Total Consumer Electronic Commerce Market in Japan Estimated at 336 Billion Yen, According to Joint Survey by ECOM and Accenture

e-Commerce Growing Faster Than Previous Surveys Estimated

TOKYO; January 19, 2000 -- The market for Business to Consumer (B to C) electronic commerce in Japan in 1999 was 248 billion yen, or roughly four times the 64.5 billion yen of 1998, according to a new survey from the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan and Accenture. In addition, if the newly added segment of real estate is included, the size of the electronic commerce market reaches 336 billion yen.

This figure is increasing faster than the predictions from a previous survey. The contributions of automobiles and real estate are the largest, accounting for roughly half the total, with PCs and related products next, the survey showed. Financial products evidenced the greatest rate of increase, with foods and services also increasing rapidly.

As for the next prediction for 2003, the survey team anticipates an even faster rate of eCommerce growth. It predicts more than 3.5 trillion yen, or a total of 4.4 trillion yen, when including real estate. In 2004, the scale of the market is expected to be 5.5 trillion yen without real estate and 6.7 trillion yen including real estate. Categories expected to significantly increase in market scale include automobiles, travel and real estate, each of which should top one trillion alone in 2004.

In addition, the survey team estimates that electronic commerce’s share of total household consumption will reach 2% by 2004, up from 0.1% in 1999.

From these results, the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan and Accenture marked 1999 as the year when Japan’s electronic commerce started accelerating for its full fledged takeoff, and will conduct various activities aimed at the expansion of electronic commerce, their clients’ advancement and the development of the industries in Japan.

The Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (“ECOM”, located at Aoumi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Chairman: Hiroshi Ikawa), which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and Accenture (located at Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan Representative: Masakatsu Mori), the world’s largest management and technology consulting company, cooperated in carrying out “A Survey of the Market Scale for Electronic Commerce for Consumers in Japan”. This is a continuation of a survey conducted jointly last year by MITI and Accenture titled “A Survey of the Market Scale for Electronic Commerce between Japan and the U.S.”, published in March 1999.

The survey was conducted from October 1999 to December 1999 by questionnaire and questioning, in regard to Business to Consumer (B to C) electronic commerce in Japan. The special characteristics of this survey are (1) the survey team limited its inquiries to the fast expanding (B to C) electronic commerce market and tested the predictions of the previous survey, and (2) the survey team revised the previous survey’s predictions based on the latest estimated values for the present day market scale and made predictions ahead to 2004. The Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (ECOM) was established in 1996 as a body under the jurisdiction of MITI. In order to aid the realization and promote electronic commerce, especially in the area of Business to Consumers, in Japan, it has, while facilitating international cooperation, built guidelines. It also conducts various research and studies for the porpoise of realizing EC business and establishing an ideal and safe environment in which all parties can participate.

Questions to be addressed to:

Accenture
Marketing and Communications
Tetsuya Asada
Tel: +81-3-5410-7447
Fax: +81-3-5410-7561
Emergency contact: 090-9306-5730
E-mail: tetsuya.asada@japan.accenture.com
Home page address: http//www.accenture.com

Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan
Deputy Secretary General
Yoshimitsu Hirai
Tel: +81-3-5531-0061
Fax: +81-3-5531-0068
E-mail:hirai@ecom.or.jp

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