Gree senior says more acquisitions to be done June end of global gaming platform

Beijing Time May 3, according to foreign media reports, the Japanese game developers Gree subsidiary Gree International CEO Qingliu Straight tree (Otoma Aoyagi) said in Wednesday, the company will seek more acquisitions and mergers and acquisitions. Gree International is currently responsible for gree operations in the North American and Latin American markets.

Gree is not known in the US, but it will soon be facing face-to-face competition with social game developer Zynga in the smartphone gaming market. Gree is rich in Japan, while Zynga is a leading player in the social gaming market. Although two companies do not dominate the mobile gaming market, two companies want to share more in the market through acquisitions.

Gree announced in Tuesday that the company has bought mobile game developer Funzio at a price of 210 million dollars to develop games for European and American players. Funzio's games include "Crime City", "Xiandai War" and "Kingdom age", which have attracted many players on iOS, Android and Facebook platforms. A few weeks ago, it was reported that Funzio was financing 350 million of billions of dollars in valuations and was in contact with several potential investors by auction.

Meanwhile, Zynga bought game developer Omgpop at $150 million to $200 million this March to expand in the mobile gaming market. The deal reflects that game giants are now selling in the mobile gaming market to take advantage of the fragmented market.

"The Jost of the two big game industries is about to start an arms race," said Joost van Dreunen, a market research firm SuperData analyst. Fan-Drunen added that the acquisition of Funzio would help ensure Gree's foothold in the Western gaming market. But in the long run, the company needs to develop or buy more games to stabilise its market position.

Green Liuzhishu said Gree is currently considering acquiring gaming studios in Europe and Asia and acquiring payment services, mobile applications networks and gaming development tool providers. "If there are good assets in the market, we will be interested in them," he said. It's important to get involved in every market and we have to do it first. ”

In the last fiscal year ended June 30, Gree revenue reached $795 million trillion, with a net profit of about $226 million. Gree says Funzio's game has been downloaded over 20 million times via Facebook, Apple and Google's mobile platform. The acquisition of Funzio will help Gree consolidate its strategy of providing a social gaming platform and developing games on its own. In April this year, Gree spent $104 million to acquire OpenFeint, a gaming platform provider based in California. Through OpenFeint, game developers can associate games with OpenFeint registered users, a bit like Apple's game Center.

By the end of June this year, Gree said, the company plans to launch a new global gaming platform that will combine gree Japanese and American assets. Green Liuzhishu said the total number of global users of Gree Network has surpassed 190 million people, the company's goal is to reach 1 billion users. Green Willow Direct Tree predicts that by the end of this year, more than half of the company's revenue will come from smartphones, more than the current 30%. Gree started the smartphone gaming business in early 2011. Currently, nearly 90% of Gree's revenue comes from selling virtual goods in games.