Major mobile phone companies are increasingly competing to lock themselves into a "point economic zone" that encourages the use of their various services through point rewards. SoftBank has announced a new mobile phone rate plan linked to its smartphone payment service.
SoftBank will add a new mobile phone rate plan on March 3 and introduce a mechanism to increase the point redemption rate when subscribers use PayPay, the Group's smartphone payment service, at eligible stores such as convenience stores.
The maximum increase in point redemption is 5% depending on the size of the data capacity, and the aim is to encourage the Group's smartphone payment users to subscribe to their own mobile phones.
Senior Managing Executive Officer Hiroyuki Terao said at a press conference held on March 27, "It is very important to be able to use points as a key to guide the Group's other services, and we would like to strengthen initiatives in the economic zone."
Major mobile phone companies such as NTT Docomo, KDDI, and Rakuten Mobile are strengthening their services, such as increasing the point redemption rate by using the Group's credit cards, and competition to lock in the "point economic zone" that encourages the use of various of its own services is intensifying.