Gree, Inc.

GREE Holdings, Inc. (formerly GREE, Inc.) is a Tokyo-based internet, social media and video game company headquartered in the Roppongi Hills complex in Minato-ku, Tokyo. It has operated the GREE social networking service since its establishment in December 2004, and its listed services span advertising and ad networks, licensing and merchandising, a platform business, social media, social gaming, venture capital and video game publishing.

The group is organized around game, live entertainment, anime/manga/merchandising and AI business segments, alongside other activities. Subsidiaries include GREE Entertainment (anime production and video game licensing, formed July 1, 2021 from a merger of GREE's gaming and licensing divisions with Funplex), GREE Studios (a consumer console and PC game development studio established November 1, 2024 from a consolidation of the consumer games businesses of WFS and Pokelabo), WFS, Inc. (formerly Wright Flyer Studios, founded February 21, 2014, a live-service game developer behind titles such as Another Eden, Heaven Burns Red and Echoes of Mana) and REALITY, Inc. (formerly Wright Flyer Live Entertainment, founded April 2018, which operates the VTuber live streaming app Reality). Pokelabo, acquired in 2012, was converted on January 1, 2025 from a wholly owned subsidiary into a game brand under WFS, with its development business absorbed by WFS.

The GREE service itself began as a PC-oriented social network with profiles, diaries and community groups before shifting to mobile, launching a mobile social networking service in 2006 and the mobile social game Fishing Star in 2007, with iOS and Android apps introduced in 2010. The company operates a corporate blog, "6 deGREEs", covering technology, workplace and sustainability topics, and maintains IR, sustainability and recruiting programs.

Founding story

Yoshikazu Tanaka released an alpha version of GREE in February 2004 as a personal side project while employed at Rakuten, building the initial version on a server in his Tokyo apartment and drawing on early social networking sites. The service exceeded 10,000 users in March 2004 and roughly 100,000 by October 2004. Tanaka left Rakuten in October 2004 and incorporated GREE, Inc. in Tokyo on December 7, 2004, becoming chief executive officer. Before Rakuten he worked at Sony Communication Network Corporation, and he holds a law degree from Nihon University.

Business model

GREE operates as a group holding company whose subsidiaries develop, publish and license games and entertainment IP, operate a social network and live streaming platform, and pursue advertising, licensing and merchandising, platform and venture capital activities.

Reported activities include video game publishing and free-to-play titles with virtual goods transactions, advertising and ad network services, licensing and merchandising, platform revenue from third-party applications, and investment/venture capital.

Traction

User milestones reported include more than 10,000 users in March 2004, 1 million in March 2007, 10 million in April 2009, 20 million in June 2010 and 23.8 million in December 2010, with about 190 million global users cited for 2012. Group headcount was 1,593 as of March 31, 2023 and 1,520 as of September 2025.

Latest developments

Recent announcements include the July 2026 launch of GREE Entertainment's smartphone and PC game based on Mushoku Tensei (Chronicle of Echoes) and the August 2026 decision to license its Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau publishing rights to Cayenne; a June 2026 ten-year animation planning and production collaboration between GREE Entertainment and Saetta; the debut of three fifth-generation talents at the VTuber agency Specialite in May 2026; and DADAN's July 2026 plan to build a distribution network covering more than 150 e-bookstores and over 100,000 digital libraries. An executive structure change was announced in August 2026.