Isao Moriyasu (Left): DeNA CEO, Wang Yong (Center), Ren Yi (Right)
DeNA China announced that the company’s CEO Wang Yong stepped down from his position due to personal reasons after five years at the helm of the Japanese game operator’s Chinese unit. Wang is named as honorary director in recognition of his contributions during the long tenure. Ren Yi, former vice president and head of CEO office, is named as the new CEO (source in Chinese).
DeNA entered Chinese mobile market by acquiring the local mobile social network Tianxia back in July 2009. DeNA China’s businesses which mostly based on feature phones back then, failed to catch up with the rising trend of smartphone and lagged behind in face of fierce competitions from prevailing local social networking services like Weibo and Renren.
The company then shifted focus and released in 2011 Mobage China Network, the Chinese version of a popular Japanese mobile social game platform under DeNA which allows gamers to buy social games and virtual goods, aiming to introduce successful Japanese games into Chinese market. However, the Chinese versions of these Japanese HTML5-powered blockbusters were not well accepted by Chinese players after being transformed into smartphone platforms.
In the two recent years, DeNA China is mainly focused on R&D, operation and distribution of social network games. DeNA China recorded profits in 2013 thanks to the success of first-party title NBA: My Dream and Blood Brothers. The company currently has more than 300 employees. Ren Yi disclosed that the firm will deepen its cooperation with different game distribution channels and media in this year.
The parent company DeNA is a Tokyo-based developer and operator of mobile services including free-to-play games, the Mobage social games platform, e-commerce and other online offerings. The company’s revenue tumbled for five straight quarters to $411 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 (Q3 fiscal year), down 20% YOY. The Japanese company started to explore various new fields by releasing music player Groovy, free call app Comm and travelling portal Skygate, etc.
image credit: DeNA
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