DeNA Reports $279M Q1 Revenues, Aims To Rule Social Games Market

DeNA, one of Japan's largest mobile social gaming network operators, reported revenues of $279 million for the first quarter of 2010 (ending June), a 175 percent jump compared to the same period last year. Those Q1 2010 revenues represent a 27 percent increase from the previous quarter's. The Tokyo-based firm's operating income reached a record high in the first quarter, too, rising 282 percent year-over-year and 22 percent quarter-over-quarter to $138 million. DeNA runs Mobage-town (or MobaMingle in the West), a Japanese mobile social network with a growing audience of more than 19 million registered users. It is currently preparing a PC-based social gaming platform with Yahoo! Japan and has plans to launch Mobage-town on smartphones later this year. The company attributed its positive quarterly results to heightened efforts to increase the number of games on its mobile platform, such as two recently released in-house social games and many new third-party titles -- the platform now has more than 350 games from over 150 third-party studios. Thanks to internally developed and third-party titles, DeNa's social segment made up 84 percent, or $234 million, of the operator's total revenue for the quarter. Avatar related sales in Mobage-town during Q1 2010 accounted for another $29 million of that total. DeNA also pointed out that its consumer demographics have experienced a "significant shift" this past quarter, with its 10-and-under audience decreasing five percent while its 30-and-above group grew six percent. The firm believes this increase in older gamers with larger expendable incomes also helped with its quarterly results. The operator expects its April-to-September revenues to grow to $576 million and operating income to rise to $276 million. DeNA says it plants to take advantage of this momentum and its social gaming expertise to become "the number one company in the global social gaming space." "Becoming the premier social gaming company appears extremely feasible when reviewing our impressive first quarter results," says DeNA CEO Tomoko Namba. "DeNA will expand by utilizing its uniqueness as a platform operator and game developer."