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Japan's DeNA to Acquire 20 Percent Stake in Aurora Feint

By Narayan Bhat, TMCnet Contributor

DeNA, Japan’s largest operator of mobile social networks, has agreed to purchase 20 percent stake in Burlingame, Calif.-based Aurora Feint, developer of OpenFeint, which makes iPhone (News - Alert) games more social and easily discovered.

 

DeNA, whose mobile portal has more than 15 million users, has already been using Aurora Feint’s social gaming platform in its newest smartphone in the Japanese market. In the coming days, DeNA will also use OpenFeint as the backbone for its new roster of mobile games that it is launching in the English-speaking market.

 

One of DeNA’s key partners in the gaming industry, Hudson, has also agreed to use OpenFeint in its game lineup starting with Bomberman for the Christmas season, the companies said in a press release.

 

Analysts believe it is an ideal agreement as that will expand the market for both Aurora Feint as well as DeNA. Moreover, Japan is one of the most active markets for mobile social networking in the world. As DeNA has wide experience in building social networks for mobile users, it becomes an ideal partner for the American company.

 

“We look forward to a long term partnership which will bring the synergy of our experience in operating large mobile social networks, and the experience of OpenFeint in operating a large social gaming platform in the smartphone market,” said Tomoko Namba, CEO of DeNA.

 

The OpenFeint platform lets gamers view high scores on leader boards, show off achievements to friends, and purchase related games.

 

Publishers can use it to promote games to a community of customers. That builds customer loyalty, engaging customers for a longer time.

 

A majority of DeNA’s customers are teens and the operator generates nearly $200 million in annual revenue.

 

OpenFeint, which has offered 200 games on the AppStore, has over 2,500 registered application developers.

 

“DeNA is a major player in the mobile, social networking and gaming space,” said Peter Relan, chairman and founding investor of Aurora Feint. “Their investment and partnership positions the OpenFeint platform for long-term stability and dominance in the smartphone market, and the Hudson relationship is just a small demonstration of the strength of the DeNA partnership.”

 

DeNA has found success in Mobage-town, the fastest-growing virtual social networking service, driven by free-of-charge games. In Mobage-town, there are over 250 titles from various genres including flash based casual games and MMORPG’s.

Narayan Bhat is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Narayan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Marisa Torrieri