Factors behind the Popularity of Novels Available on Mobile-Phone Portals
May 2007
Subscriptions to mobile phones, or keitais, have topped 100 million. With keitai spreading rapidly among young Japanese, especially women, in their teens and 20s, “keitai novels” are enjoying a burst of popularity. Those online novels posted by “authors” are accessible from mobile phones, which allow “readers” to enjoy them anytime they like on their handsets and to interact with the authors by posting comments in message boards. Reputation quickly spreads by word of mouth to spawn hit novels that attract more than 10,000 readers a day, sometimes leading to publications by publishers as printed books, many of which become bestsellers, selling over 100 thousands or even over 1 million copies. “Keitai novels” have brought a revolutionary change to the ailing publishing industry by stimulating demand from people in their teens and 20s, who had become less and less enthusiastic about reading.
There are several factors behind this boom; the launch of i-mode services, BOOK function that allow users to type in no less than 500,000 characters on mobile sites, and development of infrastructure such as mobile terminals capable of fast communication and flat-rate packet services. In addition to this, more sophisticated kanji translation systems and reading capabilities on the handsets prompted ordinary young people, generally not so fond of reading and writing, to post romantic fictions based on their own experiences in a casual style just like texting friends or chatting online. Those stories resonated with junior high and high school students who also did not like reading books but were accustomed to communicating via mobile phones, and they start creating online communities.
The author examines the current situation where people have begun using mobile phones as a “medium of expression” that transmit content created by users to the general public, by delving into factors behind the popularity of “keitai novels” through interviews with producers of “keitai novel” websites and publishing firms as well as authors.