On September 18, 2009 NTT Solmare Corporation and ZERO-SUM, LTD. will begin distributing mobile comics for Indian mobile phone service provider TATA TELESERVICES LIMITED (Mumbai, India) (*3), through ZERO-SUM's "coMix on-the-go" mobile comic service. NTT Solmare Corporation owns COMIC-i (*1) and Comic-C'moA (*2) -- Japan's top mobile comic sites, with its main office located in Osaka under President Hiroki Oohashi. ZERO-SUM, LTD. is a mobile phone software developer and provider of contents and services overseas, with its main office located in Kyoto under President Chikara Kikuchi. This is the first investment of Japanese comic contents by a genuine comic service in India's fast-growing mobile market.

*1: An official i-mode site presented by NTT DOCOMO.

*2: An official EZweb site by KDDI, and an official Yahoo! Mobile portal site by SOFTBANK MOBILE.

*3: As of late June 2009, this major Indian communications company has the 6th highest number of users in the country (37.1 million people).
URL: http://www.tataindicom.com/t-aboutus-ttsl-organization.aspx

1．Background and Objectives

In October 2009, India's major communications carrier VODAFONE ESSAR LIMITED (*4) began offering the service, and eventually other major carriers followed suit.

With a current population of 1.1 billion people (2nd largest in the world), and quickly-developing infrastructure, use of mobile phones is growing rapidly as an important means of communication. India's mobile market has been growing at a pace of 10 million new users per month for 10 months straight, with nearly 442 million users in total (as of late July 2009: TRAI) (*5) -- a testament to the blinding speed in which the market is growing there. The competition to attract new users is fierce, so each communications carrier in India is starting to pour investment into contents services to establish a distinct identity. The contents market had 7% (92.6 billion yen) of India's total mobile market by late 2007, and by mid-2010 it is projected to rise to 12% (*6). Distribution of mobile comics has received high marks from India's carriers as a next-generation contents service, something they had been eagerly awaiting.

With this environment in mind, we have decided to take our comic distribution success in Japan into the new Indian market together with ZERO-SUM.

4: As of late June 2009, this major Indian communications company has the 3rd highest number of users in the country (76.5 million people).

*5: A public regulatory authority for India's communications businesses.

*6: "Future of Mobile VAS in India," Stanford University and BDA, 2007, P23
URL: http://www.bdaconnect.com/WebUI/EventsInfo.aspx?id=200704260845264981&idIndex=82&child=1

2．Service Summary

Distribution of eComics will be offered through "TATA DOCOMO" -- a GSM network service presented by TATA TELESERVICES LIMITED.Contents will be offered at 40 to 50 yen per unit, starting out with 6 of NTT Solmare's original "Solaruru" titles, and eventually more.

3. Future Overseas Developments

NTT Solmare and ZERO-SUM have started a genuine comic distribution service in India to stimulate the Indian mobile market. While Japan's mobile comic market is expanding quickly, NTT Solmare plans to use its domestic success, ample contents, and distribution know-how to increase its presence overseas.