Cell Phone Manga Market
According to this July 30th Nikkei Net Interactive article, “Digital Manga Help Cell Phones Find New Calling” (source sited 2008.8.13)
Impress R&D says the cell phone manga market stood at 22.9 billion yen in the business year through March, up 80% from a year earlier.
So who is buying all these comics? Women, says NTT Solmare Corp. President Hiroki Ohashi. And most of these women are in their teens and 20s, making up 60% of the audience. Accordingly, love stories have proved popular.
Cell phone manga also appeal to consumers who do not usually buy comic books but are looking for a handy way to pass time.
They have not been as successful with men in their 30s and 40s, the core comic book audience, as this demographic probably continues to buy the print editions out of habit.
I mention this because at work I have had some interesting talks with a software company that is helping make the comic reader software used by many of the cell phone companies. As cell phone companies in Japan look for new ways to generate revenue, this market will likely explode in the coming years perhaps not supplanting the huge traditional manga and animation industry in Japan, but almost certainly expanding it.