Mobile Optimization Drives Visitors to ATO Japan’s Website

The Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) in Japan recently released a smart phone optimized version of their business website, us-ato.jp, in conjunction with their “Taste of America” campaign.

The optimization was done in response to the increased use of smart technology by professionals worldwide to conduct business – especially those in Japan, said Tommy Aoki, a senior marketing specialist at ATO Japan.

“The country has always been well ahead of the U.S. with mobile phone technology, but smart phone adoption has lagged,” he said. “Now with the growth of the iPhone and the introduction of Android-based devices, smart phone users are increasing in Japan, especially in the business sector.” 

ATO Japan promoted the newly optimized website during its Taste of America event in October by passing out business cards printed with a special bar code called a QR code. Participants could scan the QR codes with their smart phones to immediately access us-ato.jp to get more information about the event.

By the end of October, the website logged more than 24,000 visits, which was the highest number of site visits in a single month since its launch. The increase of web traffic was due, in part, to an additional 1,000 hits from mobile users and from continued interest generated by the promotional event, Aoki said. The number of visits from smart phone and tablet users doubled in November.

This optimization enhances ATO Japan’s ability to help U.S. agricultural exporters enter the Japanese market and to promote the soaring brand of American agriculture – U.S. agricultural exports have grown more than 50 percent over the past four years.