The Pokémon Company/History

The Pokémon Company was founded on April 23, 1998 as The Pokémon Center Company (Japanese:  Pokémon Center kabushiki gaisha) in order to manage the in Japan. The current name was established in October 2000, which was when the company started its game-related business. In December 2000, it started managing the licensing of the Pokémon franchise as well.

Outside of most Asian countries, The Pokémon Company operates under its subsidiary The Pokémon Company International, which was founded in February 2001 as Pokémon USA and later merged in 2009 with Pokémon UK (itself founded in March 2003 ) to form the current single subsidiary. In and, the Pokémon franchise is managed by. In, the franchise is managed by Pokémon Korea, Inc., founded in August 28, 2006.

In July 2002, it launched the Pokémon Hiroba website for mobile phones. In November 2002, it launched the Official Pokémon Website.

In January 2004, it launched the Pokémon Daisuki Club.

In March 8, 2010, it founded an affiliate called The Pokémon Communications Company (Japanese:  Kabushiki gaisha Pokémon Communications) to better reach customers in Asia.

In 2014, The Pokémon Company released an educational app for schools called PokeTouch.