DeNA has been entertaining us through our mobiles for years now. DeNA makes and runs many mobile and online services including games, e-commerce and entertainment content distribution. Initially established in Tokyo in 1999 as a small startup with the help of an online launch auction service, DeNA has continuously expanded its business portfolio.
What does DeNA do?
DeNA commands the best free to play social games for Android and iOS operating system platforms. Its subsidiary DeNA Games develops more than simple games, social platforms with sought-after features, long-term challenges, and just plain fun as they describe it. Now they are based from San Francisco. This occurred after 2010 when DeNA purchased renowned iPhone gaming pioneer ngmoco. Now with ngmoco, DeNA established an office in exciting heart of San Francisco’s technology culture SOMA the South of Market. A DeNA staff reminds “You can see the Giants baseball park from our office windows!”
DeNA was founded in 1999 by Tomoko Namba on her vision for new technologies to excite and impact the world. Enchantment, amusement, pleasure, gladness, joy, cheerfulness, happiness is what de DeNA concept transfers us.
Its name, DeNA is exactly pronounced as our DNA genome. Their objective was initially to make games over a social games platform intertwined with e-commerce products and other services for mobile devices. DeNA´s belief from its starts was that mobiles were the future of human communications and entertainment, and so they aimed to impact and delight us in this mobile world. But they weren´t only games, they soon became so much more.
DeNA facilities
DeNA Co., Ltd. Main headquarters are in Shibuya Hikarie, 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8510 Japan. Today DeNA has offices from Tokyo to Santiago to San Francisco. San Francisco is the headquarters for DeNA in the West. “DeNA´s offices are cross-functional collaborative. It´s definitely a cool company which works hard and pushes themselves to excel, and as they say “to smile in the face of the impossible”. This is what´s required when building things that have never been built and learning how to delight a rapidly evolving mobile app market. The number of fixed employees goes well above 2500 and over 1000 hired employees for 2015. And in the Tokyo Stock Exchange its Securities Code is 2432.
DeNA´s Historic Milestones
It started with Online Auctions with DeNA Shopping “Bidders”, in Dec 2002 with Online Shopping, in March 2004 with mobile-only auction service Mobaoku, later on that year in July with Mobile Ads and by 2005 the platform compounded a virtual online shopping mall. DeNA went public in 2005 with its IPO. And by February 2006 started with Mobile Games, and began with DeNA’s mobile social network Mobage. From there, DeNA has been an efficient business developer. As you can notice, from its beginning DeNA’s culture has worked with the idea of constantly facing new challenges instead to keeping within specific limitations. After 2009 DeNA grew to over 2,000 employees. They got busy releasing games for the international market, launching new services such as its manga magazine app, as well as healthcare and content curtain platforms. DeNA continues to search for new challenges across a variety of fields. The Company firmly believes that their services are the result of a corporate culture to stand from the users’ point of view, and excel to change the already established.
DeNA´s Platforms
DeNA´s Mobile Gaming provides a multiple selection of 1st, 2nd and 3rd party free mobile games through their platform. The following are just some of their businesses:
Mobage. It´s Japan´s 1st social game platform with hundreds of free mobile games used by millions of users. The user account grants gamers access to the use Mobage’s social networking features and virtual currencies too. They too have their Yahoo! Mobage which offers social the same from PC browsers. The games directly accessible from Japan’s popular Web portal Yahoo. It´s the interface to use Mobage accounts from PC browsers. And, Mobage Open Platform opened In January 2010 DeNA its Mobage API to 3rd-party developers allowing them to develop games for the Mobage platform.
E-Commerce – DeNA SHOPPING DeNA shopping is accessible from smart phones; it sells phones, laptops, PCs, buyers dib with loyalty points and they get the chance to win virtual currency of Mobage to exchange for virtual items for avatars.
AU Shopping mall shopping website service accessible from mobile devices and PCs owned by DeNA and KDDI telecommunications. Subscribers of KDDI’s “au” mobile service are deduced in their monthly phone bills depending on their au shopping.
Mobaoku Auction platform where users to manage their auction fashion items and bids from their mobile phones.
Paygent by DeNA & Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos provide payment collection services to e-commerce companies, offers settlement options, advanced data security and convenient management screens.
DeNA Online Travel handles travel services, domestic tours, discount international and domestic flights and buses, overseas hotels, discount highway buses. Searching vacancy queries, bookings and payments available on real time 24-hours.
