Grie is unknown history summary of where he started mistaking the way

Weekly diamond released today "Authorities have a serious interest in Glee Social games that will welcome the momentTo the article that "Glee has released a refutation on hasteFor a moment, I tried to summarize what kind of circumstances Glee had come to the present shape in the first place in order to understand what caused this to happen.

This is the weekly diamond released today


The content of the article is like this, it is the same as what is posted on the net


Problems pointed out are as follows. There is a big problem in the part that supports Glee of high profitability.

A rapidly growing social game. There is a situation that can shake the business model.

According to a government official, it seems that consideration for the detection of the biggest Glee began, "April - May is a mountain".

Mr. Kiyoshi Shinzo, a game journalist, says, "It is supported by high-priced users who use less than 3% of the members as if they use nearly 100,000 yen a month."

For the company side there is almost no cost to produce digital items, and its appearance probability can be manipulated, which leads to high profitability.

Originally the game was started free of charge using a mobile terminal, and because membership numbers have been increased by being able to easily settle the payment, it also causes problems of minor utilization of minors.

Consumer living centers around the country have consulted with parents who have overwhelmed their children because they used a large amount of money. "Often cases that use 1 million yen are also common" (Tokyo officials).

Originally "GREE" beganFebruary 2004, At that time it was a site that Mr. Yoshikazu Tanaka who was an employee of Rakuten started with personal hobby.

The server at the beginning of serviceOfficial siteIt is published in. Everything started from here.


Up picturesLike this


Below is a precious interview article five months after the start.

IT is now "It's fine, it's fun" - a company employee who alone makes the city of "GREE" of 70,000 people - ITmedia news

"Some people buy a Porsche for hobbies, some people travel around the world, and there are people who can make internet services as a hobby."

Yoshikazu Tanaka (27) who develops and operates social networking site "GREE" as "hobby" says.

GREE is the largest domestic free social networking site used by 73,864 people as of July 29. Anyone can participate for free if there is an invitation from the user.

Over 70,000 community sites. Although it is very difficult for companies to maintain, development and support is Mr. Tanaka alone. Mr. Tanaka is an employee of a major IT related company. However GREE is irrelevant to work. Work is done after closing or on a day off. Server costs etc are all self-payable.

This is the biggest difference with DeNA's Mobage, and Mobage is created as a job from the beginning in DeNA, but GREE is not so, but Mr. Yoshikazu Tanaka, the founder of Mr. Tanaka made from the beginning alone It is that it is what it is. It is anticipated that the biggest reason why GREE's Mr. Yoshikazu Tanaka sometimes hysterically counterattacks is here and talks as follows.

"GREE is something like a child for me, you do not decide on the future of the child, when will you die, etc. by making something like a" child's chronology "before the child is born?" Is your child's goal? There is not anyone who says "There is nothing wrong with future plans!"

In other words, for Mr. Tanaka, GREE is exactly "my child", so it is an article of this weekly diamond, so it's just a trial against DeNA's Mobage, it's super subjective, emotional, and excessive is.

Also, since it started simply as a hobby, GREE understands that something like "idea" was not in the early stages with the following remarks.

"I would like to increase the number of users of GREE, I think that the quality of service will change if the number of users increases, but I do not know what it is like to shape GREE, what is going on after ten years.I want somebody to tell me - It is not a thudy way of saying. It seems to be enjoying what you do not understand.

In the early days of GREE, it is quite obvious from the description below that there was nothing wrong with the social game like now, and it had a very pastoral appearance.

There is no income from GREE, either. In addition to showing Google's AdWords ad on site, we also introduced Amazon's affiliate service. If books and CDs introduced by users are purchased through review, a few percent of sales will be paid. However…….

"I do not make money, Amazon's affiliate just puts in because I want to use a review service, because Adwords can be stuck with free stuff, so let's paste it, feeling about it." We can not cover the cost of renting servers. I throw out personal property and continue to operate.

But, that's fine, because it's fun, Mr. Tanaka laughs. "The feeling of making a town." SimCity "It looks like a real version, today Bill built, today the railway line passed, the residents seemed to be happy today."

From the current state of the present, I can understand well that Mr. Tanaka's words of "at the moment" are not far from the words of Mr. Tanaka.

Next, the first step when GREE began to change is when GREE became a "corporation" from personal management in November 2004, about four months after July 2004 in the above interview.

Reason for using "GREE" as a stock - ITmedia news

"GREE CO., LTD.", Which operates the forerunner "GREE" of the domestic social networking site, will be established on December 7. Mr. Yoshikazu Tanaka who has developed GREE and has volunteered to take over as the president. I left Rakuten who worked in October and concentrate on the operation of GREE. It is said that it made it into a corporation by continuing GREE for a long time.

