DeNA Launches Mobage in S.Korea
DeNA just announced their Mobage platform launch in S.Korea with Daum – targeting 10M users in first year: http://bit.ly/yx2RAg
Also noted PR today: Infinity Blade Cross Now Available on Mobage for iOS in Japan – Video Here [Eds]
DeNA and Daum Bring Mobile Social Games to South Korea
TOKYO, JAPAN and SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – Feb. 20, 2012 – DeNA Co., Ltd., a world-leading operator of mobile social gaming platforms, and Daum Communications Corp., South Korea’s major portal operator, today launched Daum Mobage, a localized version of DeNA’s Mobage social gaming platform for South Korea. The Daum Mobage platform and gaming apps are now available for download on Android Market. With aggressive marketing and a slate of high-quality game launches planned, the two companies target attracting 10 million users for Daum Mobage in the first year.
Daum Mobage allows smartphone users in South Korea to enjoy social networking features, such as avatars, status updates, creation and participation in groups as well as high-quality, Korean-language social games from around the world. All 38 million current Daum users can easily sign up for Daum Mobage with their existing Daum IDs and passwords. DeNA and Daum will continue to support Daum Mobage with a steady stream of captivating titles from South Korea and the rest of the world.
Players can download and play free mobile games and purchase Moba-coins, the virtual currency on Mobage, to enhance their gaming experiences. Purchases can be made using the Daum Billing mobile payment system, which is compatible with carrier billing, credit cards as well as the Daum Cash virtual currency. DeNA and Daum plan to add more options for payment methods for increased convenience.
“Daum has been a strong market leader in South Korea with its extremely popular mobile Web services,” said Steven Yang, DeNA Seoul’s Regional Head. “DeNA is excited to partner with Daum to bring a strong slate of high-quality social mobile games to millions of smartphone users in South Korea in an effort to establish Mobage as the world’s top social gaming platform.”
DeNA and Daum plan to attract new users through Daum’s popular services including its PC and mobile Web portal (www.daum.net) with 15 billion monthly page views, MyPeople mobile messenger service with over 16 million users and the nation’s largest AD@m mobile advertisement network with over 15 billion monthly page views. Daum Mobage apps for iOS devices are also in development.
“We expect Daum Mobage to quickly become South Korea’s most popular mobile gaming platform,” said Kyongwan Son, Daum’s Director of New Initiative Division. “By integrating DeNA’s Mobage platform with Daum’s services, including its influential mobile advertising network and mobile messenger service, we will strive to stimulate this new market and gather more than 10 million users with aggressive marketing and developer support.”
Korean game developers who wish to develop for Daum Mobage and other Mobage networks can use the software development kit (SDK) with ngCore, DeNA Group’s proprietary game engine that allows for quick JavaScript-based development. To further expand developer support, DeNA plans to open a Korean-language developer site in March to support Mobage SDKs using other game engines such as Unity as well as SDKs for native apps.
In addition, Daum Mobage uses the same API as Japan’s Mobage platform, allowing developers who have already developed for Mobage in Japan to seamlessly localize their content for the Korean market.
DeNA and Daum expect the mobile social gaming market in South Korea to expand rapidly given the highly developed online gaming market and the popularity of smartphones. The Korea Creative Content Agency estimates the nation’s primarily PC-based online gaming market to be larger than 5 billion U.S. dollars. According to the Korea Communications Commission, there are more than 20 million smartphone users in the country.