With over 20m subscribers registered to its Mobage-Town Social Networking Service, DeNA has taken Japan’s love of gaming and its know-how for the mobile web, and turned it into one of the most successful businesses to come out of the country in recent years.
The company is more profitable per user than Facebook and has some of Japan’s best known web brands spread across business areas that include social gaming networks, ecommerce and travel search.
Now DeNA, with over 800 employees, is going international at the same time as breaking into the smartphone market, and they are interested in the foreign community living in Japan to help them do it.
It is all part of a move by the company to foster entrepreneurship inside Japan and take what makes this country great and turn it into a success around the world. Late in 2010 the company purchased American Social gaming company ngmoco in a deal that could be worth $400 million, putting serious money behind that mission and since then, it has also been growing its international recruits inside japan (positions have been advertised on GaijinPot just recently).
GaijinPot visited the head office of DeNA in Hatsudai recently to find out more about the company and to see how it was growing its human resources as it expands from its Tokyo base.
(These are the guys we met, from right-to-left, Otagaki-san, Suzuki-san and Janelle Bowditch from Australia.)
What will be necessary for social games to succeed on smartphones?
Otagaki-san: I think there are 2 factors which smartphone games need to have. Casual games have a much broader appeal amongst people of all backgrounds and a lot are less exclusionary than the traditional type of games that you see on games consoles. The second factor is that people have a fundamental drive to communicate with each other, when you put those 2 together, then there is a powerful combination that naturally attracts people.
How do you see the next 12 months for DeNA?
Suzuki-san: For the past year and a half, we have been at the forefront of development in social games, turning it into a very successful part of the internet in Japan and this year is all about us taking that success to the international smartphone market. Going forward we are very focused on what we can do to combine the strengths of the Japanese gaming scene with the opportunities that lie around the world.
What does the purchase of ngmoco mean for your expansion? Will we see the Mobage-Town brand taken out of Japan?
We purchased ngmoco for a number of reasons. Specifically, ngmoco provides a plus+ social network platform and their ngCore engine provides an X-device (iOS and Android) development platform. On top of this, ngmoco is an industry leader in the development and operation of smartphone games and finally, because we can continue using our mobage brand.
What sort of challenges do you expect with the internationalizing of DeNA?
Otagaki-san: The main challenge will be with how we adapt to the different tastes of users in other countries. The way that Japanese users think and feel is obviously going to be different to the way users in Western countries do. The things that matter to them, the things that they want to do on their smartphones, are some other big differences. If we were to remain a purely Japanese company, then it would be impossible for us to adapt. That is one of the driving reasons behind our internationalization.
In contrast to the challenges, what strengths does DeNA bring to the international market?
Suzuki-san: DeNA’s strengths begin right with its core technology – a social platform that has been designed specifically for games and can be adapted to run on all major platforms of smartphones, including iOS and Android. On top of that, as a young and outward looking company, we have our ability to bring a more social focus to all kinds of games. After we launch a game, we take user feedback and data and are able to quickly change things to enhance the experience and deliver more about what people like about a game.
Also, we have successfully created links between the virtual world of the game and the real world through events that we hold. These events are social in nature, and for example, can be based around events or treasure hunts that you need to do during a limited time for getting special rewards. Players can also present these treasures to other players, making them communicate more through the game.
What kind of people work at DeNA?
DeNA is a very young company, both in terms of when it was formed and the people that work here. Many of our managers are in their 20s and having such a young group of people throughout all levels gives us a ‘go-for-it’ spirit. DeNA is also a flat organization and employees are more directly involved in decision-making.
Unlike other Japanese companies, if we see a chance then we will do just that – go for it.
Another important skill to have at DeNA is the ability to understand and follow trends. Having a young, open-minded workforce that come from different countries means that we are always able to spot what is happening and stay ahead of new developments in technology and society.
How many foreigners work at DeNA currently in Tokyo?
Right now about 30 members of our Tokyo workforce are from overseas. They are working in all positions, not just IT. Janelle is someone who found her job through GaijinPot and is working in our operations team. We also have foreign staff working in sales and business development.
So what skills do foreigners need to work here?
One of the unique things that foreigners can bring to a company like DeNA is the insight and knowledge of their own culture. Of course the right skills for their position are vital but this is something that only they can bring to DeNA.
DeNA are currently hiring on GaijinPot Jobs.
