Yoshikazu Tanaka founded Gree (JP) in 2004. At first, Gree‘s SNS services were aimed at PC users, but Mixi had greater success in the PC market. So, Gree partnered with mobile phone operator KDDI in November 2006, and entered the mobile market. KDDI holds 7.58 percent of Gree’s shares.
Now, 99% of Gree’s 8.3 billion monthly page views are from mobile phones. Gree’s business model is very similar to Mobage-town‘s. Gree provides games and avatars on their platform. They have 7 million registered users.
They reported revenue of 2.93 billion yen (32.4 million USD), and an after-tax profit of 582 million yen (5 million USD) for FY 2008. [1]
In contrast to Mixi’s strategy, Gree has relied heavily on TV advertisements and its strategic partnership with KDDI, with which Gree shares its revenue.
In July 2005, Gree raised 100 million yen (1 million USD) from Apax Globis Japan Fund L.P. at an 804 million yen (8 million USD) post-money valuation. In July 2006, KDDI invested 364 million yen (3.64 million USD) in Gree at a 4.5 billion yen (45 million USD) post-money valuation.
Recruit obtained a 7.58% share from Rakuten. Rakuten had previously been a large Gree share-holder, but it sold half of its share to Recruit and gave half to Tanaka.
The public offering price range will be disclosed on the 28th.
DeNA (the operator of Mobage) has a 20x P/E ratio. If Gree’s stock were traded at the same P/E ratio, Gree would have an 11 billion yen (100 million USD) market capitalizaion. CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka has 68.62% of its shares. COO Kotaro Yamagishi has 5.41%.
[1] Pre-tax profit was 1 billion yen (10 million USD).
Shunichi Arai