DeNA was founded in 1999 in
Tokyo, Japan. The same year, it launched the online auction site Bidders. In 2004, it partnered with
Index Corporation to launch the mobile auction site Mobaoku. A year later, the company listed on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange. In 2006, DeNA established the subsidiary Mobakore and launched the mobile gaming site
Mobage Town as well as the mobile shopping site AU Shopping Mall. In 2009, DeNA saw $517 million in revenue, an increase of 28%. Among its biggest hits were
Pirate Treasure,
Hoshi-tsuku, and
Kaito Royal. DeNA opened Mobage Town to third-party developers at the beginning of 2010, adding 59 partners and 148 game titles. It also partnered with
Yahoo! Japan to launch a branded PC-based social game platform. By October 2010, Mobage had 20.5 million users and boasted 48 billion yen in sales of digital goods. Despite the company's success in Japan, it had yet to make an impact on the global market. DeNA attempted to enter the Western market by acquiring a 20% share of the social gaming platform
OpenFeint in 2009. In May 2010, it introduced
MiniNation, a social games app consisting of four mini-games for
iPhones and
iPods, powered by OpenFeint. In October, it acquired the American game developer
ngmoco for $400 million. A year later, it consolidated the latter's
Plus+ with Mobage Town, which became known as Mobage. It also signed a deal with
Samsung to be the default social network app on its mobile devices beginning in 2011. In 2011, the
Japan Fair Trade Commission issued a
cease and desist order against DeNA, finding that it had violated Article 19 of the
Antimonopoly Act by pressuring or forcing game developers to release titles only for the Mobage platform.
GREE and
KDDI subsequently filed suits against the company. In May, CEO and founder Tomoko Namba announced that she would step down in order to take care of her sick husband. In July, the company announced it would be working with industry legends
Keiji Inafune,
Suda 51,
Yuji Naka,
Noritaka Funamizu, and Yoshifumi Hashimoto to develop games for its Mobage platform. During the 2010s, DeNA expanded as a global company. It brought Mobage to China in 2011, releasing it on
Android in July and
iOS in November. The platform had 20 games to start. The company entered into deals with
Alibaba,
Baidu, and
Huawei to get Mobage on their mobile devices. In July 2011, it set up a studio in
Stockholm, Sweden. By August, the company set up DeNA Asia Pacific Holdings to manage its studios in South Korea and China. DeNA employed 400 developers by this time. It also made significant efforts to expand into Vietnam, acquiring
Punch Entertainment's affiliate in the country in September and partnering with
VNG Corporation to produce three social games for Mobage. In February 2012, the company announced the formation of DeNA Canada in
Vancouver to provide support to its Gameview subsidiary and other endeavors. DeNA moved its company headquarters to the
Shibuya Hikarie skyscraper in Tokyo's
Shibuya district in April. In June, it announced a partnership with
Disney to develop and promote
social network games, including the
tower defense player
Star Wars: Galactic Defense. It also created a partnership with the Chinese social network
Renren to bring Mobage games to Chinese smartphones. In October, the company partnered with
Yahoo! Kimo to bring Mobage to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. DeNA also acquired 20% of
Cygames for 7.4 billion yen from
CyberAgent. In November, the company announced it would be partnering with ten independent social and mobile game developers from China, New Zealand, Finland, France, Brazil, Canada, and the US to bring their games to Mobage on mobile devices. It also announced a partnership with
Nexon to develop new games for Mobage. In March,
Nomura Securities acquired 17.7 million shares of DeNA from
Sony. The company shut down five of its Mobage titles in May:
Ninja Royal,
Infinity Blade Cross,
We Rule,
Aqua Collection, and
Bokujou Hokkorina. In 2013, DeNA launched the
Showroom app and browser, a
live-streaming service primarily for
Japanese idols and
voice actors. In December, it created the
Manga Box app. In March 2015,
Nintendo entered into a partnership with DeNA to develop mobile games based on its
intellectual property. In 2017, DeNA established an automotive division and created the
ride-hailing app Takuberu, which operated in
Kanagawa Prefecture and the city of
Yokohama. A year later, it expanded the service nationwide and renamed the app MOV. In 2019, Media Do Holdings Co., Ltd. acquired MyAnimeList from DeNA. On 31 August 2019, the company released
Pokémon Masters on iOS and Android. It amassed $26 million in revenue in its first week and $33 million for the entire month. In 2020, DeNA's automotive division merged with
JapanTaxi Co., Ltd. and was renamed Mobility Technologies, Inc. The company had been working on its own ride-hailing app, and this was combined with "MOV" and subsequently named "GO". In 2022, Nintendo and DeNA established a joint venture called Nintendo Systems to focus on the research and development of Nintendo accounts, with Nintendo owning 80% of the shares and DeNA owning 20%. in 2024, one of DeNA’s studios, DeNA Digital Production, which had been working on Pokemon TCG Pocket, was rebranded as Pokemon Card D Studio. The studio is 66.6% owned by DeNA and 33.4% owned by
The Pokémon Company. ==Subsidiaries and products==