"Personal management was serious," Mr. Tanaka looks back. Tanaka is the only one who operates, although there are more than 110,000 users. If Mr. Tanaka goes out to the trip or collapses, support and service will stop. It does not mean that there are members who manage GREE as a volunteer. In order to support with multiple people, I thought that it was necessary to create an organization by becoming a company.

There was little income from GREE and the operation cost was covered by private property, but "money is not infinite". It is irresponsible to stop quitting because the money is gone now with 110,000 users. I felt it was a limit to managing personal information of 110,000 people alone.

Even at this stage "income is almost none", and it is in a state not imagined from the present figure.

A half year later in May 2005, GREE has not gotten so big yet, it feels like the following and you can feel that it is quite hard.

Society, the Internet and services ─ ─ SNS Part 3 "Society" making "GREE Co., Ltd." - ITmedia News

The current revenue source is text advertisement or banner advertisement called "net advertisement" in addition to Amazon's affiliate, Google's content match advertisement "AdSense" which was traditional. "There is enough income to turn the current system." Mr. Yamagishi's business, who is in charge of sales, lives, and a lot of advertisement contracts with major players such as MSN, Apple Store, Recruit and so on.

However, "If you become profitable at SNS, or if you become a unique business model of SNS, it is not yet." We will seek out not only advertisements but also unique business.

"I would like to do business that make the most of personal power" - Mr. Tanaka talks about the outlook. "Rakuten Ichiba and Price .com are businesses that collect small power of individuals". Although it is said that there are no specific measures yet, he said that he would like to further expand the information dissemination through diaries and reviews and start a new business with individuals as the core.

At this time it is dim but it shows the direction of GREE to some extent, Mr. Tanaka talks as follows.

"Making GREE and president industry are very similar" - Both GREE and GREE Co., Ltd. have captured one "place" for people to live happily inside, Tanaka said. "It is important to know what to do with who, to make people happy." In the place called GREE, and also in the place called gree Co., if you work happily with a wonderful group and everyone becomes happy - I will devote to making a "place" with such thought.

As you can see from the word "who is important for people to be happy," it is clear that Mr. Tanaka, president, is quite nature to pursue "ideal", which is based on profit Although it does not stand, it is possible to take a glimpse of the decision that quit Rakuten and go with GREE one book, even if it is an ordinary human being who made a decision that could not be done.

And, looking at the GREE as of October 2005 after five months, you can see that it is still struggling to struggle.

Gree, President Tanaka's approach to SNS-style entrepreneurship - CNET Japan


First of all, the number of users is less than mixi, which is about a quarter scale.

Currently, the page view of GREE is about 2.5 million per day, and the number of users is about 240,000. Competitor mixi has exceeded 1 million users in August 2005, but GREE is also planning to expand its service on renewal.

The company itself is also smaller and it is a typical pattern of so-called "venture", it was a very up and coming startup company.

It was December 2004 that I registered as a company, and the first office was made in February 2005. I hired engineers for the first time in spring and raised funds in June. Since then, the number of employees has increased, so I moved to the current office in July. In other words, it is actually that we had been forced to create a company structure over the past year rather than creating a site.

This renewal may be called big news since it was incorporated. In most media news about GREE may have stopped at the end of 2004 "GREE corporation".

About 10 months since then, I was forced to make infrastructure as a company anyway. Even in the same company in the same 20s, Hatena and E · Mercury have a track record of having been working as a company for several years, so it is possible to quickly add new services and functions.

On the other hand, GREE was a service that individuals were using as a hobby and spending a few hours of leisure a day. At first, we could also add features, but as the number of users increased, we just ended up having a day finishing just by writing support mails.

Grie is handled in the same way as a new generation internet company such as Hatena, but in fact it is just a corporation and its start has been delayed five to six years from other companies. I have to recover this delay quickly. I think that it is important to know how far it can catch up within one to two years from entrepreneurship. However, I was fortunate enough that I could have secured a lot of really good people.

GREE started by Mr. Tanaka individually, there was nothing in the background, at this time I was still trying hard, somehow I was doing my best trying to arrange the appearance as a company. As for the most important profit model, it says as follows.

Basically, I want to provide all functions to users free of charge, so I am going to do it led by advertising model. I finally hired a sales representative in August, but since I was also blessed with excellent talent here, I have already realized advertisement from the national client such as KDDI, Democratic Party, recruitment. Since there is a page view as it is, I think that we can do it only by advertisement for the time being.

