Japanese Ad Firm Helping Developers Survey Asia's Social Games Market

Septeni Holdings Co., a Tokyo-based online advertising agency, intends to aid developers in entering Asia's burgeoning social games market by providing them with local survey data. The company plans to partner with domestic survey firms to conduct online ad market questionnaires, polling some 250,000 people in China and 120,00 in South Korea (and presumably users in Japan, too), according to a report from Trading Markets. It believes that by analyzing game use, billing systems, and user demand, the company can help developers know what kind of social games are popular in each country and how well online payment systems are working there. Septeni will design the survey items for three major markets (Japan, China, and South Korea), translate them into local languages, distribute the online surveys, and submit reports. It expects the surveys to take three weeks to conduct and cost at least ¥200,000 yen, or around $2,412. Many Western companies have made moves to enter the Asian market in the past year, most noticeably Zynga, which acquired Tokyo developer Unoh, set up a Zynga Japan joint venture with Softbank, and most recently revealed plans to release FarmVillage on Japanese social network Mixi.