Dwango (company)

DWANGO Co., Ltd.
Native name	株式会社ドワンゴ
Romanized name	Kabushiki gaisha Dowango
Company type	Kabushiki gaisha; Subsidiary
Industry	Entertainment
Founded	August 6, 1997 in Tokyo, Japan
Founder	Interactive Visual Systems d/b/a DWANGO
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Area served	Japan
Key people	Takeshi Natsuno; (President and CEO)
Services	Niconico
Parent	Kadokawa Corporation
Subsidiaries	Dehogallery; Dwango AG Entertainment; Dwango Music Publishing; FromNetworks; Project Studio Q; Spike Chunsoft; Vantan; Vaka; Virtual Cast; Watanabe Amaduction
Website	www.dwango.co.jp

DWANGO Co., Ltd. (株式会社ドワンゴ, Kabushiki gaisha Dowango) is a 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.