However, that is a story in the SNS business. Following completion of the infrastructure part, I'd like to look to affiliate, content-linked advertisement, RSS marketing, and even a wide range of services such as Web 2.0 and CGM in the future. In that sense, as a company it may not be necessary to stick to the current profit structure.

"I am planning to do it with the advertisement model led", but when I read it often he said, "It may not be necessary to stick to the profit structure so much as a company" There is a possibility that I realized the limit of advertisement model ".

Because, in the early period, it is hard to make a profit by advertisement, it has been struggling since converting it into a stock company, while advertising has been brought to mixi which exceeds the number of users etc. In other words, at this point as GREE was already being forced to seek out "profits other than advertisements"? It is speculated.

In fact, looking at the profit side, in March 2006 after ten months from the above interviewOfficially opening a word-of-mouth career information site "GREE career"In addition, in April 2006 of the following monthCommercialization of word-of-mouth promotion using SNS and blog in partnership with "Hatena"doing. In May 2006, as for the scale of Glee at this time, I will grasp the actual situation with the following lecture article.

"Growth strategy with 10 years ahead" - President Grie Tanaka talks about entrepreneurial story - CNET Japan

Currently, Glee operates a company with 21 employees and 11 interns. Most of the management team is young in the late 20s and the average age of the employees is 25 years. Mr. Tanaka pointed out that the fact that the company is composed of young employees is a feature of many ventures.

Also, at this point, it is not an advertising model but a totally different thing assumed, and Mr. Tanaka talks as follows.

Mr. Tanaka said in his speech, Glee is next to pay attention to carriers and human resource services. He says he is considering a service that includes elements of Web 2.0 in this field. Glee has launched a career site "GREE! Career" with cross-searching of job information and Q & A function from March.

The talk concluded, how to combine the methods that have been used up to now to create new things, which will become the theme of future growth strategy.

In other words, let's say that we will use human resource services next to advertisements. From this pervasive information, Glee at that time inevitably knew that he continued his hard work to increase the pillar of earnings, and of course that effort was for Glee's users to protect the place called Glee.

However, only two months after the lecture was done, a shocking announcement will be held. Yes, Glee and KDDI (au) came together.

KDDI Company Information: News Release> About KDDI and Glee's Alliance

On the other hand, Glee has launched the SNS "GREE" for PC from February 2004, but in June 2005 introduced SNS "GREE Mobile" for mobile phones, etc. Mobile We also actively expanded our efforts to expand our services.
Through this tie-up, KDDI and Glee integrate KDDI's content business and EC business with each customer base, brand, business know-how etc. regarding Glee's SNS business, planning services at SNS that take advantage of the strengths of mobile phones We will consider the management jointly.

In short, from here, GREE will finally start on the "mobile phone" market in earnest. At the moment the basic part of Glee now finally began.

And, as of the end of October 2006, about 3 months after the announcement at the end of July 2006, it is announced that SNS "EZ GREE" for mobile is starting in November 2006.

KDDI and Glee, SNS for mobile "EZ GREE" started on November 16

EZ GREE strengthens functions for mobile phones based on SNS 'GREE' operated by Glee. The same functions as GREE can be used such as diary and profile creation, message transmission / reception between members, community etc

In addition, as EZ GREE's unique function, it has a decoration function that can decorate a profile, e-mail, a diary, a divination and psychological test that can publish the result in a diary, a function that can display rankings in rankings and so on. In addition to providing position information function linked with GPS, Q & A function that can be used only with mobile phones, search and browsing of Wikipedia is enabled from mobile phones.

As a unique function, I consider much emphasis on the community function, and from this point onwards, further acceleration in the so-called "social" direction will begin.

In addition, this partnership with KDDI is a result of blessing human resources and luck, as you can see from the following article, Glee is really "lucky".

Glee leap forward, the real reason (prequel): Nikkei Business Online

To such a Gree, in July 2006, the opportunities of dry gruesome rolling down. KDDI, a major mobile phone company, invested 364 million yen in Glee with a capital of about 60 million yen, and he decided to adopt GREE as au's customer service.

Miracle that brings a lot of money and users at once to Gory who was stuck. It was 30 years old Naoki Aoyagi of CFO (Chief Financial Officer), who was transferred to Glee four months before KDDI investment.

Aoyagi was in charge of industry with KDDI as well and he also traveled around Europe with accompanying the vice president for a briefing session for shareholders. Using that position, I got the people of Glee in charge of KDDI staff.

A big leap begins with this.

However, even at this point the difference with mixi is overwhelming, read the following article in August 2006 clearly shows the difference to its desperate.

