Mobage town has been started in 2006 by Tomoko Namba, a Mckinsey alumna. "Mobage town" is short for "mobile game town". So, Mobage provides numerous small games and a social network service for mobile phone users. Essentially users are using Mobage as a social network service.

The service has 7.4 million registered users and 13 billion page views per month. 47% of users are teenagers. 37% of users are in their twenties.

Mobage has a very clever growth/revenue model. Each user has an avatar. Avatar needs to be clothed. Clothings can be bought with a virtual money called 'Mobagold'. Users can obtain Mobagold by registering to adviterser's services. Its business model is similar to Korean network game site 'Han game'.

Namba started a company 'DeNA' in 1999 as an Internet auction service company. Soon, Yahoo! Japan became a clear winner in Japanese Internet auction market. Her company experienced a long slump. In 2005, DeNA gained a certain success with mobile commerce services, and successfully IPOed to Tokyo stock market.

Mobage's huge success boosted the company's profit. DeNA's revenue reached 14 billion yen, and a profit is 2.5 billion yen.

See also:

1. Company's site (in English)
2. Mobage town article with screen shots (in Japanese)

DeNA:

• Type: public (JP:2432)
• Founded: Mar. 1999
• Went public: Feb. 2005
• Sales: 14 billion yen ($129 million)
• Profit: 2.5 billion yen ($23 million)
• Employee: 415
• People: CEO, Tomoko Namba

Author Information  Shunichi Arai is developing a product for his new stealth startup. Arai devotes his life to software business, reading, and salsa dancing. Arai also loves to learn other cultures and languages such as Korean.

Tags: Japan, Service // 6 Comments »