DeNA Continues Overseas Push, Establishes DeNA Asia in Singapore

DeNA is making a big move today to expand its business activities in Asia. After establishing a Korean subsidiary back in June and then launching Mobage in China in July, the Japanese online social gaming company just announced plans to establish DeNA Asia.

The subsidiary will be based in Singapore, where the company can explore opportunities in Southeast and South Asia. The head of DeNA Asia will be Tetsuya Mori, who remarked on the move in the announcement:

Southeast and South Asia are full of entrepreneurial talent and has huge growth potential. DeNA Asia will serve as local developers’ gateway to the global market and bring unprecedented monetization opportunities by enabling them to deliver social games across borders and devices.

The company has previously stated that it will employ three approaches to win overseas customers for Mobage: the application market, tie-ups with telecom carriers and device makers, and advertising. So we’ll see how it goes about executing this strategy with its many new presences abroad.

DeNA’s activities in Asia, as well as in Western markets, are yet another example of large Japanese internet companies looking to markets abroad. Just as Gree has made alliances throughout the region, including partnerships in the last ten days with China’s Ultizen and Korea’s SK Telecom, expect DeNA to form alliances in the Asia region as well now that this new outpost has been established.

Update: We got in touch with a DeNA representative who noted that “the initial objective of the Singapore office is not to expand the Mobage user base in the consumer market but is more focused on partnering with promising developers based in the region.” We were also told of plans to establish a subsidiary in Sweden as well (see DeNA’s announcement in Japanese, ngmoco’s release in English). When asked about recent activities abroad, the representative added “We are going global because we are ready and the market happens to be ready too.”