Courses & Events

Dai Watanabe, VP of Strategy and Corporate Development DeNA West

Tuesday, Apr 15, 2014

04:15 pm - 05:30 pm

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DeNA: Its Evolutionary History & Challenge to the Global Game Market

 

Mr. Dai Watanabe, VP of Strategy & Corporate Development, DeNA West

Founded in 1999, DeNA has achieved explosive growth through a series  of different business models, with particular success in mobile games and especially with the “mobage” mobile social gaming platform.  Japanese parent company DeNA in Q3, 2013 reported $410 million revenues with an operating profit of $110 million.  With over 30 million users and 1,000 games in the Japan market, DeNA’s next challenge is globalization.  It acquired an SF-based smartphone gaming company, ngmoco, for $300M in 2010 and since then DeNA has launched 100+ games in the West. DeNA West now has 350+ employees in San Francisco, Vancouver and Santiago. Mr. Dai Watanabe will also discuss the challenges DeNA has faced when integrating ngmoco and DeNA into one team in San Francisco and how it navigated through this period of transition to build a strong multi-cultural organization in the West.

Mr. Dai Watanabe is VP of Strategy and Corporate Development since the acquisition of ngmoco. He has also served as President of DeNA Global, Inc. since its establishment in January 2008 as the U.S. subsidiary of DeNA Co., Ltd.. Dai has been in charge of DeNA’s global expansion strategy and execution since 2005. Prior to his US assignment, he served as President of DeNA Beijing.  Dai began his career in Sumitomo Mitsui Bank right after graduation from Kyoto University with a bachelor degree in Archaeology.

This is the 2nd session in the US-Asia Technology Management Center series of public talks on “Entrepreneurship in Asian High-Tech Industries.”

Presented by the US-Asia Technology Management Center in Stanford’s School of Engineering, with series support from SunBridge Partners and Ideaspace Foundation.

Stanford University
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
4:15PM ~ 5:30PM
Gates Building, Room B01 – Hewlett Packard Auditorium