Satoru Kikugawa
Photo: Gala Inc., CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons9

Satoru Kikugawa

Gala Inc. (株式会社ガーラ, Gala Kabushiki gaisha) is a holding company based in Tokyo, Japan, that administers GALA Group, which is made up of subsidiary companies of Gala Inc.1

Born Jul 4, 1965.1

About

Gala Inc. (株式会社ガーラ, Gala Kabushiki gaisha) 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 comprises three types of businesses: MMORPG games, web design, and data mining. Within the group companies Gala Lab Corp. was established in South Korea after the merger of Aeonsoft and n Flavor and develops games for the group's online gaming portal gPotato. GALA Group focuses on developing largely 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. However, there is a micro-currency system that can be used to buy in-game upgrades. Games and their item shops can be accessed by the Group's regional gPotato portal sites.

From Wikipedia’s article on Satoru Kikugawa, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedKeio University3

Early years

Gala Inc. was founded in September 1993 by Satoru Kikugawa. While at Keio University, Kikugawa was an avid event planner and would rent out clubs in Tokyo's Roppongi district where 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. to bring 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.

From Wikipedia’s article on Satoru Kikugawa (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: businessperson.5

  • Date not recordedFounded Gala4

Personal life

  • BornJul 4, 1965, Setagaya6
  • CitizenshipJapan7