With 10 million users and more than 12 billion page views per month, Mobile GREE is among the hottest mobile social networking and games sites in Japan. At first glance, Tsuri Star 2 is just a Flash-based fishing game. However, there are hundreds of thousands of players getting involved in the social side of it all — joining teams to go fishing together, competing in tournaments, showing off their catches to each other, and becoming friends in the process.

Even more astounding: Players spend heaps of actual, cold, hard cash to purchase virtual fishing equipment that lets them catch bigger and rarer fish — helping GREE Inc. bag a cool US$ 41.2 million in revenues in the last quarter alone.

The video is in three parts:
1. A look at GREE’s wildly popular fishing game in action.
2. The shopping and “stickers” functionality in that game.
3. Fishing tournaments, where multiple users work together to catch the most fish.

Enjoy this overview!

Part 1:


 
Part 2:


 
Part 3:

Here is the first episode in our new series of cool Japanese mobile services, in two parts:
1. A look at the interface of Run&Walk, a GPS based workout assistant.
2. A look at Run&Walk’s BEATRUN, which changes the music track based on your running rhythm, plus a look at Run&Walk’s companion PC site.
Enjoy!

Part 1:


 
Part 2: