GREE Holdings, Inc. (グリーホールディングス株式会社) is a Japanese social media and video game company with headquarters in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi, Tokyo.[1] It has been operating the social network service GREE since its establishment in December 2004.
Etymology
The company name GREE comes from a hypothesis, Six Degrees of Separation postulated by social psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1967. "Six degrees of separation" is a hypothesis that everyone is approximately six steps away from any other person on Earth. If a chain of "a friend of a friend" statements are made, on average, any two people in the world can be connected in six steps or fewer. The name symbolizes GREE's hope to "create and provide any new possibilities of the Internet" and to "create new forms of fun, convenience, and excitement."[2]
History
- Feb. 2004: Release of GREE alpha to the public by Yoshikazu Tanaka as a personal hobby