Company overview

CTW operates G123.jp, where players can play free games across computers, phones and tablets without downloading software or registering. Most titles draw on licensed Japanese animation, and players can choose to buy items or top up their game accounts. Japan supplies most of the company’s revenue.

The paying customers are game developers. CTW secures animation rights and gives developers access to them, helps prepare games for different markets, and handles distribution, marketing, payments and player support. Third-party developers create and update the games and retain ownership of them. CTW collects its service fees by keeping an agreed share of players’ purchases. It also advances development funding, which it can recover only from the individual game’s purchases; developers generally do not have to repay any shortfall.

The business relies on a small minority of players who spend money and on a few leading games and their developers. Vivid Army is a substantial revenue source. CTW attracts players mainly through paid digital advertising, so it needs their spending to generate more revenue than it costs to acquire them. It also depends on renewing animation licenses and keeping developer relationships. Those licenses limit how content can be used and where games can be offered; CTW does not own the underlying animation rights or its partners’ games.