Utilizing SBPS's payment system cuts system development time by 1/6

Aim to increase the number of new users by increasing the circulation volume of virtual currency by introducing T points

Ameba, a community and gaming SNS for smartphones operated by CyberAgent, is experiencing rapid growth amid the expansion of the smartphone market.
Originally, Ameba provided web services such as blogs and Ameba Pigg (an avatar-based communication service) for PCs and feature phones.
However, anticipating further expansion of the smartphone market, the company began concentrating its internal resources on smartphones from around 2011.
In June 2012, the company released "Ameba" for smartphones as a community and social gaming platform for smartphones, and is working to transform its service.
The number of members in January was 6.55 million, an increase of 2.19 million from October.
The amount of usage of the virtual currency "coin" on smartphones also increased to around 800 million yen in December alone.

At the end of 2012, Ameba announced a partnership with T-Point, Japan's largest mutual points service.
The smartphone app "Ameba" uses a virtual currency called "coins" when using services such as social games.
Coins can be purchased, or earned by playing games or inviting friends to use Ameba's services.

Under this partnership, when purchasing coins on Ameba, 1 T Point will be awarded for every 105 yen (tax included).
The accumulated T points can not only be exchanged for coins on Ameba, but can also be used at other T point affiliated stores at a rate of 1 point = 1 yen.
CyberAgent Director Masahide Koike explained the aim of this partnership as follows:

"In the platform business, the key is to increase the size of virtual currency circulation.
We thought that being able to exchange points earned through various point services for Ameba Coins might help increase the number of Ameba users, so we decided to introduce T Points."

42.97 million members T points with an overwhelming share of 1/3 of Japanese members

T-Point is, as everyone knows, the largest common point distribution service.
It is operated by T Point Japan, a subsidiary of Culture Convenience Club (CCC), the company known for TSUTAYA.
T Point currently has 96 partner companies, with the total number of stores operated by these partner companies amounting to 51,523.
The number of members is 42.97 million (as of the end of December 2012), which works out to about one-third of Japan's total population.

By allowing the use of T Points on Ameba, T members will be able to use the T Points they already have on Ameba.
It is expected that this will encourage T-Point users who have never used Ameba before to start using it.

CCC will also be able to approach approximately 8 million of the 42.97 million T members via email, and plans to use email marketing and other methods to encourage these members to join Ameba.

The company is the largest online payment company, holding an overwhelming No. 1 market share of 42.3% (*) in online payment services.
Annual sales volume is 1.3154 trillion yen (FY2012 forecast).
We offer comprehensive, reliable payment solutions tailored to each business's business flow.
Above all, the company's strength is the wide range payment methods it offers, including Credit Card Payment, Mobile Carrier Billing that transcend the boundaries of mobile carriers, including SoftBank, Docomo, and au (a system in which content usage fees and other charges are paid at the same time as mobile phone charges), and CVS Payment, among other options.As of December 2012, 25,887 stores were using the company's services.

The reason why the introduction period, which was expected to be half a year, was completed in one month

cyber-agent
Director Masahide Koike

SBPS's mediation not only contributed to the promotion of the business partnership; by using the company's payment system, both CyberAgent and CCC were able to enjoy the major benefit of reduced system development time when introducing T Points.

"When development takes a long time, the hurdle for introducing a new service rises dramatically. However, when it came to introducing T-Points, by using SBPS's payment system, the development period that was expected to take six months was reduced to one month," said CyberAgent's Koike.