advanced markets for Internet services.
Mr. Son's story shows how rapidly competition and deregulation can inflict massive change even within Japan's hidebound, often slow-moving economy. Four years ago, only a fifth of Japan's population of 127 million used the Internet, mostly through slow, expensive dial-up services. That figure has since doubled, and high-speed, or broadband, usage is soaring amid a price war that Mr. Son launched.
Japan had 11.8 million high-speed Internet subscribers as of August, up more than sevenfold from 1.6 million two years earlier. That gives it a broadband penetration rate of almost 10%, around U.S. levels. Japan, home to some of the world's priciest real estate, boasts some of the cheapest broadband rates anywhere, and some of the speediest connections. An album's worth of music might take five minutes to download on a good U.S. broadband connection. In Japan, some services could zap the same data over in 16 seconds -- and the monthly fee would still be half the U.S. rate.
The surge in high-speed connections means more than a faster way to download songs. Softbank and rivals are offering or preparing services that send movies and TV programs over their lines. Cheap Internet-based phone services are growing so fast that the government expects in four years 18% of the population will be calling over the Internet rather than through the phone system.
Japan's telecom ministry estimates broadband-related goods and services could be a $90 billion market by 2007. And the country could get a critical boost in technological innovation as well. That's especially important as Japanese electronics manufacturers come under increasing pressure from rivals in South Korea and Taiwan. Sony Corp. and Matsushita Industrial Electric Co. are already fielding new gadgets -- such as Matsushita's Internet-surfing plasma TV -- that work with online connections.
Japan's broadband revolution has been painful for Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., a former phone monopoly still 45% owned by the government. Mr. Son's broadband service and other challengers have grabbed more than 60% of the market for high-speed Internet access -- extraordinary for an industry long controlled by NTT. What's more, the shift to Internet-based phone services is pummeling NTT's bread-and-butter phone business. NTT East, the NTT unit that services eastern Japan, saw call volume drop 31% in the year ended March 31.
Onetime High-Flyer
Mr. Son's Softbank, a onetime highflying Internet investor badly hit when the dot-com boom turned bust, has yet to make a yen from its broadband service, known as Yahoo BB. (Softbank holds 4% of Yahoo Inc., and the two companies own most of Yahoo Japan Corp., a partner in Yahoo BB.) Indeed, Softbank has inflicted wrenching change on its industry without any promise of profit or even survival, much the way Napster did with the music business. The market leader with three million subscribers, Softbank is still losing money on its broadband business -- $264.5 million during the April-June quarter alone. Mr. Son says he plans to raise revenue while maintaining rock-bottom prices for Internet access by charging fees for new extra services, from video-on-demand to online gaming. But he's vague on when the business will actually turn a profit.
Still, even competitors acknowledge Softbank has been key in getting the broadband boom going. "Yahoo really pulled the market along," says Shuichi Deguchi, head of NTT's broadband promotion office.
Mr. Son, a 46-year-old University of California-educated Japanese of Korean descent, is no newcomer to the Internet. Back in 1996, when Softbank's main business was peddling software and computer magazines in Japan, he persuaded a small U.S. Web portal to let Softbank take a 37% stake. The value of that stake soared when the portal, Yahoo, went public, and Mr. Son started pouring money into other promising ventures. At its peak in early 2000, Softbank had a $184.09 billion market capitalization, and an investment empire that would soon include major stakes in a bank, the Nasdaq Japan stock exchange and a galaxy of 1,000 little start-ups. Mr. Son, who often waves his arms around when making a point, gave spirited presentations in which he described Softbank as a vast amoeba that would propagate legions of Internet ventures around the world.
But Japan, it turned out, wasn't ready to become a global Internet force. In the late 1990s, Japan was lagging far behind the U.S. in Internet usage, and dial-up connections were pricey. NTT, which had promised to offer broadband services through state-of-the-art optical-fiber lines strung to every home, still hadn't installed very much fiber. Japanese telecom regulators feared that the global Internet boom would leave the country behind. Worse, Japan wasn't even the most wired country in Asia. Neighboring South Korea, long a technological laggard, had just launched a push that was soon to give it the highest broadband penetration rate in the world.
So when a tiny start-up named Tokyo Metallic Communications Corp. visited the telecom ministry in early 1999 asking the government to pry open the market for broadband services, officials listened. Tokyo Metallic's request: that market giant NTT be forced to let the smaller rival use its copper-wire phone lines for broadband services using a technology called asymmetric digital subscriber line, or ADSL. Using ADSL, data could travel about 30 times as fast as it did through the speediest dial-up connections of the time.
