Japanese company Gree is shutting down Tellit, a mobile messaging service that was launched last year. According to the company, the reason for this is the need for constant rationalization of costs in a highly competitive environment.
The other day, the company officially announced to its users that it plans to roll out Tellit in early September.
The text of the statement says that Tellit was launched “to make it easier for people to keep in touch with their friends and share interesting content. Despite the fact that this product is constantly used and has loyal users, we face serious competition in other areas of the company‘s activities.”
It is not yet known whether the closure of Tellit will entail a reduction in staff, but Gree confirmed that this step is part of the ongoing restructuring process.
“In recent weeks, we have been optimizing our international operations and product line, guided by a selection and concentration strategy,” Gree said. The closure of Tellit is necessary so that the company “can direct all its attention to other opportunities.” However, the process of “optimization” has already led to the dismissal of many employees, affecting teams in Beijing and the UK.
Mobile messaging services are extremely attractive to gaming companies in Asian markets: more than 100 million downloads of the Japanese company Line were made through the application for sending/receiving messages, while recently published revenues from games downloaded through the South Korean KakaoTalk amounted to more than $300 million.
Source: www.gamesindustry.biz