Dwango (company)

DWANGO Co., Ltd. (株式会社ドワンゴ, Kabushiki gaisha Dowango) is a Japanese telecommunications and media company based in Japan, headed by Nobuo Kawakami. The company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2014. The company was spun off from a U.S.-based service offering online multiplayer for video games, DWANGO (Dial-up Wide-Area Network Game Operation), which was shut down in 1998. Dwango's majority shareholders until its merger with Kadokawa Corporation included Kawakami himself, Kadokawa Corporation, and Avex Group. Dwango runs the popular Japanese video sharing site Niconico. The company also is the 100% owner of the game developer Spike Chunsoft, which Dwango bought as the companies Spike and Chunsoft in 2005 when they were separated companies, before merging them in 2012. It also owns GeeXPlus, Kadokawa's influencer talent agency which promotes the company's relationship with influencers, along with its production division GeeXProduction, and also manages OpenToonz, an open source 2D animation software program.