The joint venture will be established in February 2000. The new company, 7dream.com, will be capitalized at 5 billion yen. Capital participation will be Seven-Eleven 51%, NEC 13%, NRI 13%, Sony 6.5%, Sony Marketing 6.5%, Mitsui & Co. 6%, JTB 2%, and KINOTROPE 2%.
To undertake full-scale development of the EC market, 7dream.com will offer progressive services by bringing on-line one of the largest Internet web sites in Japan in June 2000, to be followed by the placement of multimedia terminals in 7-Eleven stores starting in Autumn 2000. Moreover, the company will not limit itself to the Internet and multimedia terminals, but is aiming to provide new EC services by linking Seven-Eleven’s store network with other networks through such services as mobile phones and digital broadcasting, to market the merchandise and services currently offered at 7-Eleven stores.
The joint venture will start by offering services in eight content areas: travel; music; merchandise, gifts, mobile phones; tickets; books; car-related; and information. All services will be available in a never-before-offered convenient format that will also be fun for customers.
Based on cooperation among the shareholding companies of the joint venture, which are leading companies in the fields of retailing systems, information equipment and services, content, and Internet technology, 7dream.com will not only be aiming to fully develop electronic commerce in Japan but also to contribute to the establishment of the basic infrastructure for a digital information society.
The new company will be looking to strike up partnerships with a wide-range of content providers to develop new contents for its system or to create new business models by linking up operations or systems. At the same time, the company intends to contribute to the development of EC business in Japan by expanding the communal infrastructure for EC business.
Start up costs of the company (including outlays by Seven-Eleven Japan) are expected to be around 40 billion yen. The annual volume of EC business handled by the company is estimated to reach 150 billion yen in February 2002 and rise to 300 billion yen in February 2004.
