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SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in revenues and income and market cap

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in revenues and income and market cap SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in all major KPIs
SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in revenues and income and market cap SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in all major KPIs

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in all major KPIs

SoftBank presents annual results for the Financial Year which ended March 31, 2014 today, NTT-Docomo and KDDI presented their results a few days ago. Using projections published by SoftBank and using data found in the Japanese business press over the recent days, we have compared SoftBank, Docomo and KDDI financial results:

SoftBank overtook both Docomo and KDDI in all major KPIs: SoftBank’s annual revenues, operating profits and net after-tax profits are higher than NTT-Docomo’s and KDDIs.

To understand SoftBank, read our report about the Softbank Group, and read our report on Japan’s telecom sector.

The reason for SoftBank overtaking NTT-Docomo and KDDI are both excellent performance of SoftBank’s core businesses, mobile communications and media in Japan, and also a series of recent investments: SuperCell, GungHo, SPRINT, BrightStar, eMobile/eAccess, Willcom and more which all have been very successful investments sofa, not counting Alibaba, which of course is an amazing success story.

Going forward, of course the key questions now are the turn-round of SPRINT, and whether SoftBank can succeed with the much rumored acquisition of T-Mobile in the USA, and possibly also a major European acquisition.

We have today updated our Report on Japan’s telecommunications landscape, to include latest financial and subscriber data, and latest M&A activities: Japan’s telecommunications market is one of the world’s most active also regarding M&A and restructuring.

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in Market cap (data for May 7, 2014):

SoftBank: ¥ 8908.9 billion (US$ 89 billion)
NTT-Docomo: ¥ 7049.5 billion (US$ 70 billion)
KDDI: ¥ 4925.2 billion (US$ 49 billion)

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual revenues:

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual revenues
SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual revenues

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual operating income:

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual operating income
SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual operating income

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual net income:

SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual net income
SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual net income

Learn more about SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, and his 30/300 year vision for SoftBank

Report on “SoftBank today and 300 year vision” (approx 120 page, pdf file)

SoftBank today and 300 year vision (20th edition)

Japan’s telecommunications industry

(269 pages, pdf file)

Japan telecommunications industry (66th edition) – Market analysis & tutorial

Copyright (c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Categories
smart phone games

Supercell Japan advertises to improve today’s top-ten rank in Japan’s i-Phone/iOS App-Store

softbank acquires supercell
softbank acquires supercell

Supercell Japan is not satisfied with 10th rank for Clash of Clans in the Japanese iPhone app store…

by Gerhard Fasol

Report on Japan’s game makers and game markets

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

Japan is the world’s No. 1 top grossing app market both for iOS apps and for Android apps, as we discussed before.

Supercell Japan: investments by SoftBank and GungHo

Supercell recently opened operations in Japan, and attracted major investment by SoftBank and SoftBank affiliate Gung-Ho.

Supercell advertising Clash of Clans in Tokyo Shibuya - one of the world's busiest rail stations
Supercell advertising Clash of Clans in Tokyo Shibuya – one of the world’s busiest rail stations

Supercell currently advertises with large scale posters on the platforms of one of the busiest rail stations globally, Tokyo-Shibuya. Currently Supercell’s “Clash of Clans” is ranked on No. 10 position of top grossing iPhone Apps for all categories combined, while GungHo’s “Puzzle & Dragons” is on No. 1 (Gung-Ho is investor in SuperCell).

Supercell Japan on rank 10 in the top grossing ranking of the iPhone app store:

“Top Grossing” ranking in the iPhone AppStore for all categories combined:

  1. Puzzle & Dragon by GungHo Online Entertainment
  2. Monsterstrike by mixi
  3. LINE Pokopang by Naver Japan
  4. Brave Frontier by Alim
  5. PyuoPuyo!! Quest by Sega
  6. Dragon Poker by Asobism
  7. Disney Tsumu Tsumu by Naver Japan
  8. Pro Yakyu Pride 2014 by Colopl
  9. LINE by Naver Japan
  10. Clash of Clans by Supercell
Clash of Clans advertising on the platform of one of the world's busiest rail stations - Tokyo/Shibuya
Clash of Clans advertising on the platform of one of the world’s busiest rail stations – Tokyo/Shibuya
Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

Copyright(c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Categories
games Mobile mobile games smart phone games

Japan iPhone AppStore: 10 out of the 25 top grossing apps in Japan are by companies of foreign origin. Can you guess which?

Japan smartphone game business
Japan smartphone game business

Japan is No. 1 globally in terms of iOS AppStore + Google Play revenues, bigger and faster growing than USA

10 out of 25 top grossing apps in Japan are of foreign origin

Japan game market report (398 pages, pdf-file)

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

AppAnnie showed that in terms of combined iOS AppStore + Google Play revenues, Japan is No. 1 globally, spending more than the USA. Therefore Japan is naturally the No. 1 target globally for many mobile game companies, and 10 out of 25 top grossing apps in Japan are of foreign origin!

