Tokyo, Japan – January 29, 2014 – GMO Internet is proud to announce that GMO AppsCloud today received the grand prize in the GameBusiness.jp Game Cloud Awards 2014* as the best hosting service provider for social games for the third year in a row. GMO AppsCloud also received awards in the categories of “Functionality,” “Price Competitiveness,” “Customer Support,” and “Internationality.”

*Name changed from GameBusiness.jp App Cloud Awards

 

GMO AppsCloud has been providing optimized cloud infrastructure for social games since September 2010. GMO AppsCloud has been chosen to host 1,500 social games (as of Dec, 2013) and provided in three countries; Japan, the U.S.( since March, 2011), and South Korea (since October, 2013) to support Japanese developers seeking to launch games in overseas markets.

 

　In 2013, monthly sales of Japan smartphone apps overtook that of the U.S. market according to the smartphone app analyst firm App Annie. South Korea’s social game market also experienced the same dramatic growth as Japan. The growth of the social game industry overall boosted the number of new contracts for GMO AppsCloud, and in both markets participation in the cloud hosting space increased.

 

 Amidst evolving market conditions, GMO Internet has won the GameBusiness.jp Game Cloud Awards 2014 third times in a row including Grand Prize, and awards in the categories of “Performance,” “Price Competitiveness,” “Customer Support,” “Internationality.” We believe our success is based on the following factors.

1.       Pricing structure and features optimized for social games

2.       High performance infrastructure and durable network against high-loads

3.       365-day 24-hour customer support

4.       One-stop service including infrastructure and other game distribution

5.       High quality data centers in overseas all locations

6.       Flexible service to meet the diverse infrastructure needs

 

The game market is expected to grow further as smartphone and tablet penetration increases. GMO AppsCloud provides stable infrastructure that supports the growth of our customers’ social game business and the game market overall. GMO AppsCloud is continuously improving services and aims to be No.1 service in price and performance.

“We are honored to be the recipient of the GameBusiness.jp Game Cloud awards for the third year in a row and are grateful to all of our customers. The GMO AppsCloud team is committed to continuously improving our service and we aim to be recognized in every category of this important user driven industry survey.”

 

GameBusiness.jp is an online game magazine operated by IID, Inc. The magazine asked readers as well as panelists from the online research community “Anpara” to rank cloud solutions by level of customer satisfaction via an online survey. The Game Cloud Awards 2014 recognize the service operators who received the highest number of votes from participants.

 

 

GMO AppsCloud is a cloud based hosting service optimized to host game apps distributed to major Japanese gaming platforms at industry low prices. Launched in 2010, the service combines the web hosting systems architecture and operational expertise of the GMO Internet Group, with the firsthand knowledge and experience of the GMO Social Apps Initiative, a support project for social game developers. 

GMO Internet Group is a comprehensive provider of industry-leading Internet solutions including domain name registration, cloud-based and traditional hosting, ecommerce, security, and payment processing services that each hold the top share of their respective markets in Japan. Other key business areas for the Group include online securities/FX trading, Internet advertising, search engine marketing, and smartphone game development and publishing. GMO Internet, Inc. (TSE: 9449) is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.