mobagetown and its 5.5 mio users: Why it is much more than a free mobile games and SNS site

You might have read the following somewhere on the web or overheard at a conference: “There is a mobile site in Japan called ‘mobile games town or something’ that has managed to draw in millions of users with free games and is giving companies like Yahoo! a run for their money.”

That’s not wrong, but it represents about 10% of the whole picture: The widespread misconception is mobagetown is a “insanely successful free games site”, at best a free games site with social networking service (SNS) and avatar elements. It is actually much, much more than that: The most commonly overlooked point is that is a service designed to drive purchases on mobile shopping and mobile auctions sites, as well as increase revenues on Pocket Affiliate, one of Japan’s biggest mobile affiliate networks (think “Google Pay-per-action for mobile”) - both of which are much more lucrative spaces than mobile games or mobile SNS. The service achieves this by making users really, really badly want Moba Gold, a virtual currency they need to outfit their avatars with a neverending supply of clothes and accessories. And in order to get it, they have to click ads and buy mobile content or physical goods on partner sites.

Currently generating more than 10 billion page views a month, mobagetown is likely the most traffic-intensive mobile website not only in Japan, but in the world . It combines several features that are not new - but ties them together in such a clever way that users who just came to play a few games after a while find themselves buying a new iPod on a mobile auctions site just to have more Moba Gold to spend on mobagetown.

mobagetown made parent company DeNA close to US$ 24 million in the first twelve months since its launch, as well as contributing heavily to the additional US$ 42 million DeNA-operated mobile affiliate advertising network Pocket Affiliate generated over the fiscal year 2006.

In the past three months, mobagetown membership has almost doubled, growing from 3 to 5.5 million users. DeNA has added a variety of strong features to the site, including “Creator”, which could be called a mobile version of YouTube, but for music and novels/stories, respectively (and in case you wonder: yes, they will start printing books and pressing CDs from the users’ contributions soon.). Also, editorial content such as news and weather information has been added in order to increase the site’s “stickiness” and to create new possibilities for social interaction through blogging and commenting. Some of the biggest names in advertising like NIKE and Coca Cola are running large-scale tie-ups with mobagetown, including branded games and promotional avatar items.

In March 2007, Infinita published the first and (to our knowledge) only English-language research report on mobagetown (645 KB, *.pdf). We have updated and extended the report to include all recent developments, adding chapters on mobagetown’s strategy to become the No. 1 mobile portal in Japan, all the new features such as Creator, detailed information on tie-up campaigns with advertisers and the most current usage and demographic data.

This report answers all the important questions, and will give you a clear understanding that reaches far deeper than the feature level:

- How does it work? Step-by-step descriptions of all features: games lineup, SNS functions, avatars and shopping for virtual goods, maps, user-generated novels and music and editorial content (news, weather).

- How does the service make money? Business model analysis including fiscal year 2006 financial data on DeNA Co., Ltd. and mobagetown.

- How does mobagetown generate revenues via mobile commerce partner sites? See how the virtual currency model is levevaged to create substantial revenues.

- How does DeNA leverage the site for new forms of mobile advertising? Learn how mobagetown ties up with brands like NIKE and Coca Cola for branded entertainment content and branded avatars.

- How do they promote it? Detailed information on marketing strategy and communications.

- Who uses it, and how much? Read about how demographics and usage are shifting from hype to mainstream.

- How do DeNA’s affiliate network platform and commerce sites tie into mobagetown? Why mobagetown is much more than just a games and SNS site.

- How does it all tie together? An in-depth analysis of mobagetown and DeNA strategy: From free games site to No. 1 mobile portal.

After this you will understand why this is a service that can work in any market, anywhere.

The mobagetown report, which is packed with information and in-depth analysis of one of the most successful mobile services in the world, contains 86 pages and is priced at $ 1,750 per single copy (corporate license: $4,375).

Posted by:Billich | Entry Date: June 18, 2007 5:35 PM