Where is Glee going - CNET Japan

GREE managed SNS "GREE" is a service that Mr. Tanaka Ryoichi Tanaka, President of President Glee President in February 2004 started by individuals. In October of that year, the number of users exceeded 100,000 people, such as having been gaining popularity rapidly, but due to the limitations of personal management, the subsequent mixi has been greatly deviated. Although it became a corporation in December 2004, the difference between the two is opening up. As of August 2006, the number of members is more than 5 million people, while GREE is only about 350,000 people.

Yes, how much mixi was 5 million people, GREE was 350,000 people, about a 14 times difference.

However, Mr. Tanaka's founder, GREE founder, has already begun to perceive that at this point it is already "social game" like thing, that is, "maybe a game is better"? It is a point. The above interview article is what Mr. Tanaka himself is talking about, and there are the following points in it.

A little story may be missing, but I think that it is revolutionary when you see Nintendo DS is popular only this. According to the survey of Enterbrain, there was a report that the sales amount of the portable game machine (total of software and hardware) surpassed the deferred type, but there was a surprise that such a thing exists in the world.

When Nintendo DS comes out, I think that there was a trend such as "what are you saying about mobile type now, from now on is high definition (high definition video)"?

Recently I was shocked when I was talking to young people, "It is tiring to open a personal computer by going home and doing it on mobile". Until then, I was thinking "Whether the button is hard to push on a mobile phone" or "The screen is small", but there is a totally different level from the discussion that is going on.

Nintendo DS is exactly the way it is. At first glance it seems unrelated, and I think that it is actually related to mobile services as a big stream.

Especially the following part is the focus of attention if you think now.

Recently, I think that Apple Computer and Nintendo are incredible. Regardless, Apple and Nintendo were five years ago, it seemed like "This company is useless, is not it?" Apple was pushed by Microsoft and Nintendo succeeded in NES, but Sony's PlayStation came out and was deprived of the market. However, now iPod and Nintendo DS are hit.

It is the most valuable company that keeps the fundamental areas of its own electronics and entertainment but can continue to make state-of-the-art services according to the times like music distribution and portable games I think.

I think that Gree also wishes the wave of a new era such as SNS and mobile, and wants to make it a company that can make better service.

It is certainly the time when Nintendo of this time started to play a dramatic resurrection, and Mr. Tanaka who saw it from the end said "It is more than ten times difference to mixi but it is still going to come yet" With my thoughts, there is a tendency to start turning towards "game", probably unconsciously. Also, as I read the trick "Recently shocked ...", the experience at this time has had a big influence on the rest of the GREE from that point, and it is from the direction like "Web 2.0" Was not it a trigger for GREE to begin selecting meaning "to divide it as necessary evil for profit?" It is possible to predict.

And just this same year, in February 2006 DeNA's "Mobagetown", the biggest rival of GREE, began, and in January 2007 it will begin to show its awesome attack power and momentum.

Mobagetown achieves 200 million PV a day - twice the mixi on mobile - CNET Japan

Moba gateown is a mobile SNS that started service in February 2006. We offer about 50 kinds of free games, avatar, diary and circle (community) and other services, and the service is a registration system that does not require introduction of existing users. Although it is free to use, to purchase items for avatars, a point called "Moba Gold" is required. Mobold Gold can be obtained when introducing the service to Moba gate town unregistered users or when purchasing products at an affiliated EC site.

According to DeNA, the number of members as of the end of December 2006 was 2,590,000, and the monthly PV was 4,867 million. Teenagers were overwhelmingly proportional to the percentage of users at the beginning of service, but since the end of June 2006, users in their twenties have also increased rapidly.

In fact it was easy to understand how much this momentum was overwhelming at that time in the interview article in December 2006.

Aim is to portal of mobile - game & SNS "Mobagetown" Winning cause? - CNET Japan

Dee NA's mobile game & SNS "Mobagetown" is top form. Since its start in February this year, the number of users exceeded 2 million in just nine months. As of November, the number of users reached 2.25 million, monthly page view (PV) grew to reach 3.9 billion, and it is getting unusual success as a mobile SNS. According to Dee NA, when compared on a PV per day basis, it is said that there are more than Yahoo and mixi among mobile sites.

SNS that became fully popular in the world of PC by the advent of mixi, but actually, even in mobile, the fact that the famous operators challenged "mobile SNS" over the past few years, many of them struggled hard, Little known to PC users.

