Nikkei Business Online, an online version of business magazine under Nikkei group, on May 15 after the midnight reported that Mixi, one of Japan’s largest social networking service, a direct local competitor of Facebook, is on the table to sell itself.

Some social networking competitors, such like Gree and DeNA(who runs Mobage), who had turned over Mixi recent years in number of registered users and corporate values mainly by social games, were being proposed to participate in the bidding secretly, sources closed to financial interest told to Nikkei.

The share to be sold off Nikkei says is 55% of the company owned by the Mixi founder & CEO Kenji Kasahara. He established Mixi in 2004 and soon that becomes a giant business based on real friends network and advertising sales.

On May 5, 4 days ago, Mixi announced a board reshuffling, including Akinori Harada’s steps down from the co-representative director & vice-president, he has been leading Mixi’s recent major measures like Mixi Pages, Mixi Mall, etc.

Mixi promptly issued a short release saying “There are no such truth reported on a certain media.”

See Also:

Asiajin » A Summary of the Latest Studies about Japan & Social Media

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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A communication council of 6 major Japanese social gaming platforms – Gree, DeNA(Mobage), Cyber Agent, Mixi, NHN Japan and Dwango – just released that they would not release new games having Kompu Gacha any more. Kompu Gatcha in current games will be also terminated by the end of this month.

From this morning, Klab (major third party provider), DeNA, Cyber Agent and Gree respectively expressed their plan to stop or shrink Kompu Gacha features on their games.

Tags: Japan, Social game by Akky Akimoto
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GREE [J] has announced that they have agreed to a business partnership to develop a new global company with ICS Mobile, Inc., who run FreeAppADay.com (FAAD), an industry leader in application referral media.

ICS Mobile, a company located in Santa Monica California, manages “FAAD”, a free iOS application introduction media.  “FAAD” has gathered a strong base of support in America, and with related application downloads totalling 12 million (As of the end of January 2012), they hold the record as number one in the industry.  From now, as strategic partners, they aim to expand the smartphone social game market, and they will also consider offering new application introduction media via FAAD promotional support and the FAAD brand.

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Tags: Social game, USA, VSMedia by Chiho Komoriya
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GREE [J] has announced that they have submitted a written protest concerning an article published in the 2012 March 31st edition of the magazine “Shuukan Diamond” entitled “This Office Is Gravely Concerned For GREE – Social Games Approaching Critical Moment.”

According to GREE, the article in question offers to readers the impression that GREE is connected with criminal behavior and within the near future will be exposed by the police or authorities of justice, and as a result is liable to incur unjust and considerable damage to its credibility.  Therefore they have delivered a written complaint against Diamond [J] on the date of March 26th, and have demanded that measures be promptly taken to restore confidence.

Authorized by VSMedia

Tags: News, Social game by Chiho Komoriya
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We have covered the Japanese social game industry to some extent on Asiajin over the last years, and I myself do so in more detail on my personal site.

In recent months, the two biggest companies in this space, DeNA and GREE, have invested hundreds of millions of US dollars in bringing the concept of mobile social games outside their home market, hoping to replicate the huge success they have seen in Japan in the US and elsewhere.

I recently gave a presentation on the chances of DeNA and GREE to make it outside Japan.

Please find it embedded below (direct link), and sound off in the comments if you agree with my personal perspective:

Tags: Japan, Social game by Serkan Toto
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