In August 1999, the telecom ministry acted, ordering NTT to let rivals use its copper-wire network, as well as other facilities needed for ADSL. NTT dragged its feet. Just as the Baby Bells sometimes resisted helping broadband providers in the U.S., NTT was reluctant to give upstarts access to its facilities and lines. And it still hoped to push its own broadband through optical fiber. But in December of 2000, Japan's Fair Trade Commission reprimanded NTT, while the telecom ministry pushed it to slash the amount it was charging rivals to use its lines. NTT gave in, and soon afterward, Tokyo Metallic and a handful of other companies -- mostly startups -- launched commercial ADSL services.
By that point, things weren't going so well in Mr. Son's empire. The Internet bubble had burst, and Softbank's stock price had plummeted, along with the value of its investments. By December, Softbank's shares were trading at 2% of their peak value.
Inspired by the government's moves to open up the market for broadband, Mr. Son decided it was time to try something new, and ADSL was it. He plunged into studying the technology, then scrambled to put together a network to catch up with his rivals. To fill out the mounds of paperwork required for his new enterprise, he moved out of his spacious executive offices in eastern Tokyo into a cramped space next door, where he and a staff of 100 workers filled out application forms on rows of folding metal tables. Against the advice of friends, family and his own accounting department, Mr. Son started pouring money into the business, placing orders for equipment to service one million users before he had a single customer.
"It was Don Quixote," recalls Mr. Son. "If it had been a friend of mine telling me he was going to do this, I would have told him to drop it."
Soon, reality kicked in. Mr. Son needed to install ADSL equipment in NTT facilities, but the process of reserving space and arranging for installation could take months. If the company made a mistake in an application form, NTT would make it start all over again, letting rivals install their equipment ahead of Softbank, Mr. Son says.
Mr. Son used hardball tactics himself, and not just with NTT. Softbank applied for nearly all the space left at NTT's facilities, far more than it actually needed, leaving barely anything for the other ADSL companies. When competitors howled in protest, Softbank eventually gave back about half of the reserved space.
Mr. Son had another big problem besides finding space for his equipment: NTT had the optical-fiber lines he needed to connect that equipment together in a network. And when he tried to lease those lines from NTT, he says, the company told him all their lines were already in use.
That's when Mr. Son threatened self-immolation in the presence of a telecom official. The official, Mr. Fujino, said he called NTT on the spot and urged the company to check the status of its lines again. NTT found some to lease out.
The company says its friction with Softbank over line-leasing and space reservation was caused by poor communication. "We at NTT have our own ways of thinking and our own language; Mr. Son has his language," says Tadao Ooka, an NTT East vice president who dealt with Softbank at the time. "When those two meet head on, they don't always jibe."
By September 2001, Mr. Son finally had enough equipment installed to launch his ADSL service, almost a full year after many others, including NTT, had started theirs. He made up for lost time with price. At about $22 a month, Yahoo BB was charging less than half of what NTT charged. What's more, Mr. Son's service sent data at up to eight megabits per second -- fast enough to download a feature-length film in an hour, and faster than any rival services, or any ADSL service commonly available in the U.S., even now. Cutthroat pricing drove Softbank's broadband business deep into the red, but Mr. Son hoped it would also drive others out of the market, and that the slow-moving staff at NTT would take a long time to respond.
Yahoo BB's rivals fought back quickly. NTT East slashed the price of its existing ADSL service by 18% to around $45 per month and started up its own eight-megabit service a few months later. EAccess Ltd., which provides ADSL service for customers of Japan's second- and third-largest telephone companies, also started an eight-megabit service and lowered its price to about the same level as Yahoo BB's.
Modems in Paper Bags
So Mr. Son attacked on a new front: marketing. He paid thousands of saleswomen in striped miniskirts to hand out modems in paper bags on street corners, signing up customers for free trials lasting up to three months. NTT East battled back with its own free trials, and by handing out packs of tissues on the street advertising its service.
To fund his promotions, Mr. Son ransacked the rest of his business. In the year ended March 31, Softbank sold $2.08 billion in shareholdings -- about half of which was Yahoo stock. During the same period, Yahoo BB's subscriber base nearly quadrupled to 2.36 million, pushing broadband revenue up to $365.2 million from $82.2 million the year before, although Yahoo BB had still to turn a profit. During the three months ended Sept. 30, Softbank had a net loss of $316.8 million on sales of $947.6 million.
