Digital River in an Ocean of Opportunity

After listening to Brent Mori, my long held belief of how different the japanese market was again reaffirmed. While there is an ocean of opportunity in japan, it seems getting to the sweet spot is like swimming in a pool of sharks. i think the bottomline is and will always be understanding how the japanese market works. and while a lot of literature of success and failure in japan have been chronicled, getting to that right spot remains a gargantuan task. for one, i think there are different behavioral dynamics on a per product basis.

i was also fascinated by how competition in the market works. i never would have thought that yamada denki or yodobashi camera can actually be competitors of DR (5 forces clealry in play here---very Porterish but its true). at the end of the day, we have to pay attention to these guys because we are after the same slice of the market.