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Japan’s Softbank Mobile to acquire majority shares of game developer Gungho Online Entertainment

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Mobile announced today it would tender an offer of social gaming giant Gungho Online Entertainment. Softbank (TSE:9984) was founded by Masayoshi Son, and Gungho was founded by Masayoshi’s young brother Taizo Son who is also a serial entrepreneur and now running a tech startup incubator called Movida Japan. Gungho has been getting lots of attention from investors because of its hugely popular titles Puzzle & Dragons and Ragnarok Online, making the company’s stock price five times what it was at the beginning of this year. By partnering with the gaming company, Softbank Mobile expects to expand the sales of online and smartphone game titles using the company’s global business. Softbank’s announcement can be found over on its website in English and in Japanese (PDFs) GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons recently surpassed the 10 million downloads milestone on March 9th, but perhaps its biggest accomplishment to date has been its longevity on the top grossing apps charts, and is reportedly has a market cap of about $4.6 billion [1]. The company’s success to date has primarily been limited to Japan. It has a US subsidiary, but it remains to be seen if global users will get behind the…

softbank-gungho

Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Mobile announced today it would tender an offer of social gaming giant Gungho Online Entertainment. Softbank (TSE:9984) was founded by Masayoshi Son, and Gungho was founded by Masayoshi’s young brother Taizo Son who is also a serial entrepreneur and now running a tech startup incubator called Movida Japan.

Gungho has been getting lots of attention from investors because of its hugely popular titles Puzzle & Dragons and Ragnarok Online, making the company’s stock price five times what it was at the beginning of this year. By partnering with the gaming company, Softbank Mobile expects to expand the sales of online and smartphone game titles using the company’s global business. Softbank’s announcement can be found over on its website in English and in Japanese (PDFs)

GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons recently surpassed the 10 million downloads milestone on March 9th, but perhaps its biggest accomplishment to date has been its longevity on the top grossing apps charts, and is reportedly has a market cap of about $4.6 billion [1].

The company’s success to date has primarily been limited to Japan. It has a US subsidiary, but it remains to be seen if global users will get behind the P&D phenomenon.

Gungho also recently launched its own online store for Puzzle & Dragon’s merchandise, where you can pick up plush toys, iPhone cases, and even P&D mugs. So far, it’s just for fans in Japan, but we hope to see an international version later on if the game catches on elsewhere.

If you’d like a general introduction to the wildly popular game, check out our video demo below.

  1. This according to Serkan Toto.  ↩

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Japan’s mobile wars intensify: Docomo moves up ultra-high speed data launch to 2015

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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We noted yesterday that even though NTT Docomo (TSE:9437) had reached 10 million LTE subscribers, it still lags behind its competitors in speed. And today – as if on cue – the telco has reportedly moved up the scheduled launch of its ultra high-speed mobile data service to 2015, according to the Asahi Shimbun. This new service will adhere to the LTE Advanced standard, and it was expected to launch in 2016. But with intensifying competition against the other major Japanese telecoms, KDDI and Softbank Mobile, it appears as though the Docomo has decided to kick it up a notch. The new mobile data standard will enable a maximum speed of 1Gbps, which is five times faster than the current LTE service in Japan. That will allow subscribers to make the most of their smartphone subscription, able to consume a variety of rich media content on mobile, such as BeeTV [1] , d-Market Video Store (inaccessible outside Japan), Hulu, and interpretation services. In a recent report by UK consultation company Open Signal, Japan was (disgracefully) ranked the worst in the mobile data speeds out of the nine countries in the study. BeeTV is an IP-based TV service for Docomo’s subcscribers, in partnership with music…

docomo_lte-advanced

We noted yesterday that even though NTT Docomo (TSE:9437) had reached 10 million LTE subscribers, it still lags behind its competitors in speed. And today – as if on cue – the telco has reportedly moved up the scheduled launch of its ultra high-speed mobile data service to 2015, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

This new service will adhere to the LTE Advanced standard, and it was expected to launch in 2016. But with intensifying competition against the other major Japanese telecoms, KDDI and Softbank Mobile, it appears as though the Docomo has decided to kick it up a notch.

The new mobile data standard will enable a maximum speed of 1Gbps, which is five times faster than the current LTE service in Japan. That will allow subscribers to make the most of their smartphone subscription, able to consume a variety of rich media content on mobile, such as BeeTV [1] , d-Market Video Store (inaccessible outside Japan), Hulu, and interpretation services.

In a recent report by UK consultation company Open Signal, Japan was (disgracefully) ranked the worst in the mobile data speeds out of the nine countries in the study.

Source: Open Signal, Inc. http://opensignal.com/reports/state-of-lte/
Source: Open Signal

  1. BeeTV is an IP-based TV service for Docomo’s subcscribers, in partnership with music company Avex, actor/entertainer agency HoriPro, and Fuji Television.  ↩

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Softbank to send 100 Japanese students to UC Berkeley to learn civic leadership

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Softbank (TSE:9984) has announced the continuation of its Tomodachi program for 2013, an initiative to send Japanese high school students from areas most affected by the 2011 earthquake to UC Berkeley for a three-week intensive leadership course. Funded by Softbank and administered by the San Francisco non-profit Ayusa International, the program will see 100 students participate this upcoming summer. Students focus on four areas: housing, business and jobs, public spaces, and energy and sustainability, working with assistants from Japan and UC Berkeley. The idea is that students will take what they learn in this program about civic responsibility and community development, and then apply it at home in order to help their respective communities rebuild. Haruna Shiraiwa, a participating student from last year’s program helped start sight-seeing tours in her hometown of Iwaki, working with travel agency H.I.S., in the hopes of bringing more visitors to the area. Of course it remains to be seen how much of a tangible difference this program can make in rebuilding regions affected by the earthquake. But ostensibly Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, whose own formative years came while studying abroad at UC Berkeley, believes in the potential of such cultural exchanges. For students who…

Photo by Natalie Orenstein, BerkeleySide.com
Photo by Natalie Orenstein, BerkeleySide.com, 2012

Softbank (TSE:9984) has announced the continuation of its Tomodachi program for 2013, an initiative to send Japanese high school students from areas most affected by the 2011 earthquake to UC Berkeley for a three-week intensive leadership course.

Funded by Softbank and administered by the San Francisco non-profit Ayusa International, the program will see 100 students participate this upcoming summer. Students focus on four areas: housing, business and jobs, public spaces, and energy and sustainability, working with assistants from Japan and UC Berkeley.

The idea is that students will take what they learn in this program about civic responsibility and community development, and then apply it at home in order to help their respective communities rebuild.

Haruna Shiraiwa, a participating student from last year’s program helped start sight-seeing tours in her hometown of Iwaki, working with travel agency H.I.S., in the hopes of bringing more visitors to the area.

Of course it remains to be seen how much of a tangible difference this program can make in rebuilding regions affected by the earthquake. But ostensibly Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, whose own formative years came while studying abroad at UC Berkeley, believes in the potential of such cultural exchanges.

For students who wish to participate in the 2013 Tomodachi program, applications are being accepted here.

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