美国盛行的经营模式不一定能在世界的其他国家取得成功，而同样，在某些地区取得成功的公司是否可以在美国这一全球经济发展重地再创辉煌呢？近年来，美国及世界各地掀起了一场社交网站潮流，其中日本市场尚未出现主导的社交网站产品。最近eMarketer的一篇文章便指出日本的“小群体”社交网站经营模式是指是“免费或付费手机社交游戏和微交易的结合。”

据eMarketer文章指出，英国新闻处2010年10月的调查显示手机社交网站在美国和日本拥有不相伯仲的渗透程度——22%的手机社交网站用户。其中，日本三大主流社交网站主要通过“提供免费或付费游戏，鼓励与好友一起游戏竞赛和实行微交易”实现网站用户和营收的增长。

Mobile Social Network Users

近年来，多家在日本取得不俗成绩的社交网站纷纷将目光投向了经济发展重地美国。其中，日本大型社交网站——DeNA旗下的Mobage便开始大规模将社交游戏植入手机平台之中。据游戏邦了解，在过去的18个月中，DeNA公司进行了一系列收购活动，筹备进军美国市场：

2010年10月以4亿美元收购旧金山社交游戏公司Ngmoco

2010年9月收购位于加州山景城的社交游戏公司Gameview Studios

2009年10月收购美国手机社交游戏开发公司Icebreaker

2009年10月投资iPhone手机软件工具包开发公司Aurora Feint，持有该公司20%的股份。

上述一系列收购活动昭示着DeNA进军美国市场的决心。尤其最近收购Ngmoco之后，DeNA宣布计划在2011年4月发布一款面向Android OS系统的游戏平台ngCore。

在此，游戏邦相信2011年将是手机游戏蓬勃发展的一年。2011年将有更多来自日本，中国的社交游戏开发商公司挺进美国。而与此同时，美国社交游戏巨头Zynga也将寻找时机进军亚洲市场。近年来，Zynga也大肆收购日本和中国的本地游戏公司。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Sometimes we forget in the US that what is popular here doesn’t translate identically around the globe no matter how much we assume it will. Likewise, companies that are successful in other parts of the world eventually begin viewing the US market as a great opportunity to bring their “secret sauce” business to the biggest economy in the world. Such is the case with social networking which is fairly ubiquitous in the US — and many other regions — but is less pervasive in Japan, the world’s number 3 economy after the US and China. According to a recent article by eMarketer, Japan’s “niche” social network business model is a “mix of free and paid mobile social games and microtransactions.”
Mobile Social Network Users in Japan and the US, by Age, Oct 2010 (% of mobile phone owners in each group)

The article cites an October 2010 survey conducted by the UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) that shows that mobile social network penetration in both countries is the same — 22% of mobile phone users — while the three leading Japanese social nets have achieved increased user adoption and rising profits “by offering hundreds of free and paid games, encouraging playing with and competing against friends, enabling micro-transactions for in-game upgrades and maintaining leaderboard rankings.”

As expected this homegrown success is leading Japanese social networks to look towards duplicating their success in the US. One of the country’s largest social networks, DeNA’s Mobage-town, heavily incorporates social gaming into it mobile platform. In the past 18 months the company has made a series of acquisitions and investments in US game makers including:

* ngmoco: this San Francisco-based social gaming company was purchased in October 2010 for up to US$400 million;
* Gameview Studios: this Mountain View, CA-based social gaming company was purchased in September 2010 for an undisclosed amount;
* Icebreaker: this US-based mobile social games developer was acquired in October 2009 for an undisclosed amount; and
* Aurora Feint:  this developer of a mobile SDK platform for the iPhone received an undisclosed investment in October 2009 for a 20% stake in the company.

The above series of acquisitions demonstrates a commitment on the part of DeNA to expand its footprint in the US market. After its most recent acquisition of ngmoco the two combined companies announced its plan to release a new gaming platform, ngCore, in April 2011 on the Android OS.

We believe that 2011 will be a very active year in the mobile gaming sector as more foreign companies, from Japan as well as China, will continue to make strategic acquisitions in the US. At the same time US social gaming giants such as Zynga will be on the lookout for opportunities to strengthen its foothold in the major Asian markets. Just like DeNA has been snapping up US-based companies, Zynga has had a similarly active year with numerous acquisitions of local gaming companies in Japan and China. （Source：digitaleastasia）