Amid the talk of mobile-phone enabled social networks, a mobile-ONLY social network in Japan has not only become hugely popular in that country, but has listed on the Tokyo stock exchange and raked in $46 million in sales in the first quarter of 2008.

Mobage-Town, a mobile SNS/virtual world/gaming platform launched by Japanese company DeNa, enables its 11 million members to send messages, chat in communities, exchange music, read pocket novels, write blogs, and more. It’s main attraction appears to be a large selection of free games.

Mobage-Town allows members to choose avatars who live in virtual rooms. Mobage-Town members can dress up their avatars and rooms by buying “Moba Gold”, clicking on ads, signing up for affiliate services or inviting new members… all of which directly or indirectly allow Mobage-Town to earn revenue.

Whether or not a mobile-only social network like this will work in other parts of the world remains to be seen. And some of us may see soon enough – DeNA has opened a U.S. office in San Mateo and plans to offer an English version of Mobage-town this autumn.

Source: Serkan Toto, “Mobage-town: Japan’s Biggest Mobile-Only Social Network”, Tech Crunch, August 16, 2008

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