Japan's GREE Continues Foreign Expansion, Partners With SK telecom in Korea

Japanese social gaming heavyweight GREE announced late last week that Chinese partner Tencent would be implementing a new open platform for feature phones and smartphones that is compatible with GREE’s own game platform standards. And today we’re hearing even more news from GREE, as it has partnered with South Korea’s SK telecom, thus entering the Korean games market as well.

SK telecom is the largest carrier in South Korea, with over 25 million subscribers as of November 2010. That represents over half of the market share, and a great ‘in’ for GREE to enter Korean gaming space.

According to its announcement, GREE set up shop within SK telecom’s ‘T store,’ the country’s first app store service.

As we’ve pointed out many times before, GREE is not the only Japanese company looking abroad these days. Rival DeNA also recently stepped up operations in China, launching its Mobage platform there (as well as in America). And before just a few weeks prior it also established a Korean subsidiary, DeNA Seoul, in an effort to explore local opportunities.

It’s interesting to watch both gaming companies jockey to make regional alliances. Check out one of our recent posts for more on how they’re effectively consolidating Asia’s gaming space in the process.