DoCoMo in apps deal with Hutchison, Line

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest wireless network operator, is bringing its popular software applications to Hong Kong under a deal with Three Hong Kong and social-messaging provider Line.

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Katsuyuki Takagi of NTT DoCoMo (right), with Kang Hyun-bin of Line and Amy Lung of Hutchison Telecommunications at yesterday's launch of their collaboration in Causeway Bay. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 12:00am, 27 Sep 2013Updated: 2:31am, 27 Sep 2013

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest wireless network operator, is bringing its popular software applications to Hong Kong under a deal with Three Hong Kong and social-messaging provider Line.

Three, the mobile network arm of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong, yesterday introduced that exclusive collaboration, which includes access to Line's instant-messaging function for as little as HK$18 a month and DoCoMo's Menu Translator.

The smartphone app instantly translates restaurant menus in Japanese, Korean and English into Chinese.

Katsuyuki Takagi, the executive director for strategic alliance at DoCoMo's global business division, said Hong Kong was the first market outside Japan to launch one of the operator's most popular apps.

"Hutchison Telecom has a good appetite and strong interest in the Japanese market [services]," Takagi said.

DoCoMo plans to offer its packaged services to other carrier-members of the Conexus Mobile Alliance, which includes StarHub in Singapore, FarEastTone Telecommunications in Taiwan and KT in South Korea.