|
Business Landscape:
Net tough, but lucrative field for 26-year-old entrepreneur |
By Harumi Ozawa Susumu Fujita launched an Internet advertising agency, Cyber Agent, in 1998--one year after graduating from a university in Tokyo. The company will soon go public through the Mothers section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The exchange opened the Mothers section late last autumn to cater to start-up companies, many in the field of information technology and biotechnology. Fujita is proud that his young staff--the average age is 25. He works from 9 a.m. through 2 a.m. every day, including weekends. Indeed, Cyber Agent, which generated 560 million yen in sales from April to September, seems to exemplify the nation's most vigorous Internet companies. The 26-year-old Fujita spoke with The Daily Yomiuri about the Internet business, his view of entrepreneurship and his dreams. Daily Yomiuri: Cyber Agent introduced an advertising model based on the U.S. Internet advertising company ValueClick, Inc., in which charges are based on the number of visitors to an advertisement on the Internet, rather than space or time duration. How have you applied this model to the Japanese market? Two factors govern our situation. One is that we are actually able to meet our clients as Japan is not as vast as the United States. Thus, we can build stronger relationships with the clients. The other factor is that Japanese advertisers were not strong in the Internet field when we launched the company. This was an advantage for a sales company like ours because advertisers did not understand how to buy advertising in the industry and needed salespeople to explain the market to them. If I recall correctly, people began to make a fuss over the Internet in Japan only last spring. And it was just six months ago that Internet-related company stock started rising sharply. Until then, there had been skepticism in the market about the Internet's actual money-making potential. Do you expect Internet use to proliferate in Japan? Yes, I think people will start using the Internet as frequently as they do telephones and fax machines to the extent that it could change people's lifestyles or even their values. But most Japanese managers--apart from Masayoshi Son of Softbank Corp. and Yasumitsu Shigeta of Hikari Tsushin Inc.--appear timid, obviously out of fear of another bubble. They put one foot of their business in the Internet, but always keep the other foot out so they can pull out at any time. I think it is even riskier to engage in Internet business half-heartedly as business trends change so quickly. Business opportunities develop so fast that, unless you build a power base instantly or are on top in the field, it is very hard to survive. It is not a field where second- or third-ranking companies can survive by emulating the leading company to earn a sufficient market share. The major power tends to become more and more overwhelming, which is why it is dangerous to get involved without full commitment. The latest advertising trend appears to be to offer performance or results-guaranteed models. Doesn't that make it riskier for both advertisers and agents? I think the conventional concept of advertising should be reviewed when it comes to the Internet advertising business. Prior to the Internet, space was the yardstick. But this is not necessarily relevant to the cyber world--a big ad is not necessarily effective. Small ads can possibly create a much larger effect. For example, newspaper ads aim at results by giving a good impression. Internet ads can offer much more when the visitor clicks an ad banner. It is crucial to post ads on the sites frequently visited by prospective customers. For Cyber Agent, the goal is now to attract operators of the more popular sites as clients. Exactly. We have created the largest ad network of major Web sites in this business field. We have 12 million Web sites in the network, which is outstanding, but DoubleClick Inc., the largest provider of Internet advertising solutions in the United States, has a network of 1 billion Web sites, almost 100 times more than ours. Had you already decided to become an entrepreneur when you were a student? When I was a university student, I was working in a venture company run by young people on a part-time basis. I got a feeling for the reality of entrepreneurship. I do not think you can get that feeling in a big company, where the president, most likely an old man deeply ensconced in a high-backed chair, is worshiped like a god. The reason that not so many young people go out into the Japanese business scene is because they hardly have any experience of what business is really like. How will you manage your own company when it expands due to its success? I will just have to work much harder. The company provides our employees with an environment where they can devote themselves to building their own careers and at the same time it is prepared for restructuring without any hesitation if such circumstances arise. Therefore, employees do not have to work for a low salary or put up with jobs that they do not like. What is your goal now? My goal is to develop this company so that its value reaches 10 trillion yen in the next 10 years. This may sound money-obsessed, but I hope we can stimulate young businesspeople to achieve ambitious goals of their own. After the upcoming initial public offering, I am sure that we will be significantly closer to that dream. What area are you currently focusing on? E-commerce will definitely proliferate this year. We will be investing in the advertising business and e-commerce this year.
Cyber Agent, Ltd.
Susumu Fujita
|
