CyberAgent
CyberAgent Inc. is a Japanese digital advertising company, which was founded in 1998 by Susumu Fujita and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is owned by Susumu Fujita with 20.50% interest; Fujita is representative director, while Yusuke Hidaka is executive vice president.
CyberAgent is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 since 2000.
History
- 1998
- * March: CyberAgent, Inc. founded in Shibuya, Tokyo.
- 1999
- * November: Established Hoops Co., Ltd. to provide free homepage service for "HOOPS!" In collaboration with On The Edge also founded Netprice Co., Ltd., a mail-order business on the Internet.
- 2000
- * March: Started trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under ticker number 4751.
- * April: Announced an joint venture with ADN Co., Ltd. to establish Cyber Agent Korea Co., Ltd. in South Korea and e-commerce brand marketing company, Cyber Branding Co., Ltd. was founded.
- * May: Founded SA Mobile Co., Ltd., which specializes in online advertising and e-commerce business.
- *July: Founded Mail-In Co., Ltd., which specializes in e-mail services, in joint venture with InterQ Co., Ltd. and On The Edge.
- 2001
- * January: Changed the trade name of Cyber Brand Co., Ltd. to Cyblo Co., Ltd.,.
- * February: Established Traffic Gate Co., Ltd. to operate affiliate solution business.
- * July: Cyblo Co., Ltd., a joint venture with Use Music Co., Ltd., founded Inter Records Co., Ltd., which operates record label business.
- * September: CyberAgent acquired Active.com Co., Ltd. and made a subsidiary.
- * September: CyberAgent sold Hoops Co., Ltd., Cyber Brains Inc. and Traffic Gate Co., Ltd to Rakuten.
- * November: CyberAgent acquired all shares of International Sports Marketing Co., Ltd. and made it a subsidiary and acquired a capital investment firm Cyber Brains Inc. and made it a subsidiary company.
- 2002
- * January: CyberAgent acquired YMIRLINK Inc. and made it a subsidiary.
- * February: CyberAgent founded Why Net Inc., which operated entertainment content business and founded a label company Inter Records.
- * June: CyberAgent founded "Mailvision", an HTML mail service that allows to receive content such as images, pictures, images, comics, and music by mail.
- * October : CyberAgent merged Cyblo Co., Ltd. and White Net Co., Ltd.
- 2003
- * May: Founded SA Search Co., Ltd., a search engine marketing business.
- *September: CyberAgent founded SA Capital Co., Ltd., a financial services business on the Internet.
- * December: CyberAgent acquired GCrest and made a subsidiary.
- 2004
- * February: CyberAgent acquired E-Bent Co., Ltd. and later rename into Wedding Park Co., Ltd. and developed a marriage information provision service.
- * July: Netprice Co., Ltd. was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
- * August: CyberAgent founded Ameba Books Shinsha for book publishing.
- * August:CyberAgent acquired online shopping business Diva Inc. from House of Rose Inc. and made it a wholly owned subsidiary and also acquired Transworks Co., Ltd., which operated e-commerce business and made it a subsidiary, and later merged with each other.
- * September: CyberAgent founded Ameba to compete with Twitter in Japan.
- 2005
- * July: CyberAgent founded Fraudia Communications with plans of selling internet advertisements for women with iStyle Inc.
- * July: CyberAgent founded Crown Jewel Co., Ltd., an internet auction business specialized in apparel.
- * August: CyberAgent closed Diva Inc.
- * September: CyberAgent founded Luke's Co., Ltd. a joint venture with Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
- * November: CyberAgent founded cybozu.net a joint venture with Cybozu.
- 2006
- * March: CyberAgent founded CyberAgent Plus, Inc.
- * April: CyberAgent founded Investment and also founded CyberBuzz which specializes in Consumer Generated Media advertising business and word-of-mouth marketing support business.
- * April: CyberAgent founded Financial Plus Co., Ltd., which succeeded the "LaQoo+" business operated by CA Capital Co., Ltd.
- * April: CyberAgent and Nippon TV entered in sponsorship deal to sponsor Tokyo Verdy 1969, and acquired 48.1% of the club, being the second-largest shareholder behind Nippon TV.
