Japanese Women Key to New Free ISP Model

Shes.net is the Internet venture of a Japanese publishing company. With a free ISP, a portal, and other services, its goal is to enable Japanese women to access the Internet. It provides free access and advice in return for data on web behavior and purchasing.

by Kyoko Okushima
of Japan.internet.com

Shes.net is funded by a publishing company called ASCII. The idea of two people, Yoshihito Takata and Kaori Kiuchi, it was originally conceied as a portal for women. But in order to distinguish the sitefrom other women's portals, shes.net added an ISP (the portal was founded in September of 1999, and the ISP in November of 1999).

Targeted at homemakers and OL (Office Ladies — in Japan, many women are on a career track in which they are not promoted after the age of 25) between 25 and 35 years old, the shes.net web site provides useful information on "women's topics" such as bargain hunting. For example, a recent day had an article on how cookies can enable faster shopping on the Internet, a style article saying that gold is trendy this summer, and an article about dealing with warranties for products of bankrupt companies.

The idea
As is obvious from the sample articles above, the portal provides numerous co-branding and alliance opportunities. Furthermore, the company may believe that newbie users will be loyal (after all, if AOL can pretend to some of its customers that it is the web, then surely a free ISP can garner similar loyalty with a more honest approach). Most importantly, these users may not understand the privacy issues raised by the Internet.

This is not a traditional ad-supported free ISP. Instead, the company is a customer profile business. In exchange for information on their purchases and web use, women in Japan get to surf the 'net for free.

The founders admitted that there are many women's portals, and there are many ISPs. Mr. Takeda said that Japan may even see broadband wars soon, and he hears of new women's portals every day. However, the combination may create a valuable synergy. Ms. Kiuchi added, "that's the freedom of the Internet. We can have many sites for many interests, and people can choose."

It may be especially easy to make Japanese women loyal customers because they are relatively poor and know less about the Internet than those who are already there. Already, shes.net claims 33,000 members and the portal receives over 150,000 page views per day (every subscriber to the free ISP is also a "member" of the portal and shes.net does not distinguish between subscribers and members).

No nerds, please
In order to avoid "heavy users" and to support only "normal people," shes.net shuts down between 10 PM and 6AM every day. Mr. Takeda said, "housewives, for example, will not use the Internet late into the night." He said the company provides data on people living a normal lifestyle, so this policy helps ensure that users really are living a normal life.

Furthermore, in a nation with expensive metered local calls, shes.net feels it is serving beginners by terminating all connections every day. Many newbies use the Internet extensively in their first month, only to have to deal with an unpleasant surprise at the end of the month: a phone bill that costs hundreds of dollars.

Related articles
To read, in Japanese, the article of which this is a synopsis, click here.

"Restricted 'Unlimited' Call Plan from NTT"

"Internet Use by Women Up in Japan" from February, 1999.

"Japanese Internet Use Statistics" from February, 2000