Entertainment E*Everystar UGC (User Generated Content) media of essays, poetry, articles, comics, illustrations, photographs and novels trying to support the hobbies and creativity. Or with, Manga Box weekly Manga magazine app Entertainment with titles available simultaneously published in Chinese, Japanese and English. Also DeNA has a Showroom virtual stage Entertainment where to interact with label-signed pop singers and idols’ performance live. Fans post comments and throw virtual gifts on the stage and get feedback. And, their MyAnimeList website for global anime fans Entertainment including a database of 50,000 plus active forums. MyAnimeList in the English speaking world has become the center for sharing and discovering anime and manga.
Communication with Shumee-to Club hobby-based social networking platform for mature audiences. And wint, Mirrativ is an innovative live streaming app allowing users to share from their smartphone screen and receive comments and likes in real time related to their programming.
Healthcare Mycode run by the DeNA Life Science (DLS) subsidiary MyCode is a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service where users mail their saliva samples to view their genetic predispositions and get personalized health tips. And also, with KenCoM of DeNA and Sumitomo Corp.’s supports health insurance societies by centrally managing their members’ health data, providing fun tailored recommendation in Japan.
Information Chirashiru mobile app allows consumers to compare grocery flyers from multiple stores in their neighborhoods, in this way users can select the best deals. Its name is a mix of Know-How of Flyers in Japanese. And also, Information Hacka Doll app automatic user for specialized news for fans of anime, manga, video games and other.
Information platforms like iemo home decoration and interior design platform, and Information with MERY for women’s fashion and lifestyle platform. CAFY for cooking and food platform. JOOY for men’s fashion and lifestyles platform. Find Travel to provide useful travel tips about popular sightseeing destinations, restaurants, hotels and more, all posted by experienced travelers and locals. And cuta children educational platform.
Finally, DeNA Native Ad advertises across multiple apps and websites operated by DeNA including Manga Box, Mobage, E*Everystar and Chirashiru in Japan. DeNA recent engagements have been mostly strategic investments. Their Strategic Investment Office has done online auctions, social networking, gaming and beyond in their brief history. –
Remember, today DeNA is a multibillion dollar business and one of the top mobile companies in world, which certainly didn’t get there without risk taking and hard work. DeNA encountered numerous difficulties in their growing path, but overcame them with support of our investors and clients, rooting throughout those experiences a culture to always look for innovation. While some passionate entrepreneurs sometimes try to repress startups, DeNA has chosen to support them, as their mission is to “strive to find the visionaries, the troublemakers, the builders of tomorrow and provide them with resources they need to bring us into the future”
Social Interaction
One of DeNA´s newest incorporations have been its own baseball team in Japan, the Yokohama BayStars Baseball Club, Inc. New offices have been opened in Yokohama, also in Japan for DeNA Niigata for their Customer Support Center, DeNA Osaka in Japan, and DeNA Shanghai in China, DeNA Seoul in South Korea, DeNA Singapore in Singapore and also DeNA Hanoi in Vietnam.
Social Responsibility:
DeNA´s social responsibility and community Involvement include 3 main fronts: – In first place, Creative Workshops for Children hosted by a non-profit organization CANVAS to enrich children’s creativity where the children combined their photos with Mobage avatars to create stickers. Secondly are the Educational Tours, where DeNA collaborates with a Japanese non-profit organization School Support Center, providing guided tours of the company to junior high and high school students. Finally, using the funds from Charity Auctions they work with the members of the C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust to maintain and regenerate forests in Japan since for them “Donating is not enough” our staff members are operative and active participants in reforestation activities”.
DeNA Investments:
Although DeNA invests in a wide range of categories, they tend to focus on the following areas: Next Platform: Market Places, Matching Platform, C2C/P2O Platform, Social/UGC Commerce, Communication Platform, Cloud Infrastructure. In the Next Technology Area: – Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence or Deep Learning, Robotics, IoT. And In the Legacy Industries Disruption Area: – Sharing Economy, Ed-tech, Cloud/UGC Sourcing, Health-tech, automotive.
The best entrepreneurs have many options, so DeNA provides more than just capital. What DeNA Investment offers is experience and information: A gateway experience into Asia, invaluable in the western world. DeNA has built established businesses networks and critical local knowledge throughout Asia to bring you to success in the East. An operational resources and support. DeNA tries to build strong relationships with operational entrepreneurs not just capital gain, but to take a long-term view.