Today SNS is a cell phone / smart phone, but in fact, as of 2006, both the right and left were full of corpses and every corner of the field was dead and dead, and suddenly there suddenly The overwhelming victor who descended was Mobagetown, later Moba gate. Of course, at the end of the time it is about time to do GREE in earnest, but suddenly the newcomer who came from behind suddenly gains GREE out of sight early work and GREE at that time Considering Mr. Tanaka's founder president, it is convincing that this has become decisive and that it became a story that "GREE will also play games".

At that time, although DeNA's Moba gate town that you'd have probably referred to, DeNA did not so easily reach this jackpot, and this is also a terrible detour. The following parts in the above article are very easy to understand.

- Why did you decide to start Moba gateown?

Although we started with the PC auction business "Bidders", in March 2004 we also entered into mobile, launched a mobile auction, Mobaoku. After that, in collaboration with KDDI, "au auction" opened. Even after paying for fee-based services, services are growing steadily. Also, the mobile phone affiliate service called "Pocket Affiliate" which started after that is also good.

So since about August last year, I began to consider further new services, but from the data I gained through the operation of "Pocket Affiliate", for "mobile phone users" again, "music" and "game" very react I understood the tendency that the rate is high.

However, when it comes to music, rights relationships are so hard that entry is difficult. Also, as for games, if you offer it for a fee within the official website, it is hard to start newly from now and start from the lowest rank of the official website (editor note: mobile official website until the previous month Because the order of posting on the site changes according to popularity, such as the number of users and the number of accesses, it tends to be more disadvantageous as the lower placement site).

So I thought about a business model including PC case examples, but since there are sites offering games on advertisement models on PCs, I thought it would be interesting to do the same thing with mobile phones. Although such an example was in the past in the past, too many things are qualitative as well, and judged that "if it can be free with quality similar to the official site game, it will be cool."

However, in the case of the advertisement model, since it is not possible to earn the user's staying time simply by downloading the game, trying to make it into the form of a community. We have considered a mechanism that allows users to easily communicate with each other, such as preparing Avatar as "Tsunagi".

- How was your initial feeling started in February this year?

I already felt a shock from the first day of starting. The entrance rate was also high, and the user's activity was also high from the beginning, as I thought "This PV will come out so much with this number of users". Soon after that users themselves gathered friends in the restaurant.

GREE witnessed the high profitability of Mobage's game begins planning and development of that fishing game "Fishing ★ Star" in January 2007, next month in December 2006 when the above article was published. This is clearly stated on the following page.

The social application development developed by GREE engineers behind the scenes | 【Tech Research Institute】

In relation to the launch of entertainment content in mobile services, from January 2007 it will be planning and developing "Fishing ★ Star". At the same time more than 200,000 people raised to hit game.

Actually "Fishing ★ Star" was completed and the service beganAccording to the lecture May 2007, And from here the gray scale of the great reversal starts to rise.

In addition, there are other ideas that GREE is inspired by Mobage for reversal, for example, the avatar part which was also a feature of Moba gate town, it refers to the part in considerable detail as follows I can see from the article of July 2007.

New GREE introduces "live" avatar and "room" on mobile (1/2) - ITmedia news

On July 10, Glee renewed the profile screen for mobile phones with SNS "GREE" for both PC and mobile phone and "EZ GREE" for au mobile phone. Traditionally, user's free profile image and self-introduction text were displayed, but new user's avatar was set up and a virtual room "room" where Avatar lives is set up. I made it possible to keep the original pet "Clinoppe" (Klinoppe) in the room.

Furthermore, although GREE accelerates this movement, as a result of accelerating too much, in October 2007 three months later, it surprisingly "flames up" to what extent.

Rogue mobile community - GREE riot over avatar - CNET Japan

In September, Glee made all avatars of user's profile image displayed in some avatar linked contents on GREE's mobile site. Those who were concerned that people who opposed it and avatars can only display avatars on all the profile pages in the future, and concerns that their favorite images and photos can not be posted caused opposition campaigns.

Specifically, we set up an opposite community, "If you can not convince this Gree movement, the opposite person, if you can pass this diary as a baton," the campaign to write the opposite sentence in the diary happened. People who agreed to this wrote the same sentence one after another to the diary, and the opposition campaign spread.

In addition, some users wrote down slander to Mr. Tanaka and Glee employees in a diary etc. opened by Grey President and CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka in GREE. In addition, it posted pictures of employees and their families.

However, GREE, which has witnessed the explosion of revenue and the explosion of members due to the combination of Avatar and game of Moba gateown, has repeatedly deleted / withdraws from the comment against these movements by the users, old users also rebounded It falls into a vicious circle of doing. At this point GREE, which had reached 2.47 million members, did not break bullish attitudes and the relationship with the users at that time worsened. At this point, users such as so-called "sensible users" and "users who supported us since the early days" have gone away, and conversely, by users who adapted to GREE at the time, the users who support the current GREE The foundation of the formation was formed.

