A pair of Japanese twins managed to become millionaires after listing their (first) mobile gaming company in the stock market.
Anna and Mizuki Nakajima 's shareholding in the firm they founded, Coly, was worth about US $ 141.5 million when it was launched last week.
The firm produces the first anime-based cartoon targeted for women and nearly three-quarters of its 200 employees are women.
The main genre of the company involved is ‘otome’ or women in Japanese.
Some of the first ones produced by Coly include Stand My Heroes and Promise of Wizard. The first can be downloaded for free but players can make a payment to reveal additional storylines in the first.
According to Coly, the size of the Japanese market for primates dedicated to women increased from 70 billion to 80 billion yen from 2019 to 2020.
According to analysts at game consulting company, Kantan Games, Serkan Toto, otome followers tend to be loyal and like to play with certain first titles for a long time.
Toto added that less than 5% of software companies in Japan are led by women and the steps of Nakajima's twins are unusual.
"Nakajima twins are doing incredible work so that their company is growing rapidly in a competitive industry," he said.
Meanwhile, business experts say that it is not easy for women to penetrate the business world in Japan and have to face challenges that men are reluctant to face in the same situation.
"The company has never taken venture capital money, which is definitely an easier way to go in Japan for men," said Toto.
The popularity of anime has grown over the years especially in the United States (US), China and South Korea.
A report by US consulting firm Grand View Research estimates the anime market at US $ 20.5 billion and predicts its growth of 9% per annum until 2025.
In addition, Netflix announced that more than 100 million households worldwide watched at least one anime through its platform between October 2019 and September 2020, an increase of more than 50%.
The streaming sites have signed various agreements with the publishing company to produce the anime.
Sony is also the largest contributor to anime content and its annual profit is driven by the success of the Demon Slayer anime film.
The film became the fastest film in the history of Japanese cinema last year which managed to raise a collection of 10 billion yen in just 10 days.
