He will join Miyuki Suzuki, CEO of Jetstar Japan, and Peter Harbison, executive chairman, Centre for Aviation, in a session that will examine the impact of low cost airlines on travel patterns in Asia’s largest online travel market.

Also confirmed today is Takashi Yamaoka, Visiting Professor, NUCB, VP, Business Development & Marketing, H.I.S., one of Japan’s largest package tour operators with 274 branches in the country and 119 branches in 94 cities abroad. It also has a minority stake in Skymark Airlines.

He’ll be joining a panel that will look into how packaged tour operators are changing their business models to blend an offline/online play. Has Brick and Mortar morphed into Click and Mortar and how are these players leveraging their traditional assets while embracing the online world? Together with Tatsuji Hirokawa, Manager, Planning & Promotion, i.JTB Corp.and Yoshihiro Koizumi,Cruise ＆Leisure Sales Department, Deputy Directorate, PTS Corp, this panel will also touch on trends in Japanese outbound travel with a spotlight on the cruising sector.

Akira Morikawa

One session I am particularly looking forward to is my interview with Akira Morikawa, CEO of LINE Corporation, one of the leaders of the instant messaging app phenomenon that’s sweeping through Asia. LINE reached 50 million users faster than Facebook – it took Facebook more than 3 years (2004-2007) while LINE did it in just over a year and in January this year, it reached 100 million users.

Services like LINE – WeChat and Kakao – are being watched by telco bodies. Recently at a conference, China Mobile said that Tencent’s WeChat, with 300 millon users, was eating into its profits. According to Bloomberg data, revenue for text messaging for China Mobile, its most profitable business, fell 4.8 percent to 44.2 billion yuan ($7.2 billion) last year.

“With rapid development of the mobile Internet, we are now facing a big issue, which is the relationship between mobile Internet companies and the traditional wireless carriers,’’ said CEO Li Yue. ‘‘They should work together for mutual benefit.’’

It’ll be interesting to find out how LINE intends to convert “cute” into profitability, with most people reluctant to pay for messaging services.

Kakao, in which Tencent has ownership, has seen strong revenue streams from games and Tencent just this week announced it would be introducing games on WeChat. An analyst at Barclays Plc in Hong Kong wrote in a March 13 report that if WeChat provides games and related services, it could produce annual revenue of as much as 2.16 billion yuan.

Will these instant messaging apps translate well to global markets? Will “cute” work in the US as well as it does in markets in Asia?

LINE, owned by Korea’s NHN Corporation, which operates Naver, the leading search engine and Hangame, the leading gaming platform in Korea, has said it tends to expand to China and the US so expect things to get really interesting as it takes on WeChat and What’s App.

These apps are being watched closely because they could well emerge as the next channel for travel – which is precisely the question I will be asking Morikawa. What role will travel play in LINE’s game plan?

Meanwhile, the first  WIT Bootcamp & Start-Up Showcase in Japan will include a coaching session for the seven entrepreneurs who have submitted to take part in the Start-Up Pitch.

The seven start-ups will have the opportunity to learn first hand from our panel of judges and coaches before they make their pitches. Judges will then select up to four finalists to enter the final pitch on May 24 and these finalists will be coached by respective judges to prepare them for the presentations.

The winner wins US$1,000 prize, two air tickets from Japan to Singapore to attend the WIT Conference in Singapore, Oct 21-23.

Programme here

Book here