McDonalds joint venture puts burger purchases on mobiles

McDonald’s and mobile operator NTT DoCoMo in Japan have formed a joint venture company to allow burger customers to buy their Big Macs using their mobile.

The system the two companies are developing will also allow mobile transactions to be collected and analysed using DoCoMo’s Osaifu-Keitai e-wallet services.

The deal covers the establishment of a joint venture company to plan and manage e-marketing promotions to McDonald’s newly planned membership club, and the introduction of DoCoMo's iD platform for mobile phone credit cards and ToruCa information capture service at McDonald’s stores.

McDonald’s plans to establish the membership club by October 2007 to offer enhanced membership services and to strengthen customer loyalty. Members of a current membership club will be invited to join the new club.

Mobile services for iD credit-card payments and ToruCa information capture will be introduced in McDonald's stores throughout Japan from this October.

The joint venture company aims to quickly launch services by integrating the firms’ massive customer bases, comprised of McDonald’s 1.4 billion annual customers and DoCoMo's 52 million mobile phone subscribers.

McDonald’s will have a 70% stake in the joint venture and DoCoMo will have the remaining 30%.

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