- * July: CyberAgent founded Store Factory Co., Ltd., a drop shipping related business.
- * September: CyberAgent Adplane Inc., an in-game advertising agency business.
- * November: CyberAgent founded Super Suites Co., Ltd.
- 2007
- * April: CyberAgent founded CA Technology Co., Ltd., a search engine optimization business.
- *July: CyberAgent split User-matched advertisement delivery service MicroAd was split into two companies.
- 2008
- * January: CyberAgent founded CyberCasting&PR Co., Ltd., a celebrity casting business in corporate promotion and PR and sold its shares of Tokyo Verdy.
- * February: CyberAgent founded CyberAgent America, Inc. with company being based in San Francisco, California, United States.
- * March: CyberAgent created Poupéegirl with the website being initially managed by CyberAgent and however Poupéegirl, Inc. was officially established and extended services to mobile phones.
- * May: CyberAgent founded CyberX specializing in mobile site production.
- * June: CyberAgent founded CyberAgent Ad Management Co., Ltd..
- 2009
- * February: CyberAgent created virtual space avatar service Ameba Pig.
- * April: CyberAgent founded CyberZ Co., Ltd., a mobile advertising agency.
- * May: CyberAgent founded Sumzap for mobile content business and CyberAgent would create website Launch a boy's ranch to evaluate the image by uploading an image of a real man with a horse or sheep icon this would lead to criticism after that the website was taken down.
- 2010
- * May: CyberAgent made Trenders, Inc. a consolidated subsidiary.
- * October: CyberAgent founded CA Beat Co., Ltd., a smartphone app production company and founded Pot Tap Co., Ltd., a mobile games company for smartphones.
- 2011
- * April: CyberAgent and DeNA made a joint venture to fund AMoAd to perform the ad network business.
- * May: CyberAgent founded Cygames, Inc a Japanese web services company to create mobile games.
- * June: CyberAgent sold to Start Today to Crown Jewel.
- * December: CyberAgent founded Sirok an app development company for smartphones.
- 2012
- * October: CyberAgent's subsidiary Ameba created Girl Friend Beta smartphone game developed by CyberAgent for iOS and Android devices.
- * November: CyberAgent founded CyberSS that produced mobile games.
- 2013
- * January: CyberAgent sold CyberAgent FX Co., Ltd. sold to Yahoo! Japan and left FX business and founded Amestage Co., Ltd. a subsidiary that operated Ameba Studio a live video distribution service for entertainment bloggers.
- * February: CyberAgent founded Griphone as a joint venture with GREE, Inc.
- * September: CyberAgent founded CA Drive Co., Ltd., a smartphone company.
- 2014
- * February: CyberAgent moved Oulu Co., Ltd. into a subsidiary, and renamed to Right:Segment.
- * May: CyberAgent founded Craft Egg, a subsidiary specializing in the planning and development of games for smartphones.
- * July: CyberAgent founded Shibuya Clip Create Co., Ltd., a subsidiary that produced tie-up clips with companies.
- * September: CyberZ founded OPENREC video sharing service.
- * December: CyberAgent founded AWA Co., Ltd., an equity method affiliate that provides music distribution services through a joint investment with Avex Digital Inc.
- 2015
- * January: CyberAgent established video distribution platform "Ameba FRESH!".
- * April: CyberAgent founded CyberBull, an advertising agency company specializing in internet video and founded AbemaNews Co., Ltd., a news content business company, and later founded AbemaTV, a video streaming website in a joint venture with TV Asahi.
- *September: CyberAgent closed Koebu Co., Ltd. and founded CyberAgent Taiwan a subsidiary in Taiwan.
- 2016
- * March: AbemaTV was officially launched
- * April: CyberAgent reestablished CyberAgent Korea in South Korea and CyberAgent AD Agency Singapore Pte. Ltd. in Singapore.
- 2017
- * June: CyberAgent and its subsidiary Cygames jointly invest in "CA-Cygames Anime Fund" commpany.
- * September: CyberAgent acquired 100% of professional wrestling promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling's shares and Sanshiro Takagi remained as the DDT president, while CyberAgent director Takahiro Yamauchi took over as the new DDT director.
