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Powering ahead, GREE sees Q1 FY12 sales up 145% to $395 million

Net income up 156% to $123 million

Powering ahead, GREE sees Q1 FY12 sales up 145% to $395 million
Japanese social mobile company GREE (TYO:3632) has announced its Q1 FY12 financials for the 3 months ending September 30.

Net sales were ¥30.4 billion (around $395 million), up 145 percent year-on-year, and 44 percent quarter-on-quarter.

Net income was ¥9.45 billion (around $123 million), up 156 percent y-o-y and 66 percent q-o-q.

The main driver of this record performance was what the company calls Paid Services Sales, which includes freemium games.

GREE is also pushing its advertising business, which is around 10 percent of sales. It says this is currently generating 5.6 billion impression per month in Japan.

Global expansion

GREE's worldwide subscriber total, which includes its main Japanese platform, plus US-based smartphone network OpenFeint, is now up to 155.4 million.



This includes 27.7 million Japanese subscribers, compared to 32 million for its rival DeNA's Mobage platform.

GREE also has a tentative claim over an additional 50 million users through its partnership with Singapore-based mig33 and 650 million in China through a deal with Tencent.

Game-wise, GREE claims more than 7,500 titles, including 659 in Japan.

Bigger in 2012

Looking forward, GREE has already restated its sales and income figures for FY12 by between 40 and 50 percent, suggesting it may have been lowballing previous estimates.

Growth will continue to come from Japan, with income from Europe, US and Asia so low that the company won't provide an estimate.

Combining with OpenFeint solid development tools, GREE says it will roll out a global mobile social gaming platform for all developers to support sometime in the second half of 2012.

It's also looking to release its first inhouse social games developed in the US and China, and further expand its developer and publishing network, with new offices in Holland and Brazil planned.

GREE ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of ¥20.9 billion (around $270 million), down 6 percent compared to the previous quarter due to the payment of dividends and income tax.

[source: GREE IR (PDF detail)]
Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.