Social Games Boost DeNA's Q4 Revenues Up 81% To $205M

Tokyo-based mobile social network operator DeNA (Mobage-town/MobaMingle) reports record high revenues for its fiscal fourth quarter with an 81 percent year-over-year increase to $205 million, partly due to the company's in-house developed social games. The company's revenues for its most recent fiscal year, which ended March 31, also enjoyed a sharp increase to a record high of $517 million, 28 percent more than the revenue reported for fiscal 2008. Its operating income for fiscal 2009 jumped, too, up 34 percent to $228 million. DeNA placed a greater emphasis on its internally developed social games during the previous fiscal year, and saw "significant increases" in page views and game sales for titles it released like Pirate Treasure, Hoshi-tsuku, and Kaito Royale. The firm also attributed its record revenues to increased 3D avatar sales in its Mobage-town mobile social network and the opening of the Mobage-town platform to third parties. Since opening up its Mobage-town Open Platform in late January, DeNA has picked up 59 partners and 148 games. Earlier this week, the Mobage-town operator announced a partnership with Yahoo! Japan to launch and operate Yahoo! Mobage (tentative title), a new social game platform, in Japan this summer. The two companies hope to replicate the popularity of Mobage-town, which has more than 18 million registered members, on PC. The Tokyo firm forecasts its first quarter revenues for 2010 to reach $247 million, a 161 percent increase over the same period in 2009. As for its plans for the upcoming financial year, DeNA believes its partnership with Yahoo! Japan will help extend its business model beyond the mobile-gaming platform to PC-based social games. It also looks to develop social games for Facebook and other platforms, and launch a social gaming platform in English-speaking countries. DeNA is already working to expand its footprint in the States., having opened an office in San Mateo, California in January 2008 and invested in U.S. startups like Aurora Feint, the developer behind iPhone social gaming platform OpenFeint. "DeNA had an exceptional fourth quarter, with an 81 percent year-over-year revenue growth," says DeNA CEO Tomoko Namba. "Our expansion into social networking games during the third quarter reaped significant gains which made these record breaking fourth quarter and annual results possible." She continues, "DeNA will continue to focus our resources into social networking games to strengthen our leading position in Japan as the premiere mobile gaming and SNS site, with a clear view to expand globally. As we enter the fiscal year of 2010, we remain bullish on the growth of social gaming in Japan."