- * October: CyberAgent founded CyberAgent Bitcoin Co., Ltd. as a new subsidiary to conduct virtual trading business.
- 2018
- * March: CyberAgent founded CyberAgent America with company being based in New York City, United States.
- * May: CyberAgent founded CA Advance Guam, Inc. company based in Guam and CyberSS renmaed CyberOwl.
- * July: CyberAgent announced a sponsorship deal with M League as Shibuya ABEMAS.
- * October CyberAgent announced was going to acquire rest of the J-League football club 80% shares of FC Machida Zelvia with the club on October 16, announced that would be under its umbrella.
- * December: CyberAgent founded consulting business related to RPA, CyberAgent RPA, Inc. and founded CyberLiG Co., Ltd., which manages the management of distributors who are active in live video distribution services.
- 2019
- * January: CyberAgent announced that OPENREC.tv and FRESH LIVE would be merged.
- * March: CyberAgent announced that the PC version of Ameba Pig would end on December 2, 2019.
- * April: CyberAgent acquired all shares of 100% subsidiary of SA Advance Co., Ltd. and made it 100% subsidiary, and renamed to CA Retail Marketing Co., Ltd.
- * December: Ameba Pigg officially ended.
- 2020
- * January 2020: CyberAgent parent company of DDT Pro Wrestling acquired professional wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Noah, making DDT's sister company and DDT's President Sanshiro Takagi was named the President of Pro Wrestling Noah and with Noah wrestler Naomichi Marufuji as the Vice President. Noah's events began airing on DDT's streaming service DDT Universe starting with Noah Global Junior Heavyweight League 2020 on January 30.
- * April 2020: Cygames Superheroes Project Committee, Film4 Productions, and Shogakukan announced a new live-action superhero film project called GeorgeVolt: The Power of Poupelle to be released by Sony Pictures via Shueisha's One-Punch Man live-action film adaptation.
- * July 2020: CyberAgent announced Noah and DDT would merge in a new company, CyberFight, similar to WWE's brand extension.
Corporate governance
Board of directors
- Susumu Fujita
- Makoto Fujita
- Yusuke Hidaka
- Takahiro Yamauchi
- Koki Ukita
- Tetsuhito Soyama
- Takahito Naito
- Norishige Nagase
- Riku Yamada
Executive management
- Koichi Nakamura
- Toko Shiotsuki
- Masao Horiuchi
- Isao Numata
- Hiroyuki Ishii
- Eiji Koike
- Takunori Fujii
- Yuko Ishida
- Takehiro Takeda
- Masao Sato
- Yusuke Sato
- Tatsuhiko Taniguchi
- Gaku Miyata
Assets
Media and technology
- 7gogo, Inc.
- AJA Inc.
- Ameba
- * AbemaTV
- * Ameba Fortune-telling Museum
- * Ameba Manga
- * Ameba Ownd
- * REQU by Ameba
- * Bonjour Sweet Love Patisserie
- App2Go
- by.S
- CAmotion Co., Ltd.
- CA Advance
- CAM Inc.
- * CAM Entertainment
- * CA Smart Co., Ltd.
- * REAL SPORTS Co., Ltd.
- * Tiffareto Co., Ltd.
- CA Reward
- CCPR
- Complesso
- CoupeCo., Ltd.
- CyberBull
- CyberFone Thailand Co., Ltd.
- CyberPal Co., Ltd.
- CyberSS
- CyberZ
- * Cyber E Co., Ltd.
- * EStream Inc.
- dot money, Inc.
- FRESH LIVE
- Lulucos by.S
- MatchingAgent, Inc
- MicroAd
- Playmotion Co., Ltd.
- Right:Segment
- SATORI
- WinTicket
Video games
- Applibot
- Craft Egg
- Cygames
- * BlazeGames
- * Citail
- * CyDesignation
- * CygamesPictures
- * Cygames Superheroes Project Committee
- * Cygames Taiwan
- * Cymusic
- * Cysharp
- * GameJeans
- * Kusanagi
- * LogicLinks
- * Scoop Music Corporation
- * WithEntertainment
- GCrest
- Goodroid
- Grenge
- Griphone
- Nizista
- Pontem
- QualiArts
- * Alternative Girls
- * Boy Friend Beta
- * Girl Friend Beta
- * Piglife-A wonderful garden in a mysterious town-
- R-Force Entertainment
- Sumzap
Other assets
- AI Shift Co., Ltd.