Portfolio of Companies where DeNA has invested. These include all of the following:
VCNC, Inc. An app for just you and that special someone. http://between.us/
Kamcord Inc. Mobile gameplay sharing platform. https://www.kamcord.com/
Tokyo Otaku Mode Inc.The latest news and Ecommerce on Japanese anime, manga, games, and more http://otakumode.com/
Akippa, Inc. Airbnb for parking http://akippa.co.jp/
Anytimes Inc. Outsource small jobs and tasks to people in your neighborhood. https://anytimes.co.jp/
Stylend, Inc. Fashion Rental Marketplace https://www.stylelend.com/
Cambly Inc. On-demand English tutors http://www.cambly.com/
Camperoo, Inc. Marketplace for kids’ camps and activities. https://www.camperoo.com/
Geekatoo, Inc. US nationwide network of geeks for all of your tech support needs. https://www.geekatoo.com/
Hatchery Software Pvt. ltd. Make reservations, find prices & availability of products/services at your local businesses with Lookup. http://www.lookup.to/
VenueSpot, Inc. Marketplace for venues to bid to host events. https://www.venuespot.co/
Gobble, Inc. Dinner subscription for your family made by the best local chefs. https://gobble.com/
FameBit, Inc. Easiest way to find, hire and work with YouTube influencers. http://famebit.com/
TT Media Limited. Indonesia’s leading livestreaming platform. https://www.zeemi.tv/
Nana music, Inc. Music collaboration app on smartphone. http://nana-music.com/
VRSE, Inc. Expanding the universe of virtual reality experiences. http://vrse.com/
LocoMobi, Inc. A parking information technology solutions company. http://locomobi.com/
Zuli, Inc. home automation microlocation.http://www.zuli.io/
Hachi menroppi, Inc. EC distribution platform http://hachimenroppi.com/
Grow Rich Technologies, Inc. ecommerce marketplace https://www.greentoe.com/
Online Diamond International Corporation personalized engagement rings https://enchanteddiamonds.com/
Flaviar, Inc. curated spirits delivered monthly https://flaviar.com/
Pinshape, Inc. 3D Printing archive https://pinshape.com/
AttriBuy, Inc. Easy to integrate targetted catalogues for your online store https://beautyarmy.com/
Solidarium Connecting Brazilian artisans with consumers and retailers http://www.solidarium.net/
Blisby LTD. Thailand’s leading marketplace for handmade goods http://blisby.com/
TicketLabs.Inc Collect fan data & talk directly to fans https://www.hive.co/
99Gamers Inc. Community marketplace to buy and sell video games. http://99gamers.com/
Nuzzel, Inc. Discover relevant news from your friends http://nuzzel.com/
How 2 Media, Inc. Award-winning video cooking magazine app https://pannacooking.com/
LabDoor Inc. Marketplace where consumers research, find, and buy the best supplements. https://labdoor.com/
Enchanted Labs, Inc. Platform to collect/share travel ideas. http://www.likebucket.com/
EMOSIV, Inc. AI based men’s fashion coordinate app http://emosiv.com/en.html
LAUGH TECH, Inc. entertainment contents viral media http://curazy.com/
PECO, Inc. pet related viral media http://peco-japan.com/
PandaWhale, Inc. bite-size nuggets best on the web. http://pandawhale.com/
East Meet East, Inc. online dating service for Asian in the West http://www.eastmeeteast.com/
Synapse, Inc. Online Salon platform http://synapse.am/
Giftee, Inc. Social Gift Giving with https://giftee.co/
REVENTIVE Inc. A locked social network http://reventive-world.com/
Povio, Inc. Capture your friends in the moment http://pov.io/
OpenPhone, Inc. iMessage + iCloud for Android. http://mightytext.net/
Dankichi, Inc. online Mobile sports coaching service http://dank-1.com/
Schoo, inc. Video Tutorials Online School to learn software, design and business https://schoo.jp/
Life is Tech, Inc. Junior/High IT Camp http://life-is-tech.com/
Andy OS, Inc. An Android platform to connect desktop & mobiles. https://angel.co/andy-os
Mission Health Labs, Inc. All in one All Medical Records and All for doctors. https://picnichealth.com/
Reference Genomics, Inc. A Genomic Database and Search Engine https://www.onecodex.com/
Clay.io LLC. The mobile web games platform http://clay.io/
All these are joint-ventures where DeNA is developing some sort of IT business and entertaining. And remember, DeNA also owns its own Tokyo league professional baseball team, theYokohama DeNA BayStars http://www.baystars.co.jp/. DeNA will definitely be dictating a big chunk of our future on entertaining, and shaping loudly our lives.