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Enterprise SEO tool GinzaMetrics buys Asia’s influencer marketing platform Withfluence

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See the original story in Japanese. San Francisco-based Ginzamarkets, the company behind the GinzaMetrics enterprise SEO (search engine optimization) platform, announced today that it will fully acquire Withfluence, the Tokyo- and Bangkok-based startup offering an influencer marketing management platform under the same name. Both parties will work together to offer web marketing solutions more comprehensively for enterprise users. Withfluence was founded in May of 2016 by Hiroyuki Okamoto (CEO), who was previously running media and ad companies in Vietnam, along with Keiichi Honma (CTO) having developed web services and a translation app for foreign visitors to Japan. Before Withfluence, Okamoto and Honma developed a Thailand-based instant e-commerce platform described as an “Asian version” of Shopify, but after attending the 12th batch of Open Network Lab’s Accelerator Program shifted their attention to the launch of Withfluence. The company participated in several pitch events in Bangkok supported by the Japanese Embassy to Thailand as well as JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), followed by securing partnership with Thailand’s second-largest telco True back in April this year. Meanwhile, Ginzamarkets, the company behind the GinzaMetrics platform, was founded in May of 2010 by Ray Grieselhuber and other serial entrepreneurs. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company…

See the original story in Japanese.

San Francisco-based Ginzamarkets, the company behind the GinzaMetrics enterprise SEO (search engine optimization) platform, announced today that it will fully acquire Withfluence, the Tokyo- and Bangkok-based startup offering an influencer marketing management platform under the same name. Both parties will work together to offer web marketing solutions more comprehensively for enterprise users.

Withfluence was founded in May of 2016 by Hiroyuki Okamoto (CEO), who was previously running media and ad companies in Vietnam, along with Keiichi Honma (CTO) having developed web services and a translation app for foreign visitors to Japan. Before Withfluence, Okamoto and Honma developed a Thailand-based instant e-commerce platform described as an “Asian version” of Shopify, but after attending the 12th batch of Open Network Lab’s Accelerator Program shifted their attention to the launch of Withfluence. The company participated in several pitch events in Bangkok supported by the Japanese Embassy to Thailand as well as JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), followed by securing partnership with Thailand’s second-largest telco True back in April this year.

Meanwhile, Ginzamarkets, the company behind the GinzaMetrics platform, was founded in May of 2010 by Ray Grieselhuber and other serial entrepreneurs. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company has now become a global solution provider with offices in Columbus (Ohio, US) and Tokyo (Japan) as well as operations in Warsaw (Poland), Lahore (Pakistan) and Toronto (Canada).

L to R: Ginzamarkets CEO Ray Grieselhuber, Withfluence CEO Hiro Okamoto

Grieselhuber and Okamoto first met each other ten years ago. Followed by working for the Japanese subsidiary of Mezi Media (subsequently acquired by Value Click Brands), Okamoto was involved in managing overseas operations at Japanese digital agency Irep (TSE:2132). Though the Japanese adtech industry was still in an early stage at that time, Okamoto had been promoting business partnerships with foreign adtech companies and digital agencies.

When Okamoto first met Grieselhuber, the latter was running a digtal agency called Firewatching Media. Grieselhuber subsequently launched Ginzamarkets and participated in the Y Combinator program. Despite being asked by Grieselhuber to join the Ginzamarkets team, Okamoto declined the request to carry out his original intention to launch his own startup. Okamoto told The Bridge that Grieselhuber is the former’s senior in the SaaS (software as a service) startup sector.

In terms of the business perspective, GinzaMetrics and Withfluence are complementing each other. GinzaMetrics had been finding a way to give their global brand clients a better access to influencer marketing opportunities while Withfluence had been exploring a good partner that can offer comprehensive online marketing solutions together.

With the acquisition at this time, Withfluence plans to launch a total roll-out of their managed influencer marketing service, strengthen system integration with the GinzaMetrics platform, as well as expanding into Japan, Hong Kong and Mainland China beyond their current coverage of the Southeast Asia market.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Withfluence ties up with Thai telco True to boost influencer marketing in Asia

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo- / Bangkok- / Singapore-based Withfluence, the Japanese company providing an influencer marketing management platform for Asian markets under the same name, signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Thailand’s second largest telco True on Wednesday. Withfluence was founded in May of 2016 by Hiroyuki Okamoto (current CEO) who previously ran a media and advertising company in Vietnam, and Keiichi Honma (current CTO) who had been developing web services and translation apps for foreigners visiting Japan. Before Withfluence, Okamoto and Honma had developed an instant e-commerce platform described as “Asia’s version of Shopify” and based in Thailand, but changed directions before attending Open Network Lab’s 12th Accelerator Program and launching Withfluence in August of last year. Included in this business alliance is to give the opportunity to act as an influencer on social media to actresses, actors, talent, and singers belonging to True Music (True’s entertainment division), as well as the development of processes to simplify promotion campaign requests from companies outside of Thailand, and optimizing the algorithms matching influencers with companies leveraging cognitive computing. Withfluence and True in making full use of each other’s management resources will collaborate on joint service development and…

The signing ceremony held at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday.
In the front row, L to R: Hiroyuki Okamoto (CEO, Withfluence), Teerapon Tanomsakyut (Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer, True)
In the back row, L to R: Hiroki Mitsumata (Head of JETRO Bangkok office), Shiro Sadoshima (Japanese Ambassador to Thailand), Achaka Sriboonruang (Minister of Science and Technology of Thailand), Adhiruth Thothaveesansuk (Co-President of True and Group COO)
Image credit: Fumi Tanaka aka Bunshow

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo- / Bangkok- / Singapore-based Withfluence, the Japanese company providing an influencer marketing management platform for Asian markets under the same name, signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Thailand’s second largest telco True on Wednesday.