- Bizbot Co., Ltd.
- Sirok
- C.A. Mobile
- CAM Co., Ltd.
- * Tiffareto Co., Ltd.
- * REAL SPORTS Co., Ltd.
- * CA Smart Co., Ltd.
- CA Advance Co., Ltd.
- * Monocrum Co., Ltd.
- * Movie Monster Co., Ltd.
- CA Design Co., Ltd.
- CA Retail Marketing Inc.
- CA Tech Kids Co., Ltd.
- CyberACE Co., Ltd.
- CyberAgent Capital
- CyberAgent Crowdfunding
- CyberAgent Global, Inc.
- * CyberAgent America, Inc.
- * CyberAgent Korea, Inc.
- * CyberAgent Taiwan, Inc.
- * CA ADVANCE Vietnam Co., Ltd.
- CyberAgent RPA
- CyberFight
- * DDT Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd.
- ** Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling
- ** Ganbare☆Puroresu
- * Pro Wrestling Noah
- * Wrestle Universe
- FC Machida Zelvia
- CyberAgent Ventures
- CyberAgent Will
- Cyber E Co., Ltd.
- * eStream
- CyberHuman Productions Co., Ltd.
- CyberLiG Co., Ltd.
- CyberNow Co., Ltd.
- Digital Double Co., Ltd.
- Entertainmentplex Co., Ltd.
- Makuake Co., Ltd.
Former subsidiaries
- Financial Plus — acquired by FISCO and renamed FISCO Plan later merged with FISCO
- International Sports Marketing — acquired by Spire and then acquired Spire's parent company, Hakuhodo DY Holdings by Motion Beat
- Crown Jewel — Sold to Start Today
- AMoAd
- CyberAgent FX — Sold to Yahoo! Japan and renamed YJFX
- Hoops Co., Ltd. — Sold to Rakuten
- Cyber Brains Inc. — Sold to Rakuten
- Traffic Gate Co., Ltd. — Sold to Rakuten
- Luke's Co., Ltd. — Sold to Mitsui & Co
- Voyage Group — spun off from the company
- PeX — Sold to Voyage Group
- Real World — Sold to Adways
- CyberBuzz
- cybozu.net — sold to Cybozu
- CA Search
- Ameba Books Shinsha
- Store Factory
- Adplain
- CyberAgent Plus
- Super Suites
- CA Technology
- Pottap
- CyberX
- Poupée Girl
- CA/H
- CA Beat
- Fraudia Communications
- QuunApp
- Cyblo
- Koebu
- Tokyo Verdy
- App2Go
- RightSegment
- AI Messenger
- Book Table Co., Ltd.
- ASTROB Co., Ltd.
- SAH
- New R25 Co., Ltd.
- CAM Force
- Zion Media Office
- Inter Records
- Pitapat
- CA Drive
- Ameba Products
- CyberW
- Torte Co., Ltd.
- CyberAgent Bitcoin
- VR Agent
- Uniface
- Shibuya Clip Create
- WAVEST Inc.
- Applibot Lifestyle Co., Ltd.
- LIVE STA Co., Ltd.
- CyberQ
- AVATTA Co., Ltd.
- CyberV
Wrestle Universe
Controversies and criticism
In April 2015 a former employee of CyberAgent accused the company of unauthorized stealing of articles and images, inappropriate quoting, and undercover marketing were often pointed out with BuzzFeed Japan also accusing the company for the same thing but allegations were later denied.In the fall of 2016, DeNA's healthcare information website "WELQ" had a problem due to inappropriate content and inappropriate citations, and from December 1 to 2, 2016, thousands of articles related to medical and health related to “Spotlight” and a few percent of approximately 35,000 articles related to “by.S” were deleted. CyberAgent explained that the privately held articles were written by registered users and with company claming could not be fully verified with addiction expanded the scope of private disclosure, and deleted all articles posted by registered users on both websites. A total of less than 100,000 articles were deleted.