Japan social market â??way more lucrative than USâ??

The amount of money that can be made in Japan’s social game market is “astronomical” and dwarfs the US, according to an e-commerce firm based in the region.

Games firm Dena says its online platform – called Mobage – is returning “an average of $1 million per month” for developers.

And the group has cited an unnamed “recent industry report” which – as an estimate – said the ARPU of virtual goods in Japan is $4. Dena says that figure is “four times that of the ARPU of the American market.”

Mobage, which has been open to developers since January, has seen daily sales increase “10 fold in six months”.

Said Dena CEO Tomoko Namba: “The amount of money to be made in Japanese social gaming is astronomical.”

Now the group is partnering with Yahoo Japan in a bid to make a “significant penetration of Japan’s 90 million internet users”.

Both firms want to populate Mobage with western-made games – and are calling for US devs to take part.

“By offering this platform and providing tools to help ease the transition, Dena hopes to be American game developers’ portal to the East,” added Namba.

The Mobage platform, it is said, can accommodate ported PC and mobile games, as well as host brand new tailor-made games.

Dena is offering localisation, hosting and payment services for western developers willing to take their game east.