Japan Digest: DOCOMO acquired VMG Media, GREE exceeded 130M users

Here are some interesting startup news from Japan, not only from its capital, Tokyo, but also other startup hubs like Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, and many more.

(1) NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced that it has acquired an approximately 25% stake in Vietnam’s largest mobile content provider, VMG Media Joint Stock Company (VMG), which owns a market share of roughly 25% in the country. The stock purchase, worth approximately 370 billion Vietnam Dong or about 1.4 billion Japanese yen, represents NTT DOCOMO’s first investment in Vietnam.

(2) GREE has announced that their mobile device social platform in August has exceeded 130 million users worldwide, achieving 107 million users outside of Japan.

(3) Yumemi has announced that they are joining forces with Booyah, maker of the American location information social game “MyTown” which has over 4 million users. From now on, “MyTown” will be developed in Japan.

(4) Fuji Television with GREE and Synphonie have announced that they will offer the GREE feature phone version of the popular TV show “Ryouri no Tetsujin (Iron Chef)” as a social game, “Iron Chef for GREE New Challengers.”

(5) Colopl is planning to link sports game “Pro Baseball! Colopl Series” with their cell phone geo-location game “Koroni-na Seikatsu” (Colony Life).

(6) CyberAgent, which manages “Ameba,” has begun to offer the second installation of their English conversation study application series for iPhone, “Moshi Kareshi Ga Gaikokujin Dattara Eikaiwa” (If Your Boyfriend was a Foreigner English Conversation) and “Moshi Kanojo Ga Gaikokujin Dattara Eikaiwa”(If your girlfriend was a foreigner English Conversation).

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.