In fact, it is also pointed out at this point that "You are thinking only about making money" such as the following.

Besides this, Gree's main source of revenue is attributed to advertisement and user billing (sales of paid members and avatar items) as one of the reasons for this uproar. As Glee, in order to raise profits, I have a desire to actively register on the site of advertiser and purchase avatar items. The kind of "down-spirit" was seeped out, especially young users invited repulsion "Are you thinking about making money only?"

Moreover, the cause of such rebound occurred was the diary of Mr. Tanaka, the founder. It seems that it was written as follows in the diary.

And another thing, Mr. Tanaka was quite unexpected, but sometimes I got more of a user's opposition. It is the contents of the diary written by Mr. Tanaka on September 11. This diary on the subject "I will tell you about Avatar soon" is a diary written about the fun of Avatar, "Before this riot occurs," irrespective of the automatic display of Avatar "(Mr. Tanaka).

Among them, Mr. Tanaka said, "Avatar, super funny. Considerable, interesting.Today I spent 2000 yen, I wish I would like to talk with big voice when there are people who do not know the fun of Avatar, this time around this time" There. This phrase or content can only be thought of as "making GREE users foolish." "2000 yen for you may be cheap, but I think that it is important how much money is 2000 yen for us I have bought the antipathy of the user? "

As Mr. Tanaka, I felt that the phrase "I'm about to say about ● ●" written in other people's blog was interesting, it was only diverted in the title. Also, it was also true that the avatar felt interesting, "I heard that avatar is popular in Korea from around 10 years ago but it was a half-trusted.It became to be used by myself recently and it is said that it is really fun I thought, "I just wrote my feelings. Diary is open to the public in general, but usually it is about 200 to 300 accesses per day, "It is only by my friend" (Mr. Tanaka) That's what I meant for my colleagues. was. It was my first time to use 2000 yen a day for Avatar, so I wanted to tell you that it was a "hanging" service.

However, one user opposing the automatic display of Avatar discovered this diary. It has been subject to "festival".

Mr. Tanaka seems to be troubled, "I do not know when and in what form I can see who I can see."

That is, from this point on, Tanaka himself has already experienced the situation that "avatar is interesting, profitable is amazing", and by a fierce opposition from users who trusted further, in a sense, until now It seems that the feeling that "users who support GREE" from "the important users of GREE" has deteriorated in consciousness? I think. In fact Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Tanaka up to that incident actually differed quite a bit and the policy of the business changed from the "cherish user" attitude until then, now it depends on the degree of rare item charge As social games that are said to "exploit from the user" are prosperous, it is unthinkable from Mr. Tanaka who valued users so far, and it is a matter of opposition from users etc. It seems that the stacking seems to be considerably shocking.

There is another reason for why you started running into such violence until you disregarded your opinion. Actually, it was "deficit". Nikkei BusinessThis articleIt is written as follows.

As a result of shifting to mobile for avoiding the SNS for PC where mixi has built an almost oligopolistic state, the number of members certainly increased. But I do not want to make money. Investment in servers to withstand large-scale access increased, and recruitment of personnel also increased.

The content also expanded like Moba gate town, without relying solely on SNS, such as free game, free deco mail, and the ability to get a virtual currency when inviting friends, with the start of EZ GREE. As a result, in the fiscal year ending June 2007, we will post an operating loss of about 100 million yen.

Moreover, as of March 2007, mixi has 9.2 million members, Moba gateown has 4.4 million people, GREE is just 1 million people. The compromised GREE at this time made a decision to become "Glee" we know now. The episode is said as follows.

In December 2006 when this situation gradually became clear, Aoyagi declared his intentions, frankly talking frankly, showing financial data in front of all the 40 employees who had been swelling at that time.

"If we do not make it at least in the black for the coming fiscal year (the fiscal year ending June 2008), our listing in the next period will be hopeless, we will not be able to procure new financing, so that we can win other companies It will be hopeless. "

"We have a plan like this and the worst scenario is this: if I run out of money I can do it if I want to collect it as a CFO, but everyone knows that it can not be helped That's right. "

"We do not generate revenue simply by launching GREE for mobile, I think Glee has no future if I do not increase the number of members dramatically, find new revenue sources, or do both."

"If we do not increase the number of members more dramatically, find new revenue sources, do both, Glee has no futureIt is not hard to imagine that this word of being the biggest trigger to lead to Glee now.

