$5,000? SURE, PUT IT ON MY CELL PHONE

摘要

In the beginning, the cell phone was a phone—handy for making calls but little else. Then manufacturers added cameras, e-mail, and even television to their phones, making the gadgets an essential part of daily routines. Now, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. wants to entrench the once-humble cell phone even deeper into consumer lifestyles by turning it into an electronic wallet. To boost its effort to make mobiles the new way to pay, DoCoMo is taking a 34% stake in Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.'s credit-card business. In late April, DoCoMo said it would pay $935 million for the stake in Japan's second-largest credit-card issuer. The company has also held talks with Japan's No. 1 issuer, JCB International Co., about a tie-up. DoCoMo aims "to move into areas where we are not so dependent on communication usage," said Masao Nakamura, DoCoMo's chief executive, on announcing the Sumitomo deal. "The credit-card business will be a turning point."