Japan’s iconic game companies created many game categories – this tradition carries over to mobile gaming now.

Building a business in Japan is not trivial

Many foreign game companies have failed and given up. Foreign game companies that have recently given up in Japan include Zynga and Habbo Hotel. EA has given up twice, and is now undertaking the third entry to Japan. To understand some of the key mistakes foreign companies make in Japan, read our blog about why Vodafone failed in Japan.

Lets have a look at the list of top grossing games in the Apple iOS AppStore today. Out of the 25 top grossing games in the AppStore, 10 are by foreign originating companies. Can you guess which these are by reading the list below?

So Japan is certainly not a “closed market”. Actually, it is obvious that Apple does not discriminate in any way against foreign companies in Japan.

Interestingly, neither Nintendo, nor Rovio’s games, such as Angry Birds appear among the 200 “top grossing games” in Apple’s iOS Japan AppStore.

Apple iOS AppStore-Japan “Top Grossing” games ranking – 10 out of the 25 top grossing apps in Japan are by companies of foreign origin

Can you guess which 10 are by companies of foreign origin?

(read the rankings on July 13, 2014 here)

February 4, 2014:

  • No. 1 Puzzle & Dragons by GungHo
  • No. 2 Quiz RPG Witch and black cat quiz (by Colopl)
  • No. 3 Dragon Quest Monsters Superlight (by Square Enix)
  • No. 4 Monster strike (by Mixi)
  • No. 5 LINE Pokopang (by Naver Japan)
  • No. 6 Pro yakiyu PRIDE (by Colopl Inc)
  • No. 7 Tsuri Suta (by GREE)
  • No. 8 Sengoku Enbu (by Sumzap Inc)
  • No. 9 Puyo puyo!! Quest (by Sega Corporation)
  • No. 10 Gunzei RPG aoi no sangokushi (by Colopl)
  • No. 11 Bousou retsuden tansha tora (by Donuts Ltd) (a motobicycle race game)
  • No. 12 Dragon league X (by Asobism Co Ltd)
  • No. 13 Clash of Clans (by Supercell)
  • No. 14 Love life! School Idol Festival (by KLab Inc.)
  • No. 15 Candy Crush Saga (by King.com Ltd)
  • No. 16 LINE (by Naver Japan)
  • No. 17 Dragon poker (by Asobism Co Ltd)
  • No. 18 Gundam Area wars (by NamcoBandai Games Inc)
  • No. 19 Brave frontier (by Alim Co Ltd)
  • No. 20 Chain cronicle. Original scenario RPG. Chencro (by SEGA Corporation)
  • No. 21 LINE Play (by Naver Japan)
  • No. 22 LINE Bubble! (by Naver Japan)
  • No. 23 LINE Disney tsumu tsumu (by Naver Japan)
  • No. 24 World soccer collection S (by KONAMI)
  • No. 25 Hay Day (by Supercell)

Japan game market report

(398 pages, pdf-file)

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

Copyright (c)2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Categories
games M&A mobile games smart phone games Software

“Japanese superman Masayoshi Son” invests in Supercell (interview for Talouselämä, Finland’s largest business newspaper)

softbank acquires supercell
softbank acquires supercell

“Japanese superman Masayoshi Son” invests in SuperCell – interview with Finland’s largest business newspaper Talouselämä

Talouselämä (Finland’s largest business newspaper)’s news editor Mirva Heiskanen interviewed me for their article entitled “Japanese superman Masayoshi Son invests in Supercell” (Supercellin ostaja Masayoshi Son on Japanin supermies).

More interviews by Gerhard Fasol.
To understand SoftBank better, read our report on SoftBank, an analysis of SoftBank, history, current data, and the context.

Here are some of my main points:

Its not well known in Europe and US yet, but SoftBank is a very large company, and aiming to become the world’s largest company

SoftBank is really a very large company, driven by the charismatic founder Masayoshi Son. To get a feeling for the size of SoftBank, while the investment in Supercell is a large amount of money by anybody’s standards, its about 5% of SoftBank’s acquisitions this year alone (in addition to M&A type investments, SoftBank also invests substantial sums in networking equipment and other telecom business infrastructure and data centers).

SoftBank invested in about 1500 companies, the most famous currently being Alibaba

Overall SoftBank invests in about 1500 companies or more: SoftBank takes a venture capital approach to this portfolio. Overall SoftBank investments are incredibly successful. As an example, look at the currently important Alibaba case:
Softbank acquired 36.7% of Alibaba in 2000 for US$ 20 million.
Alibaba’s market cap will be determined after its IPO, but currently figures between US$ 100 billion and even up to US$ 250 billion circulate. This would value SoftBank’s 36.7% stake in Alibaba at somewhere between US$ 36.7 billion and US$ 91 billion, a return on initial investment between 1835 and 4550 times!

While SoftBank’s overall portfolio is outstandingly successful, not every single investment is successful, as is normal for a venture type investment style.

