GREE, Inc.

GREE, Inc. (グリー株式会社, Gurī Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese Internet media company with headquarters in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi, Tokyo.[1] It has been operating the social network service GREE since its establishment in December 2004.

Not to be confused with Gree Electric.
GREE, Inc.
グリー株式会社
TypePublic KK
TYO: 3632
IndustryInternet
FoundedTokyo, Japan (December 7, 2004)
HeadquartersRoppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Key people
Yoshikazu Tanaka (田中良和), (Founder and CEO)
Services
Number of employees
2,051 (Group total; as of December 31, 2013)
SubsidiariesFunzio
WebsiteGREE English Website
The Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, home to the GREE, Inc. headquarters.

History
  • Feb. 2004 Release of GREE alpha to the public by Yoshikazu Tanaka as a personal hobby
  • Mar. 2004 Exceeds 10,000 users
  • Dec. 2004 Established GREE, Inc.
  • Nov. 2006 Launches EZ GREE (now au one GREE) as a KDDI Mobile official service
  • Feb. 2007 Launches GREE as a NTT Docomo official service
  • Mar. 2007 Exceeds 1 million users
  • Aug. 2007 Launches GREE as a Softbank official service
  • Dec. 2008 Listed on the Market of the High-Growth and Emerging Stocks
  • Apr. 2009 Exceeds 10 million users
  • Jun. 2010 Exceeds 20 million users
  • Jun. 2010 Listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange
  • Jun. 2010 Release of third-party applications on "GREE Platform"
  • Jul. 2010 Relocates Company headquarters to Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Tokyo
  • Nov. 2010 Announcement of investment in Project Goth, Inc.
  • Dec. 2010 Launches "GREE Platform for smartphone"
  • Dec. 2010 Exceeds 23.8 million users
  • Jan. 2011 Establishment of a subsidiary, GREE International, Inc. in the US
  • Jan. 2011 Acquisition of Atlantis Co., Ltd.
  • Jan. 2011 Announcement of business collaboration with Tencent
  • Apr. 2011 Buys US social mobile gaming platform OpenFeint for $104 million [2]
  • May 2012 GREE purchased the mobile game developer Funzio for $210 million[3]

Origin of the name GREE

The company name GREE comes from a hypothesis, Six Degrees of Separation postulated by social psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1967. "Six degrees of separation" is a hypothesis that everyone is approximately six steps away from any other person on Earth. If a chain of "a friend of a friend" statements are made, on average, any two people in the world can be connected in six steps or fewer. The name symbolizes GREE’s hope to "create and provide any new possibilities of the Internet" and to "create new forms of fun, convenience, and excitement."

References
  1. "Company Information." GREE, Inc. Retrieved on March 4, 2012. "Headquarters Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan"
  2. Jordan, Jon (2011-04-22). "Japanese social gaming platform GREE buys OpenFeint for $104 million". PocketGamer.biz. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  3. Savitz, Eric. "Japan's GREE To Buy Mobile Game Maker Funzio For $210M". Forbes.
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