In five years, Yoshikazu Tanaka became Japan's youngest billionaire as investors piled into Gree Inc., valuing his controlling stake in the early maker of phone-based games at $4 billion. Just 18 months later, that has shriveled to about $1.4 billion.
For a youngster — at 36, he's 12 years junior to the next on the nation's billion dollar list — Tanaka was slow to pick up on the global smartphone craze. Half a decade after Apple Inc.'s iPhone went on sale in Japan, Gree relies on the generation of handsets that preceded smartphones for 60 percent of its revenue.
The company says it will log its first annual profit decline as consumers flock to games available through Apple's App Store and Google Play, abandoning the social network gaming platforms of Gree and rival DeNA Co. that once dominated the local market. Since their November 2011 peak, Tokyo-based Gree's shares have slumped by more than half, the worst performer of the 108 members in their industry grouping on the Topix index.