This year alone, SoftBank investments and acquisitions amount to about US$ 30 billion

This year SoftBank’s direct investments and acquisitions alone are on the order of US$ 30 billion and include:

  • Sprint US$ 21.6 billion + infrastructure investments
  • Clearwire (not sure if this is included in the Sprint figures)
  • eMobile/eAccess US$ 5 billion including debt
  • GungHo increase stake US$ 1/4 billion
  • Supercell US$ 1.5 billion
  • mobile phone distributor Brightstar which is another US$ 1.26 billion

Talouselämä questions about SoftBank and its investment in Supercell and my answers:

  • What are SoftBank’s targets? SoftBank wants to become one of the most important companies globally, has a 30 year plan and a 300 your plan
  • How does SoftBank integrate acquisitions? Case-by-case. In some cases, e.g. Vodafone-Japan KK, Softbank totally absorbed the company and its assets became much of the starting point of SoftBank Mobile, however today’s SoftBank Mobile is a dramatically different company compared to Vodafone-Japan KK, which according to Masayoshi Son in recent interviews “was going south”.
  • How important are games for Softbank? SoftBank is major investor in GungHo, which is one of the world’s most successful smartphone game companies.
  • What other businesses does SoftBank concentrate on, and what kind of goals does it have? SoftBank today focusses on mobile communications and internet, however is also active in other areas. For example, SoftBank is aggressively building an energy business, with focus on renewable energy, which includes renewable energy investments in Mongolia for example. SoftBank‘s more than 1500 investments include Alibaba and Yahoo Japan KK.

To understand SoftBank better, read our report on SoftBank, an analysis of SoftBank, history, current data, and the context.

Understand Japan’s games sector and its disruption

Report “Japan game makers and markets” (pdf file, approx 400 pages, 140 figures)

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

Categories
games Mobile

Supercell wins SoftBank and GungHo investment

softbank acquires supercell
softbank acquires supercell

Supercell investment by SoftBank and GungHo

Supercell investment leverages paradigm shift, time shift and market disconnects

Smartphones and the “freemium” business models are bringing a dual paradigm shift to games and create a new truly global market. To take advantage of this global paradigm shift, its necessary to overcome the cultural disconnects between markets. SoftBank and GungHo‘s investment in the Finnish smartphone/tablet game maker Supercell, announced on Oct. 15, will help to overcome the disconnect between Japan’s and other game markets for both Supercell and GungHo.

The disconnect between Japan and other countries is often surprising – when BusinessWeek in 2006 commented on rumors that SoftBank might introduce an Apple “iPod-Phone” to Japan, BusinessWeek remarked that “Apple would normally never talk to a small-fry such as SoftBank” …. at that time SoftBank’s annual revenues were about twice Apple’s, and BusinessWeek printed my correction pointing out that SoftBank even at that time was anything but a “small fry”.

One of SoftBank‘s aspects is it’s “time-shift” investment model, another is SoftBank‘s 30/300 year vision – both are important factors to understand the Supercell investment.

Supercell investment: Comparing Supercell's US$ 3 billion valuation with Japanese game companies (note that the market cap for the full SONY Group is shown here)
Comparing Supercell’s US$ 3 billion valuation with Japanese game companies (note that the market cap for the full SONY Group is shown here)

This Figure contrasts the market caps of new mobile and smartphone centric game companies (GungHo, Supercell, DeNA and GREE) with traditional console, video game and arcade game companies.

SoftBank announced that because of the majority investment, Supercell will become a subsidiary of SoftBank, and GungHo will account for Supercell’s profit/loss under the equity method.

Supercell investment: Comparing Supercell with Japanese game companies and SoftBank
Comparing Supercell with Japanese game companies and SoftBank

GungHo and Supercell both are top-ranking mobile game companies: GungHo inside Japan with “Puzzle and Dragons”, and Supercell outside Japan with “Hay Day” and “Clash of Clans”. Expect both to leverage each other’s resources.

Both GungHo and Supercell show explosive growth:
GungHo’s operating profits increased 4050% (x 40) for Jan-June 2013 compared to the same period one year earlier.
Supercell’s revenues (mainly in-game purchases) jumped 500x from EURO 151,000 in 2011 to EURO 78 million in 2012.

Culture can be an issue between Japan and other countries, however, SoftBank has invested in more than 1000 comparable companies, and many of SoftBank’s investments have been outstandingly successful including Alibaba and Yahoo.

However, investment and management support by SoftBank does not automatically guarantee success in Japan – despite SoftBank’s investment and support, Zynga closed operations in Japan earlier this year. Success in Japan will remain Supercell’s responsibility, despite SoftBank’s and GungHo’s help and investment – as Zynga can tell.

SoftBank aims for global No. 1 position: Learn more about SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, and his 30/300 year vision for SoftBank

Report on “SoftBank today and 300 year vision” (approx 120 page, pdf file)

SoftBank today and 300 year vision (20th edition)

Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved