■ Business Overview of Hatena <3930>

3. Technology Solution Services

Utilizing the service development capabilities and IT infrastructure construction capabilities accumulated in the UGC service, they offer commissioned services to develop and build corporate owned media from scratch, as well as services to monitor the state of servers and software used by companies in cloud environments and data centers in an SaaS format (cloud support service).

(1) Commissioned Services

They are entrusted with the development and operation of services that allow customers in the publishing industry to view and subscribe to manga, novels, etc. on browsers and apps, as well as services that allow general users to post. Revenue includes not only commissioned development fees but also maintenance and operation fees, revenue sharing from charging on the operated media, accounting for just under 70% (fiscal year ending July 2024) of the technology solution services. One of the main services is the manga viewer 'GigaViewer,' which has been provided since 2017 and has expanded to be used by 16 companies and 25 media (23 web media and 2 app media) as of the end of July 2024. It has become a de facto standard web manga viewer, and future expansion is expected in the app version. Other development and implementation achievements include Nintendo Co Ltd's 'Icarus 2,' 'Smart Plus,' 'Icarus 3*', as well as KADOKAWA's 'Kakuyomu'*2.

*1: 'Icarus 3' is a game-linked service with functions to enjoy Nintendo's game software 'Splatoon 3' released in September 2022 more comfortably, and can be used by downloading the smartphone app 'Nintendo Switch Online'.

*2: 'Kakuyomu' is a novel posting site where novels can be published and read for free, jointly developed by KADOKAWA and the company in 2016. It serves as a place to discover new authors.

The company's strengths lie in its ability to conceive and implement services that leverage user posts and viewing behaviors for customer businesses, as well as the ability to quickly implement scalable designs, and the ability to design, build, and operate IT infrastructures that can maintain low-cost operations even as the service scales without compromising performance such as display speed.

(2) Cloud Support Services

The server monitoring service 'Mackerel', which has been provided since 2014, allows the operational status of servers and application services to be centrally monitored even across different cloud services and datacenter services, with the feature of easy implementation and operation due to its user-friendly UI and efficient API functionality. Traditionally, companies often built and operated their own monitoring tools for monitoring their own servers, but with the spread and advancement of cloud computing technology, as well as a shortage of IT personnel, there has been an increase in companies introducing dedicated tools like 'Mackerel' that are easy to use.

Companies that have implemented 'Mackerel' are mainly internet service companies, gaming companies, and ad tech companies that require the operation of many servers. However, its use in the enterprise sector is also being explored. With relatively low monthly usage fees (starting from ¥1,833 per monitored server per month), the burden of monitoring tasks is significantly reduced, leading to an extremely low cancellation rate after implementation. Major clients include CyberAgent Inc., Nintendo Co Ltd, Credit Saison Co Ltd, GMO Pepabo Inc., Mercari Inc., GREE Inc., KDDI Corporation, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Biglobe Inc., among others, and the number of implementations has exceeded 1,000 companies.

(Written by FISCO guest analyst, Jo Sato)