A few months after in May, GREE’s first game, Tsuri-Suta (Fishing Star), was launched. The idea of selling virtual goods via mobile games was inspired by PC games that were already employing the same business model in Japan, Tanaka explained.
Games and virtual goods turned out to be a gold mine business model for GREE. For fiscal year 2011, paid services (virtual goods and social games) reached US$700 million in total sales.
IPO and overseas expansion
In December of 2008, GREE was listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange’s ‘Market of the High Growth and Emerging stocks.’ In April of 2009, GREE hit 10 million users, and that figure doubled to 20 million just 14 months later, in June 2010.
In the same year, GREE moved to the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Business was great but still very much limited to within Japan’s borders. To bring GREE to greater heights, Tanaka knew that he had to expand his business abroad. And the two largest markets in the world, China and U.S, are certainly part of his plans.
In January 2011, GREE partnered with China’s Tencent to create a common API. Japanese developers on GREE who wish to target the Chinese gamers can now port their games over to Tencent’s platform with some localization support. It’s the same for Chinese developers who wish to build games for the Japanese market. So far, Tanaka says that two games were ported from GREE to Tencent and one game has gone the other way, onto GREE.
" We treasure our partnership with Tencent, but at the same time, we are also working with independent game developers in China… For China, it is important for GREE to tap into that market."
![[削除済みユーザ]](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/695023b4efd563721d13716b1457bc73.png?d=identicon&mode=crop&r=PG&s=42)
我々はテンセントとの関係を大事にしているが、それと同時に中国のフリーのゲーム開発者とも仕事をしている。中国にとって、グリーが市場に進出することは重要なのである。
「Tencentととの提携は大切にしたいが同時に、中国の独立系ゲームデベロッパーとも共同開発を進めたい。それは中国にとって、GREEがこの市場に進出するのは大切なことなのです。」
But the deal that really thrust GREE onto the international stage was its $100 million acquisition of OpenFeint in April of 2011, which highlights the company’s intention to impact the U.S market. GREE is also constantly seeking out other businesses in the U.S with which to establish meaningful relationships. Could that be Facebook or Zynga? Tanaka explains:
"We don’t have any plans to publish our games on Facebook. However, we’re searching for possible partnerships with Facebook… Not only Facebook but different companies around the world."
To date, GREE has overseas offices in China, Singapore, South Korea, the UK, Brazil, Netherlands, Dubai, and in San Francisco in the States.
「当社ではFacebook上でゲームを配信する計画はありません。しかし、Facebookとの提携の可能性は検討しています。Facebookだけでなく世界中の様々な企業も同じなのです。」
これまでにGREEは、海外オフィスを中国、シンガポール、韓国、英国、ブラジル、オランダ、ドバイそれにアメリカのサンフランシスコに展開している。
「私たち Facebook ゲームを公開する計画を持っていません。しかし、我々 は Facebook… との可能なパートナーシップを探しています。Facebook だけでなく、世界中の異なる企業。」
日付するには、海外事務所中国、シンガポール、韓国、イギリス、ブラジル、オランダ、ドバイ、およびサンフランシスコのアメリカで GREE をしています。
The GREE global gaming platform
GREE’s global gaming platform is coming soon, sometime between April and June of this year. It promises to be a one-stop shop for the world to enjoy games on GREE. It will first be launched in English and Japanese, and 14 other languages will follow suit.
" As you know, we have two platforms, the GREE and OpenFeint platform. So we will bring these platforms together, and it will be called the GREE platform. The brand will be only GREE after the global platform launch. All the good features on Openfient and GREE will be included onto one single platform."
GREEの世界共通ゲームプラットフォームの展開が間もなく始まるが、今年の4月から6月の間のいつかになるそうである。世界中でGREEのゲームが楽しめるワン・ストップ・ショップにする予定だ。当初は英語版と日本語版で配信してから、続いて14カ国語に対応する。
「ご存じの通り、当社にはGREEとOpenFeintの2つのプラットフォームがありますが、この両社のプラットフォームを統合してGREEプラットフォームと呼ぶことにします。世界共通プラットフォームが配信されてからは、その名称をGREEに統一する予定です。OpenFeintとGREEの良いところはすべて1つのプラットフォームに収められます。」
グリーのグローバルゲームプラットフォームが近々お目見えする。今年の4月から6月の間のいつかだという。世界中の人たちがグリーでゲームを楽しむためのワンストップのショップとなるとのことだ。当初は英語と日本語で公開され、後に他の14の言語にも対応する予定。
「ご存じのように、当社は二つのプラットフォームを持っている。グリーとオープンフェイントだ。これらを一つのプラットフォームにまとめ、それをグリープラットフォームと呼ぶことになる。グローバルプラットフォームが立ち上がった後には、ブランドはグリーだけとする。オープンフェイントとグリーの人気作品が、一つのプラットフォームに含まれるということになる」
GREE’s move to merge two platforms into one is a big step towards building a truly international social gaming platform company. The company also recently announced a number of partnerships with leading game developers in China and Korea to bring more games to its new platform. On the topic of going global, Tanaka told me that he is inspired by Japanese gaming console giant, Nintendo, which generates 80 percent of its revenue from overseas and 20 percent from the local market. Right now, Tanaka said that almost 100 percent of GREE’s revenue comes from the Japanese market. “We’re inspired to achieve what Nintendo has achieved in the global market,” said Tanaka.
GREE Group (GREE and OpenFeint) currently has more than 190 million users globally and will continue to press forward to “make the world a better place through the power of the Internet.” That is GREE’s official corporate message, but as Tanaka took the last sip from his coffee, he elaborated, showing that he really means it:
" I think gaming is the biggest [form of] entertainment that we can have. However not everyone in the world is playing games. And for console games, there are only 200 million gamers out there. And you know, for people like you and us, you can’t really imagine, but there are people in the world who don’t have access to games even if they want to play. And I believe if you can play games on mobile, then everyone in the world who has a mobile should be able to play our games."
2011度→2011年度の誤りです。訂正お願いします。