The battle turned uglier. In August 2002, Mr. Son rushed out a new ADSL service that could carry data at speeds of up to 12 megabits per second -- again, faster than any of his rivals' offerings. But a huge dispute arose over Softbank's technology, which some engineers suspected of interfering with other companies' ADSL transmissions. NTT said it would increase Softbank's line-access fees by 30 times if interference was proved.
Softbank's broadband unit sued an executive at eAccess who led an industry group formed to discuss the issue, accusing him of trying to derail its business. After a series of contentious meetings in which Mr. Son harangued group members, the chairman, an NTT employee, took ill and resigned. Last April, a compromise was reached. Softbank dropped its suit, and Yahoo BB's 12-megabit service continued as is.
Japan's broadband race shows no signs of slowing. In July, Softbank unveiled a 26-megabit service. On Oct. 1, eAccess announced it would start the world's first 40-megabit ADSL service, even as most U.S. ADSL providers are still struggling to offer 1.5 megabits per second. NTT East is expected to be close behind. Softbank won't say whether it will follow suit.
网络奇才引领日本宽带革命
两年前，孙正义(Masayoshi Son)手中挥舞著打火机闯进日本电信省官员Masaru Fujino的办公室。这位软库(Softbank Corp.)总裁回忆说，他当时冲著满脸惊愕的Fujino大声叫喊："让我们做个了断吧！你要是不帮我，我就立刻往身上浇满汽油，然后用这个1美元的打火机自焚给你看。"Fujino后来证实确有此事。
孙正义的打火机那天并没有派上用场，Fujino满足了他的要求：帮助他建立了提供高速互联网接入的服务。但谁能料到，孙正义后来居然在长期沉寂的日本电信市场引发了一场革命，使日本超过美国，成为世界最发达的互联网服务市场。他还是雅虎公司(Yahoo Inc.)创建早期最重要的支持者之一。
孙正义的成功充分说明了竞争和放松管制将带来多么巨大的变化，即便在日本经济停滞的状况下亦是如此。四年前，在1.27亿日本人口中，只有五分之一的人上网，而且大多使用速度很慢且价格较贵的拨号上网。后来，孙正义打响了一场宽带价格战，使日本上网的人数增加了一倍，宽带使用量激增。
截至今年8月，日本的宽带互联网用户已经达到1,180万人，较两年前的160万增长了6倍多。日本的宽带普及率已接近10%，和美国不相上下。现在，除了拥有一些世界上最昂贵的地产外，日本还拥有世界上最便宜的宽带服务及最快的上网速度。在美国，即便用当地最好的宽带，下载一张专辑那么多的歌曲也需要至少5分钟。而在日本，有些宽带服务只要16秒钟就可以完成整个下载过程，但费用却只有美国的一半。
高速网络接入服务的激增并不仅仅意味著能够以更快的速度下载歌曲。软库及其竞争对手正准备推出通过网络传输电影和电视节目的服务。另外，价格低廉的互联网电话服务也在日本迅速发展。政府预计，未来4年内，使用互联网电话的人将增至电话用户总数的18%。