Indeed, as is well known from here after all, the profit has steadily increased due to the socialization of the game and the system and mechanism that encourages the shogunate heart, with the accompanying increase in the number of members,Announced that it will be listed on Mothers in November 2008Mr. Tanaka who started listing in December and got a large amount of funds and then four months later in April 2009 when he started getting a lot of money answered the interview as follows and Mr. Tanaka of the beginning And it is creating a different business-like atmosphere.

Turning point is "steering to mobile" - Glee achieved 10 million users - CNET Japan

- We announced that we have exceeded 10 billion page views (PV) per month on a monthly basis. It is almost the same PV level as mixi and it seems to be getting closer to Moba gate town, but what do you think about the competitive advantage etc? We also offer billing services such as games and avatars, but will you focus on these even after next term?

Our stance on development is "I do not care what other media is doing". Since Google has done research on Yahoo!, it is not a translation that has come out, we have not developed competition awareness since we were developing GREE alone.

There is also a movement to offer similar services as Avatar and "Fishing ★ Star" (Fishing Game) just because the listing has been successful due to the billing service, but nothing is born alone.

Regarding the future, we are going to push forward the same thing as it is now rather than focusing on specific areas.

- In the mobile version, we offer Avatar, "Fishing ★ Star", "Clinoppe" (Pet Training Game) etc and the charging service seems to be doing fine. Revenues from billing also increased by 57.5% from the previous quarter to 2,180 million yen in the second quarter settlement of accounts for the period ending June 2009 (October - December 2008).

Although we do not disclose breakdown of accounting revenue, various services are used steadily.

In addition, although the charge is growing, the advertising revenue is also steady (advertising revenue in the second quarter of FY06 / 09 increased 22.3% from the previous quarter to 722 million yen). There are some industries with fewer advertisements, such as human resources and real estate, but overall they are growing and I think GREE is being evaluated as a media.

As I looked at this way, Moba Gee, who pursued rapidly and overtook Glee, Mixi in a healthy period as forever as a Tankoba on eyes, intense bashing from the user, such as " It is packed with elements that create impatience ", and furthermore it was" deficit ". From such a dilemma, the recursion succeeded at once, I got a lot of money, "What I hit was a good thing" and that direction, that is, the extreme user now sucks money too much It accelerated rapidly to the direction of too much "social game".

Indeed, in the following article, Mr. Tanaka himself, the founder of the founder surely feeling something to say even slightly "punishment of conscience" as of January 2010 can be found in the following article. Mr. Tanaka is not necessarily a 100% miser, but I still need money to live, but I realize that I am sacrificing something beyond that in order to get too many things It is clearly stated that there is something.

President Grie Tanaka talks about changes in GREE - ITmedia news

Tanaka is also one of the Internet industry people. The current GREE acknowledges that "I do not necessarily make it as my own thing to use". Just saying, "The service that more people can use is a good service that will affect society" based on the belief that they are trying to make services reaching trout.

A discrepancy between services used by you and services provided by the company. President Tanaka will analyze that the meaning of "net user" has been different from 2004 and now due to the spread of Internet use from mobile phones.

"At the time of 2004, the size of the net user was small, I was close to the median value of the user, but it may be that it gradually goes out of the median.GREE can also enjoy me, but I can enjoy it more than me I think that it will not become a thing that many people can use unless it is made a service with many people.When it is best to be able to create services that everyone else can use, it is the best, I am not trying to create a service aimed at. "

"Not necessarily making it as something I want to useIt is certain that Mr. Tanaka is a different person from the miserly morning person who said "as long as you make a profit" it is OK.

So what is the goal rather than "gold"? In fact, in the lecture of September 2010, he says as follows.

CEDEC 2010: Ten million users acquired "simpleness like pachinko" Grey Tanaka speaks the highest hit honor (2/2) - ITmedia News

GREE aims to become a 100 million member in the future and is also aiming for overseas expansion. "I have never heard of it in Japan, but there are a lot of things like Facebook and Twitter worldwide," said Greet Tanaka. "I do not know if there is an office in Japan." When I see that the service in the United States has acquired many users in Japan, he says, "Why can not we do it makes my heart of challenge burn".

For that, first of all, "I have to make it a company where Japanese top players gather," he said, Naoya Ito, who left Hatena, announced that he joined Glee, the venue was silent for a moment.

In other words, "I want to fight in the world". This is also stated in the same September 2010 interview, and I'm actually saying that "game" is just that means.

Glee is not "game service": Nikkei Business Online

- DeNA focuses on social games, Mixi is concentrating on platform business. What is Gree aiming at?

