2016 Volume 34 Issue 2 Pages 85-97
Email and voice services provided by 3G/LTE mobile network operators are mutually utilized be-cause they are provided through the same equipment such as smart phones and email and voice serv-ices provided by fixed network operators are also mutually utilized because they are provided notthrough the equipment but through bundle services. It turns out that within OTT services which can beused only by installing applications in smart phones or PCs, free chat service is easily bridged fromemail or voice services. In addition, once applications are installed and the free chat service starts to beused, there can be a path for users from free chat to free voice service. Therefore if this trend contin-ues, each function such as free chat or free voice is expected to continue to be used interactively. Italso turns out that starting to use free chat and free voice services such as LINE or Skype is positivelycorrelated with the recent increase in subscription rate of the free chat service provided by LINE. Thisis the network effect which is based not on an application itself but on individual services provided bythe application. This enables us to grasp the OTT’s market power through providing its application it-self.
