Naruto, Dragon Ball, Arrive on Mobile in Europe

Japanese firm Docomo has announced that its wholly-owned European subsidiary Docomo Netherlands B.V. will launch Europe's first susbcription-based mobile-phone service for downloading Japanese manga, beginning today in France.

The service, called Manga Mode, is expected to appeal to a wide range of manga fans.

Customers of French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom S.A. will be able to use the service to download French translations of famous manga into their mobile phones and view them panel by panel using a dedicated reader.

Manga titles to be provided by Japanese publisher Shuesha Inc. will include international hits such as Naruto, Dragon Ball and Death Note. Content will be distributed via Bitway Co., Ltd., a Japanese firm operating content-distribution servers.

A Manga Mode mobile website where customers can sign up for the service will be accessible from Bouygues Telecom's mobile web portal, with manga will be downloaded in sections in exchange for prepaid points. New customers who maintain their subscriptions beyond the first month will recover 30 points for free in the first month, and then purchase 30 points for three Euros in the second month and 35 points for three Euros in each month thereafter.

Docomo and its overseas subsidiaries say they will consider opportunities to expand the manga-downloading service into other countries.

Docomo's Dutch subsidiary, originally set up as Docomo i-mode Europe B.V. to promote the overseas expansion of the Japanese company's mobile Internet platform, was renamed Docomo Netherlands B.V. on 1st June, to reflect its involvement with a broadening scope of services.

NTT Docomo is the world's leading mobile operator and provider of advanced mobile services with over 54 million customers in Japan, including 48 million using i-mode, regarded as the world's most popular mobile e-mail/Internet platform which however hasn't really taken off outside the country (other than in Germany).

49 million also use Docomo's Foma, the world's original 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA.

As a leader in the development of cutting-edge mobile technologies, Docomo is continually expanding the role of mobile phones as versatile and highly personalized "lifestyle tools" for everyday life, including with a wide range of innovative services for mobile payments, GPS, mobile TV, multimedia content and much more.

• For more information, visit www.nttdocomo.com or www.docomo-nl.com