Once-mighty NTT tries to break out of rut with Japan's answer to Zoom

Aug 15, 2020 | News On Japan

Aug 15, 2020 (Nikkei) - Faced with the popularity of the Line chat app in home-bound Japan, Katsuhiko Kawazoe, head of research and development planning at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, has been asking himself: "Why could we not develop a service like this?"

NTT, once the most valuable company in the world just after its 1987 listing, no longer ranks among even the top 50. Group wireless carrier NTT Docomo, responsible for the first-ever mobile internet service, is stuck in a rut, and investors see little in the way of innovative new businesses on the horizon.

NTT President Jun Sawada hit on working from home during the coronavirus pandemic as a catalyst for change.

Because of the virus, "we're working quickly to introduce remote technology in settings where working from home is difficult," said Eiichi Sakamoto, NTT's head of general affairs.

NTT was once the most valuable company in the world. But its fortunes turned as it proved slow to innovate. Â© Reuters

In an earnings briefing Tuesday, Sawada unveiled seven new services aimed at companies grappling with the pandemic.

Perhaps the most symbolically significant is NeWork, an online workspace that lets co-workers chat with the click of a button and can also keep records and translate. The service could be considered NTT's version of Zoom, the videoconferencing software from Zoom Video Communications that has become ubiquitous amid the pandemic.

Sawada and Kawazoe began discussing NeWork in February and pushed group company NTT Communications to bring it to market quickly. With the help of Takuya Oikawa, an outside software developer and Google alum, the company put NeWork on track toward commercialization in just two months. The result of its efforts is a service that, while nowhere close to Line in terms of users, could compete with Zoom.

NeWork maintains its data on domestic servers because, Sawada said, "there will be growing demand from corporations that are strict on security" given the conflict over technology between the U.S. and China.

Meanwhile, NTT Com CHEO, a subsidiary of NTT Communications, has been drawing interest from businesses -- both inside and outside the group -- interested in setting up home-based call centers.

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