I-Mode Use Doubles in Europe

There's two ways of looking at the announcement today that KPN Mobile now has 100,000 users of its i-mode service (see 100,000 Use Euro I-Mode).

The first is that KPN has only managed to increase the user base by 50,000 in the past two months -- reaching 23,000 in the Netherlands and 77,000 in Germany. At that rate of growth, it'll take 18 months to get to one million subscribers, which puts the operator a bit behind on its target of achieving that level of use during 2003 (see Euro I-Mode: So Far, So Good).

The other way of looking at these figures is to say that KPN doubled its i-mode subscriber base in the past two months. If it can continue this achievement, doubling its number of users every two months, it will get to the magic million mark by next February. Perhaps more encouraging is the number of content providers that have latched onto the service. While there are just 80 official sites for Dutch users and 100 for those in Germany, KPN estimates there are "more than 7,000 independent or open i-mode sites in both countries."

— Ray Le Maistre, European Editor, Unstrung
http://www.unstrung.com