[1] Phone novels started out primarily read and authored by young women on the subject of romantic fiction such as relationships, lovers, rape, love triangles, and pregnancy.
Japanese cell phone novels were also downloaded in short installments and run on handsets as Java-based mobile applications in three different formats: WMLD, JAVA and TXT.
His first cell phone novel was called Deep Love, the story of a teenager engaged in "subsidized dating" (enjo kōsai) in Tokyo and contracting AIDS.
It became so popular that it was published as an actual book, with 2.6 million copies sold in Japan, then spun off into a manga, a television series, and a film.
The cell phone novel became a hit mainly through word of mouth and gradually started to gain traction in Taiwan, China, and South Korea among young adults.
Although Japan was the original birthplace of the cell phone novel, the phenomenon soon moved to other parts of East Asia, and many of the online writers are university students.
These writers understand what narratives will attract young readers, incorporating emergent events or trendy elements from teen culture into their stories.