Tech – East West Markets

Asia America Crossovers

Mobile payment platform company Square, is now publicly available in Japan. The service enables firms to accept credit card payments from mobile devices for a transaction fee of 3.25% for each swipe. This news marks the company’s very first presence outside of North America and is indicative of a broadening of ties between Asia America.

Currently, the Japanese are very excited about the iPhone. Thus this new move from Square to set up shop in the region, renders a potential crossover market. It was the iPhone that first launched on iOS and thereafter, Android. Thus it has been suggested that Square’s new presence is somewhat “bold,” given that Japan already boasts quite a market for mobile payments, pioneered by KDDI and NTT docomo. In addition, PayPal already has a strong presence in Asia, partnering with Softbank in Japan. Nonetheless, Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey said, “I am honored to introduce Square to a country with a rich history of design, innovation and tradition. Square shares the same values and attention to detail in our products.”

It should also be noted that Square has not rushed expansion procedures. It partnered with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Corporation (SMCC), in Japan to help this transition but that’s it. While it will be opening in Japan, the company has no other immediate plans to launch its presence in other global corners for the immediate future.

Mobile Phone Popularity: East Versus West

At the end of 2012, it was discovered by the Pew Research Center that close to 90 percent of adults in America owned at least one mobile phone (45 percent of which were smartphones). A similar trend has occurred in the East, as in Japan, the figure for smartphone ownership is 25 percent and there are 30 million smartphone users in South Korea. The Forrester Report believes that the smartphone usage figure in the Asia this year, will develop by 20 percent, whereas America’s figure is set to be half of that for 10 percent.

In light of this, there has been some quite notable development in the mobile space in Asia which is impacting that of the West. This includes: Kakao Talk (an app that lets users text, phone and share media for free is now its own platform for third-party apps). Line (a messaging app that first came into the market following the Tōhoku earthquake; today its users can access third-party developers under a similar structure). The second app has already reached 50 million users in just over a year and the Kakao Games platform launch got a staggering $35.3 million with 82 million downloads in just one month.

IT in India Escalates

A recent economic forum held in India concluded that India should be looking towards the possible creation of local jobs outside of the confines of its country. It seems that vis-à-vis keeping jobs at home or away in Asia, there are various schools of thought currently abounding. HCL Technologies for example, believes jobs should be sent out of India, but other companies (like those in the auto and furniture industries), disagree.

At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, it was discovered that HCL Tech will be setting up 10,000 jobs within the next five years. But these won’t be in India; the jobs will be located in the West – throughout the United States and Europe. One expert at the Forum pointed out that since globally there are various different economic/business problems, India should look at this conference and see how it can help it out, not hinder it.

Recently, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, pointed out that companies should invest in Europe but to do so, jobs need to be created. Thus the HCL initiative will change the view that Indian companies are taking away jobs from people living in the West.

And of course we already know that trends within the Indian IT market are changing significantly, especially vis-à-vis pricing escalation. Thus India’s IT market needs to look at “new growth models” and other available options if it wants to keep up with global movement in the IT market.

Steve Jobs Mourned By Hollywood and Tech Industries

Hollywood and the tech industry are mourning the loss of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Mr. Jobs died at 56 from pancreatic cancer, having resigned from his position as CEO only months before. Throughout his life, Jobs challenged conventional computing and the digital world, creating original and unsurpassed devices like the iPod, iPad and iPhone.

Jobs bought George Lucas’s animation business and renamed it Pixar, creating some of the most-loved children’s films of the generation and pushing the limits of digital animation. Having befriended Michael Eisner’s successor Robert Iger, Jobs also brought movies and video clips to the iTunes interface.