Gala Inc.

 is a holding company based in Tokyo, Japan, that administers GALA Group, which is made up of subsidiary companies of Gala Inc. The group of companies embraces three types of business: MMORPG games, web design and data mining. Within the group companies, Gala Lab Corp., established after the merger of Aeonsoft and nFlavor, located in South Korea, develops games for the group's online gaming portal "gPotato". GALA Group focuses on developing massively multiplayer online role-playing games. To cover local areas, there are Group companies located in the United States, Japan and South Korea.
GALA Group's games are free-to-play so no annual/monthly payment is required; revenue is generated from a micropayment system. Games and their premium item shops can be accessed by the Group's regional gPotato portal sites.
The majority of GALA Group's business revolves around MMORPG and smartphone games. Within GALA Group, Gala Web Inc.'s main business was in web design, but this company was sold to Tribeck Strategies, Inc. in 2015.
In February 2013, Gala-Net, Gala Networks Europe and Gala-Net Brazil were acquired by Webzen.
History.
Early Years.
Gala Inc. was founded in September 1993 by Satoru Kikugawa to create an IT company with the goal of bringing people together from around the world. While at Keio University, Kikugawa was an avid event planner where he would rent out clubs in Roppongi and students could gather. He called these events "Gala". With the expansion of the internet in the early nineties, Kikugawa, inspired by his university events, founded Gala Inc. with the goal of bringing people together online.
The early business model of Gala Inc. was in homepage creation. One of Gala Inc.'s first website creations was for the All Japan Pro Wrestling site in 1996. The initial business approach was to create home pages free of charge and then share the advertising revenue. Gala Inc. also set up bulletin boards on sites for visitors to share their thoughts. In February 2000, Gala Inc. acquired the company RIS Inc., which was then renamed to Gala Web Inc. While Gala Inc. acts as the headquarters for GALA Group, Gala Web continues to develop websites and systems for clients in Japan. Gala Inc.'s early business model eventually led to Gala's gaming business model, where its games are free and sales are generated from micropayments.
Globalization.
In November 2005, Gala-Net Inc. opened as the North American subsidiary and online games publisher with its office in Sunnyvale, California. In October 2006, Gala-Net established a wholly owned subsidiary, Gala Networks Europe based out of Dublin, Ireland.
Also in 2006, South Korean game developers Aeonsoft Inc. and nFlavor Corp. joined GALA Group. Aeonsoft's flagship game was "Flyff", while nFlavor brought the "Rappelz" MMO into the Group. The two game developing companies would later merge to become Gala Lab Corp. in July 2010. In December 2007, another subsidiary was created after Gala Inc. split off its buzz research section to create a new Group company named Gala Buzz Inc. The company's role was to offer data mining and information analysis services for corporate clients through its e-mining and buzz reports. The company was sold to Hottolink Inc. in May 2012.
In May 2011, Gala Inc. announced it will enter the smartphone market. The company will launch a smartphone social game platform and the development of games for said platform. Gala Pocket Inc. was established to operate the gPumpkin platform and Gala Lab Corp. and 3rd party developers will develop the games. Gala Inc. also expanded in 2011 by opening a branch office in Seoul, South Korea that has been tasked with handling the technical issues across all of GALA Group. In May 2012, that branch was transferred to Gala Lab also located in Seoul.
Subsidiaries.
Game Publishing.
The companies publish games by the Gala Lab development teams in Seoul and other third party developers. The publishing companies in GALA Group are:
Game Portal.
To promote and publish games, GALA Group uses its gPotato game portal. People can play or download games from the gPotato portal for free. gPotato services downloadable client-based games. The gPotato portal launched in November 2005 in the US and 2007 in Europe, and was sold to Webzen in 2013. The gPotato portal and brand is one of the main assets of GALA Group. Currently, gPotato portals are serviced by two subsidiary companies of Gala Inc.
Community.
As of September 2011, the global gPotato community has over 20 million registered members playing on 18 games globally.
As with all free-to-play games or gaming communities, the number of registered users has to be differentiated from:
There are no public numbers for unique, active, or paying users.
Portal Features.
gPotato portals have a variety of features. Each gPotato portal is designed and maintained based on the cultural trends where that gPotato portal is serviced so the features vary on each gPotato portal site. In general, the portals offer:
Currency.
The virtual currency is called gPotatoes. The gPotatoes can be used to obtain virtual game items via a premium item shop. Other users normally would not have access to these items or would have to spend more time in-game to obtain them. gPotatoes can be purchased using credit cards, PayPal, charging through the mobile phone, through gPotato pre-paid cards or through earning free gPotatoes by taking online surveys. Payment methods differ from each gPotato portal based on the regional payment options available.
Insider Trading Incident.
In 2006, three Gala Inc. employees were directed to pay fines for insider trading when they purchased stock with insider knowledge that Gala had secured a deal with Dentsu. On January 13, 2006, it was announced that the three were the first employees in Japan ordered to pay fines under a new law created by the Financial Services Agency of Japan. Group CEO Mr. Kikugawa gave a public apology regarding the insider trading. Gala also released a statement outlining the changes to their compliance management system and procedures put in place to prevent insider trading from happening again.