日本电信省估计，到2007年，日本与宽带相关的产品及服务市场可能达到900亿美元，且技术创新也将取得长足发展。随著来自韩国和台湾竞争对手的压力与日俱增，技术创新对日本电子产品制造商来说至关重要。索尼公司(Sony Corp., 又名:新力公司)和松下电器产业公司(Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.)已经开始开发新的能接入互联网的电子设备，如松下电器发明的可以上网冲浪的等离子电视。
日本的宽带革命对日本电信电话(Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., 简称：NTT)造成巨大打击。NTT以前独霸日本电话市场，现在政府还持有该公司45%的股权。孙正义凭宽带服务和其他竞争对手能在高速网络接入市场夺走超过60%份额，不能不令人叹为观止。现在网络电话服务已经是大势所趋，这简直就是在砸NTT的饭碗。NTT负责日本东部业务的子公司NTT East的通话量在截至3月31日的一年中下降了31%。
短暂的辉煌
互联网泡沫破灭使软库受到沉重打击，该公司的宽带服务业务Yahoo BB直到现在连一块钱都没有赚到。（软库持有雅虎4%的股权，是雅虎日本(Yahoo Japan Corp.)两家最大的股东之一，还是Yahoo BB的合资方。）事实上，软库就好像是音乐行业中的Napster一样，它在掀起行业变革的同时自己却没有任何盈利，甚至能否生存下去都还是问题。坐在拥有300万用户的市场龙头老大的位置上，软库的宽带业务却还在亏损。单单4至6月一季，软库就亏了2.645亿美元。孙正义说，他计划在保持最低价格的宽带接入服务的同时，通过提供一些额外收费的新服务来增加收入，如随选视频服务和网络游戏等。但对于何时能够真正实现盈利，他仍然闪烁其辞。
但不管怎样，就连竞争对手也不得不承认软库对促进宽带繁荣所发挥的巨大作用，"是它拉动著这个市场的发展"，NTT宽带业务促销办公室负责人Shuichi Deguchi说。
今年46岁的孙正义是日籍韩裔人，毕业于美国加州大学，他对互联网可是个老手。早在1996年，当软库的主营业务还只是局限于在日本销售软件和电脑杂志的时候，他就说服美国一个小型门户网站－－也就是后来的雅虎－－让软库持有其37%的股权。雅虎上市之后，这部分股权的价值飙升，孙正义就开始将钱投向其他有前途的企业。在2000年初的鼎盛时期，软库的市值达1,840.9亿美元，其投资的王国很快扩大：持有一家银行的大部分股权、参股那斯达克日本(Nasdaq Japan)，并投资于1,000多家各种初始创业的小公司。孙正义曾在演说中挥动手臂，情绪激昂地将软库比作一个巨大的"变形虫"，在世界各地繁殖大批互联网企业。
但当时的情况证明，日本还不能成为推动全球互联网发展的重要力量。90年代末，日本在互联网使用领域远远落后于美国，拨号上网的价格很贵。NTT曾经承诺要让每个日本家庭都用上最先进的光纤宽带，但直到目前它铺设的光纤网络数量都非常有限。日本电信业监管部门担心，互联网在全球的蓬勃发展会将日本抛在后面。而且即便在亚洲，日本也不是网络覆盖范围最广的国家。技术一直比日本落后的韩国在推出刺激互联网发展的措施后，很快就成为全球宽带普及率最高的国家。
这就是为什么当一家规模很小的初创企业Tokyo Metallic Communications Corp在1999年初来到电信省，要求有关部门调研开放宽带服务时，电信省的官员能洗耳恭听的原因。Tokyo Metallic的要求是：市场老大NTT必须允许其他规模较小的竞争对手使用其电话线路，并通过采用一种非对称数字用户线(ADSL)技术提供宽带服务。这种技术的数据传输速度几乎是最快的拨号上网传输速度的30倍。
1999年8月，电信省颁布规定，要求NTT允许竞争对手使用其用铜线铺设的电话网络及其他ADSL技术所需的设备。但NTT并没有积极配合。就像小贝尔公司不愿帮助美国的宽带服务提供商一样，NTT也不愿意让这种新生的服务使用自己的设备和网络。它仍然希望通过铺设光纤网络推出自己的宽带服务。2000年12月，日本公平交易委员会(Fair Trade Commission)对NTT加以谴责，同时电信省也要求NTT降低向竞争对手收取的网络使用费。NTT不得不屈服，不久之后，Tokyo Metallic等一批公司正式推出了ADSL服务，它们中有很多都是初创公司。但孙正义当时的经营状况并不乐观。互联网泡沫已经破灭，软库的股价大幅下挫，公司的投资大幅缩水。12月份以前，软库的股票交易价格只有其历史最高点的2%。
