Gree (social network)

Last updated
GREE
GREE logo.svg
Created by Yoshikazu Tanaka
URL gree.jp
LaunchedFebruary 2004;19 years ago (2004-02)

GREE (derived from an abbreviation of the "Six degrees of separation" concept) is a Japanese social networking service founded by Yoshikazu Tanaka and operated by GREE, Inc.

Contents

GREE focuses primarily on mobile games and over ninety percent of its users access the site via their mobile phones. The company makes money by selling virtual goods to users such as clothes for their in-game avatars. [1]

Social networking features of GREE include the user profile, diary, communities, photo sharing and photo emailing. It serves as a platform for promoting communication and mutual understanding among its members.

While GREE was initially available only to PC users, the service was later extended to feature phone users. GREE for feature phones includes regular social networking functions, social games, flash-based games, blogs, fortune telling, news and so forth. In 2010, GREE, Inc. started GREE for iPhone and Android to meet demand. GREE, Inc. provides a variety of social game applications for feature phones and smartphones, with enhanced communication among users. The source of earnings is mainly composed of advertisement sales and paid services sales.

Etymology

The service 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 at most six steps away from any other person on Earth. If a chain of a friend of a friend statements are made, 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. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

Mobile content is any type of web hypertext and information content and electronic media which is viewed or used on mobile phones, like text, sound, ringtones, graphics, flash, discount offers, mobile games, movies, and GPS navigation. As mobile phone use has grown since the mid-1990s, the usage and significance of the mobile devices in everyday technological life has grown accordingly. Owners of mobile phones can now use their devices to make photo snapshots for upload, twits, mobile calendar appointments, and mostly send and receive text messages, listen to music, watch videos, take mobile pictures and make videos, use websites to redeem coupons for purchases, view and edit office documents, get driving instructions on mobile maps and so on. The use of mobile content in various areas has grown accordingly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mixi</span> Japanese social networking service

Mixi is an online Japanese social networking service. It was founded in 1999 and is owned by Mixi, Inc.. As of September 2012, Mixi had about 14 million monthly active users, with about 8.6 million of those on smartphones. Mixi, Inc. was founded by Kenji Kasahara in 1999 as a limited liability company and became a Japanese corporation in 2000. The company changed its name to Mixi, Inc. from E-Mercury, Inc. in February 2006 to align its name with the social networking service, and was updated to MIXI, Inc. in 2022. Its headquarters are in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel online marketing technique focused at reaching a specific audience on their smartphones, feature phones, tablets, or any other related devices through websites, e-mail, SMS and MMS, social media, or mobile applications. Mobile marketing can provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services, appointment reminders and ideas. In a more theoretical manner, academic Andreas Kaplan defines mobile marketing as "any marketing activity conducted through a ubiquitous network to which consumers are constantly connected using a personal mobile device".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile social network</span> Social networking on mobile devices

Mobile social networking is social networking where individuals with similar interests converse and connect with one another through their mobile phone and/or tablet. Much like web-based social networking, mobile social networking occurs in virtual communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tagged (website)</span> Social discovery website

Tagged is a social discovery website based in San Francisco, California, founded in 2004. It allows members to browse the profiles of any other members, and share tags and virtual gifts. Tagged claims it has 300 million members as of 2014. As of September 2011, Quantcast estimates Tagged monthly unique users at 5.9 million in the United States, and 18.6 million globally. Michael Arrington wrote in April 2011 that Tagged is most notable for the ability to grow profitably during the era of Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile phone</span> Portable device to make telephone calls using a radio link

A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messagIng, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, satellite access, business applications, video games and digital photography. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

A mobile social address book is a phonebook on a mobile device that enables subscribers to build and grow their social networks. The mobile social address book transforms the phone book on any standard mobile phone into a social networking platform that makes it easier for subscribers to exchange contact information. The mobile social address book is the convergence of personal information management (PIM) and social networking on a mobile device. While standard mobile phonebooks force users to manually enter contacts, mobile social address books automate this process by enabling subscribers to exchange contact information following a call or SMS. The contact information exchange occurs instantaneously and the user's phonebook updates automatically. Mobile social address books also provide dynamic updates of contacts if their numbers change over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media marketing</span> Use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, enabling companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns. Companies address a range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RealNetworks</span> American technology company

RealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of artificial intelligence and computer vision based products. RealNetworks was a pioneer in Internet streaming software and services. They are based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The company also provides subscription-based online entertainment services and mobile entertainment and messaging services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile technology</span> Technology used for cellular communication

Mobile technology is the technology used for cellular communication. Mobile technology has evolved rapidly over the past few years. Since the start of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a mobile phone, GPS navigation device, an embedded web browser and instant messaging client, and a handheld gaming console. Many experts believe that the future of computer technology rests in mobile computing with wireless networking. Mobile computing by way of tablet computers is becoming more popular. Tablets are available on the 3G and 4G networks. Mobile technology has different meanings in different aspects, mainly mobile technology in information technology and mobile technology in basketball technology, mainly based on the wireless technology of wireless devices equipment information technology integration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenFeint</span> Social platform for mobile games

OpenFeint was a social platform for mobile games for devices running on Android or iOS. It was developed by Aurora Feint, a company named after a video game by the same developers. The platform consisted of an SDK for use by games, allowing its various social networking features to be integrated into the game's functionality. OpenFeint was discontinued at the end of 2012.

Tanaka Yoshikazu is a Japanese entrepreneur known for founding and developing the social networking service Gree, provided by Gree, Inc.

Game Center is a service by Apple that allows users to play and challenge friends when playing online multiplayer social gaming network games. Games can now share multiplayer functionality between the Mac and iOS versions of the app.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gree (company)</span> Japanese Internet media company

GREE, Inc. is a Japanese Internet media company with headquarters in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi, Tokyo. It has been operating the social network service GREE since its establishment in December 2004.

<i>Emperors SaGa</i> 2012 video game

Emperors SaGa is a downloadable social game in the SaGa series from Square Enix. The game was released on the GREE platform on September 18, 2012 and on Mobage and NTT DoCoMo on November 28, 2013. It was shut down on April 28, 2017. In Emperors SaGa, players take the role of the emperor of a nation, and guide the country as its ruler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Line (software)</span> Freeware instant communications app

Line is a freeware app for instant communications on electronic devices such as smartphones, tablet computers and personal computers. Line users exchange: texts, images, video and audio and conduct free VoIP conversations and video conferences. In addition, Line is a platform providing various services including: digital wallet as Line Pay, news stream as LINE Today, video on demand as Line TV and digital comic distribution as Line Manga and Line Webtoon. The service is operated by Line Corporation, a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Z Holdings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Six degrees of separation</span> Concept of social inter-connectedness of all people

Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of "friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It is also known as the six handshakes rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2go</span> Mobile Instant Messaging Application

2go is a free mobile social networking and online dating service with in-app purchases, provided by 2go Interactive (Pty) Ltd currently based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Comparison of user features of messaging platforms refers to a comparison of all the various user features of various electronic instant messaging platforms. This includes a wide variety of resources; it includes standalone apps, platforms within websites, computer software, and various internal functions available on specific devices, such as iMessage for iPhones.

References

  1. "Asia's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire". Forbes . Archived from the original on 2022-12-26.
  2. "GREE, Inc. - About Us - History". Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-18.