Press Release: KDDI To Offer Email Service Based On Google Email

KDDI To Offer Email Service Based On Google Email

TOKYO -- KDDI, Japan's No. 2 mobile operator, said Monday it will offer a new email service based on Google's Gmail.

KDDI is in the midst of a price war with companies like NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest carrier, that is cutting into earnings from voice services. The operators are increasingly looking to offer more data-based products to buoy profits.

For Google, the deal fits into its strategy of working with established domestic players to expand in Japan. Google is strong in search but lags behind Yahoo Japan Corp. in other areas such as email. Yahoo Japan is a unit of Softbank Corp., which runs the country's No. 3 mobile operator.

The email service, which will be free with registration from the end of September, will be branded by KDDI and work on the "auone.jp" domain via both mobile phones and PCs. It will use Google's backend technology to offer two gigabytes of mail storage with the PC-based search functionality found in Google's Gmail offering.

KDDI already offers Google searches from the main menu of its mobile phones.

"We will combine our mobile and PC offerings into one service," said KDDI Senior Vice President Makoto Takahashi, who spoke at a press conference in Tokyo. He said the offerings with Google were part of a larger strategy to create a unified portal for the company's PC-based Internet service provider business and mobile operations.

Google Japan President Norio Murakami said the tie-up would build on previous successes of joint-promoting its services.

"For other services, partnerships have been very important for our expansion in Japan."