在政府开放宽带市场的激励下，孙正义认为尝试新事物的时候到了，他决定下注ADSL。他潜心研究这项新技术，然后拼凑出一个网络，希望赶上竞争对手。为了准备开展新服务所需的大量文件，他从东京东部宽敞的办公室搬进了隔壁一个拥挤的小房间。在这里，他和100名工人在成排的折叠金属桌上填写了所有的申请文件。他不顾朋友、家人及手下会计部门的忠告，开始向宽带业务大量投资，定购各种设备。当他连一个真正意义上的商业客户都没有的时候，已经有100万用户在使用他的宽带服务了。
但他很快就不得不面对严峻的现实。孙正义需要在NTT的设备里安装ADSL设备，但这个过程可能长达数月。如果他们的申请表格中有任何错误，NTT就可能让他们全部重来，这样竞争对手就会比软库先进行设备安装。
孙正义不管对自己还是对NTT都采取同样的态度，只能成功不能失败。软库申请了几乎所有NTT的设备剩余空间，虽然这远远超出它真正的需要，但至少这样可以让其他ADSL竞争对手没有机会进入。这种做法激起了众怒，软库最终不得不让出大约一半的空间。
孙正义面对的另一个困难是：要想把他的设备连成网络，需要使用NTT的光纤网络。但当他向NTT提出网络租赁要求时，NTT却说没有富余的网络租给他用。
这时，他实在没有办法，只好跑到电信省去求助。Fujino说，他把NTT的人员叫到办公室来，要求他们重新检查光纤网络的占有状况。最后，NTT将部分网络租给了孙正义。
NTT说，他们与软库在网络租赁和空间储备方面的种种摩擦都因缺乏沟通而起。"我们有自己的思考方式和沟通语言，孙正义先生也有他自己的一套"，NTT East副总裁Tadao Ooka说。"当两种方式和语言正面交锋时，不可避免会有些冲突"。Tadao Ooka是当时NTT负责与软库打交道的人员。
到2001年9月份之前，孙正义终于拥有了足够的设备推出ADSL服务，这比包括NTT在内其他公司几乎晚了一年。他就用价格优势来弥补迟到的劣势。Yahoo BB的月费只有22美元，不到NTT月费的二分之一。孙正义提供的宽带服务可以以高达每秒8兆字节的速度传输数据，完全可以在1个小时之内下载一部90分钟的电影。这个速度比任何竞争对手都要快，甚至美国目前的ADSL服务都没有这么快。超低的价格使软库的宽带业务亏损累累，但孙正义希望这样做可以将其他经营者赶出市场。 Yahoo BB的竞争对手迅速开始反击。NTT East将其ADSL服务的价格下调了18%至大约每个月45美元，并且在几个月内将数据传输速度提高至每秒8兆字节。EAccess Ltd.也开始提供8兆速度宽带服务，并将价格保持在与Yahoo BB差不多的水平。后者主要为日本第二和第三大电话运营商的客户提供服务。
纸袋中的调制解调器
这样，孙正义不得不在新的战线上开始斗争，这条战线就是营销。他花钱招聘了数千名促销小姐，让她们身著条纹超短裙，在街角向行人分发装在纸袋中的调制解调器，使他们可以享受三个月的免费试用期。NTT East立刻予以还击，也搞免费试用的活动，同时还在街头分发纸巾为自己的服务做广告。
所有这些促销活动都需要资金，孙正义只得拼命从其他业务中挤资金。截至3月31日的财政年度，孙正义出售了价值20.8亿美元的持股，其中有二分之一都是雅虎股票。但与此同时，尽管Yahoo BB还未能实现盈利，可用户数量却增长了大约3倍，至236万人，收入也从前一年的8,220万美元增加至3.652亿美元。在截至9月30日的财政季度中，软库净亏损3.168亿美元，销售额为9.476亿美元。
然而，竞争只会越来越残酷。2002年8月，孙正义推出了新ADSL服务，可以使数据传输速度达到每秒12兆字节，再一次领先于所有其他竞争对手。但软库所使用的技术引发巨大争议，有技术工程师怀疑这项技术干扰了其他公司的ADSL数据传输。NTT表示，如果这种怀疑被查明属实，它会把向软库收取的网络使用费提高至原来的30倍。
eAccess的一位管理人士就此还组织业内人士成立了一个专门小组。软库的宽带子公司对此人提出诉讼，指控他企图破坏公司经营。双方后来举行了一系列气氛紧张的会议，总是争吵不休，孙正义在会上对小组的成员大声斥责，小组主席最终抱病辞职。这位主席是NTT的一位雇员。今年4月，双方达成妥协，软库撤销指控，而Yahoo BB可以继续提供每秒12兆字节的高速宽带服务。
日本的宽带事业现在还丝毫没有放慢脚步的迹象。2003年7月，软库推出了每秒26兆字节的新服务。10月1日，eAccess宣布将在世界上率先推出每秒40兆字节的ADSL服务。而美国大多数ADSL服务还停留在每秒1.5兆字节的水平。预计NTT East也会紧随其后。但软库这次却没有表态。
