NTT Docomo language being adopted around the world was first created by NTT DoCoMo. The first emoji was created in 1998 or 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita, who was part of the team working on NTT DoCoMo's i-mode mobile Internet platform. The first set of 176 12×12 pixel emoji was created as part of i-mode's messaging features to help facilitate electronic communication, and to serve as a distinguishing feature from other services. NTT Docomo has a wide range of foreign investments. However, NTT Docomo was not successful in investing in foreign carriers. Docomo had invested very large multibillion-dollar amounts in KPN, KT Freetel,
Japanese mobile phone culture to or limited to Japan, lead to the term "Galápagos syndrome", as these resulting phones were dominant in the island nation of Japan, but unsuccessful abroad. This has since led to the term to refer to Japanese feature phones, by contrast with newer smart phones. , the Japanese mobile phone market is broadly divided into a high-end, consisting of smart phones (, abbreviated as or ), mid-range, consisting of feature phones ("garakei"), and a low-end, consisting of Personal Handy-phone System (PHS, or , from ). There is some overlap of market segments between low-end smart phones and high-end feature phones,