TanakaFirst of all, we want to make it clear that we are just choosing "game" to accelerate communication. It is not intended for people who love so-called games. To the end the game exists to facilitate communication with friends. I think that human relations will be built by communicating through entertainment, especially games.

There is not yet a Japanese company having a successful experience set in the global market. We want to make a success case that we can do even companies that average 30 years old. I wish I could have a chance. The Silicon Valley and Chinese people actually make the business successful. The CEO of the world's largest SNS "facebook" is 26 years old. It can not be impossible for them to make it.

And I will start talking about "another goal".

Another goal is to have 100 million users use it. This is absolutely impossible in Japan alone. It can not be achieved without looking at the world market. I would like to be the first company in Japan to make internet services that 100 million people use. There are things in China that are used by tens of millions of people on net services created by SMEs.

So, we do not want to do just social games. I am challenging to change the world through the Internet. Although social games and SNS are gathering attention now, in the future we will extend the "social" part.

And now, finally it is earning head, the "social game" which is also the driving force of that "100 million users" has become a dangerous situation that may be crushed as it is, so Glee will take control of the situation, We will devise countermeasures.

First, announced on March 16, 2012 that it restricts the "billing" part, which is responsible for the concentration of accusations. It will be as follows from April 2012 next month.

GREE CO., LTD. | News Release | Press Release 2012 | Introduction and implementation of measures to improve GREE, usage environment

Users under 15 years old: up to 5,000 yen per month
16-19 year old user: Up to 10,000 yen per month

Perhaps this figure is not a numerical value "It does not affect the total profit so much" at this point? It is expected. Because Gree, who is thinking about global expansion, lacks funds · It is the biggest taboo that growth stops. Because the engine for that is "social game" and the fuel is "billing", there is no reason to set the numerical value to stop the internal combustion engine. But even if you push too much "fuel" which is fuel, because "social game" of the engine part self-destructed, it began to self restraint, so we corrected the orbit and changed from "wrong direction" to " It is trying to advance to.

Just six days after the above announcement, as if to support it, we declare again to expand the whole world.

GREE CO., LTD. | News Release | Press Release 2012 | Comprehensive Business Alliance with Gory and Dentsu, Global Expansion

Since establishing a US subsidiary in January 2011, Glee is accelerating global development with the aim of establishing the world's largest social platform, including establishing subsidiaries in various countries around the world, and tie-ups with leading global companies. Meanwhile, Dentsu is promoting the strengthening and expanding of global business, and now it has expanded to 167 companies in 28 countries and has grown to an advertising company group (as of the end of December 2011) with more than 20,000 employees It is. Through this business alliance, the two companies will work together to exploit the strengths of each other to develop the global social media market.

Of course, measures to protect the current "social game" that is packed with overwhelmingly excessive money-paying mechanisms that are too opaque, too much like "coverage of weekly diamonds" from "officials from the authorities" Also on last Wednesday, March 21, 2012, Dee NA, who has rival Mobage, Mixi pulled by Glee, even without the glory of former glory, and even Dwango · Cyber ​​Agent · We are launching with each company such as NHN Japan.

GREE Inc. | News Releases | Press Releases 2012 | 6 Platform Operators Set Up a Liaison Council on Social Game Usage Improvement

With the continuing expansion of the network game market including social games, the purpose of this project is to promote more sound development of the market, maintain and improve the good use environment, promote appropriate use by users, and enhance and strengthen user protection We will establish a liaison council with people and we will initiate various initiatives while collaborating with development partners and related departments that provide games to each platform.

Although it seems that it is said to be "to enhance and strengthen user protection", as it is obvious from the transition and trajectory of Glee thus far, this may be overwhelming, but it is not money but a bigger goal It is the "Glee" so far that has gone by being overwhelmed by the ambition of "100 million users worldwide" and has strayed.

However, Tanaka Yoshikazu himself is not wrong. Although it is wrong as a result, even his own founder himself can no longer correctly control "Glee", on the contrary the founder himself is also controlled by "Glee", that is It is "Glee" so far.

More than anything, even if you can temporarily make a fun experience by playing Glee social games, the price and the price for that are obviously beyond the line of self-responsibility clearly now so that Glee himself We also decide the maximum cash limit and set up a liaison council to manage it somehow.

These Grie's actions themselves are more evidence than anyone who is aware of the fact that "Glee's current direction is wrong as a platform provider" because it is too overkill In fact, what it should be, that is, as Gory's founder Mr. Tanaka Yoshikazu first chose "GREE is something like a child for meIt is evidence that the fact that Griley's true value is now questioned whether it is possible to present it to users and other people well in the future by not being able to forget the original intention of still being That's why.