Withfluence was founded in May of 2016 by Hiroyuki Okamoto (current CEO) who previously ran a media and advertising company in Vietnam, and Keiichi Honma (current CTO) who had been developing web services and translation apps for foreigners visiting Japan. Before Withfluence, Okamoto and Honma had developed an instant e-commerce platform described as “Asia’s version of Shopify” and based in Thailand, but changed directions before attending Open Network Lab’s 12th Accelerator Program and launching Withfluence in August of last year.

Included in this business alliance is to give the opportunity to act as an influencer on social media to actresses, actors, talent, and singers belonging to True Music (True’s entertainment division), as well as the development of processes to simplify promotion campaign requests from companies outside of Thailand, and optimizing the algorithms matching influencers with companies leveraging cognitive computing. Withfluence and True in making full use of each other’s management resources will collaborate on joint service development and distribution of the social media marketing business in Southeast Asia.

This business alliance is born from Withflurnce’s participation in the Embassy Pitch event organized by the Embassy of Thailand and the JETRO Bangkok Office in September of last year, and which also triggered the launch of the Japan-Thailand Innovation Support Network (JTIS; of which, Okamoto is serving as a director). This partnership was carried out through True Incube, True’s investment and innovation division, and the signing ceremony was held at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Thailand on Thursday the 29th, including not only Okamoto and the True management team, but also Shiro Sadoshima, the Japanese ambassador to Thailand and Atchaka Sibunruang, the Minister of Science and Technology of Thailand.

The following is an excerpt for Okamoto’s comments.

The Government of Thailand in becoming unified with the public under the slogan of “digital economic policy” is aiming to become a hub in Southeast Asia.

We believe True, with their own TV channel, will be our strongest partner in the entertainment business of Southeast Asia. And, to meet expectations from True, we are willing to support their business development of True in other Asian countries including Japan.

Withfluence currently offers services in Japanese, English, Thai, Vietnamese, and Traditional Chinese (for Taiwan and Hong Kong). In allying with True, it appears the company is concentrating on fundraising and expanding their sales, and also focusing on new Asian markets.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Withfluence sets up influencer management platform to ease regional marketing in Asia

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Withfluence officially launched an influencer marketing management platform geared toward the Asian market under the same name on the 24th of August. For companies wishing to implement influencer marketing, Withfluence provides complete support from campaign planning and negotiation with influencers into execution and finally performance measurement through its dashboard system. Becoming the facilitator of influencer marketing in Asia It is true there are many influencer market platforms in existence so to more easily understand where Withfluence fits in we can borrow from CEO and Co-founder Hiroyuki Okamoto and broadly classify the current environment. The following list includes famous platforms both within and outside of Japan. Managed Campaigning services: Tagpic, 3Minute, ENGN etc. Influencer marketplaces: Rooster etc. Matching platform between contracters and influencers: Bizcast, iConcast, Spirit, Fambit etc. Influencer management SaaS (For in-house influencer management for enterprises): Traacker, TapInfluence etc. Now in Japan an overwhelming number of management campaign services are increasing their shares, and with the demand from Japanese firms for influencer marketing aimed at Asian markets high, Okamoto first attempted to create a matching service to connect Japan and the world with influencers in the Asian market. Certainly, the same structure is…

withfluence_featuredimage
Image credit: Withfluence

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Withfluence officially launched an influencer marketing management platform geared toward the Asian market under the same name on the 24th of August. For companies wishing to implement influencer marketing, Withfluence provides complete support from campaign planning and negotiation with influencers into execution and finally performance measurement through its dashboard system.

Becoming the facilitator of influencer marketing in Asia

It is true there are many influencer market platforms in existence so to more easily understand where Withfluence fits in we can borrow from CEO and Co-founder Hiroyuki Okamoto and broadly classify the current environment. The following list includes famous platforms both within and outside of Japan.

Now in Japan an overwhelming number of management campaign services are increasing their shares, and with the demand from Japanese firms for influencer marketing aimed at Asian markets high, Okamoto first attempted to create a matching service to connect Japan and the world with influencers in the Asian market. Certainly, the same structure is working for 99designs and designclue, among others, in the world of design crowdsourcing.

However, Okamoto notes in the world of marketing, with clients using relatively detailed terms and English not being a native language in Asia, as well as differing conceptions of business ideals, it is difficult to expand into a cross border matching service. Withfluence, being in between a management campaign and a marketplace, thus seeks to also be a facilitator. Withfluence’s team members across Vietnam (covering Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore), Taiwan, and Hong Kong comprehensively search for influencers of marketing companies, serve as a tool for communication between influencers, and improve the success rate of marketing campaigns in an effort to assist their clients.

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Withfluence’s dashboard
Image credit: Withfluence

The dashboard of the Withfluence platform shows each influencer’s frequently used hashtags, their number of followers, and changes in their engagement rate, among other features, in a chronological timeline format. It becomes possible to see “influencer doping” (when an influencer “buys” their followers or engagements, most do not lead to conversions) as well. Currently the dashboard is compatible with influencers using Instagram, and in the very near future will become compatible with Facebook users.

Okamoto elaborated:

Actually, type “Influencer Marketing” and “Asia” into Google and Withfluence already appears as the third result. A possible outcome being, even before the official launch, many inquiries have flooded in from the US and Europe. Based on the largest number of inquiries, Taiwan is so far the most popular target market for influencer marketing.

Helping brands and entertainment companies manage global social media marketing

The development of Withfluence has led to a number of related services being born

First, there is the social media multi-language operation. Previously introduced on The Bridge, Japanese pastry start-up Bake is making the most of social media to expand their brand around the world, and in order to unify their branding the team uses separate social media accounts in different languages and marketplaces from their headquarters in Tokyo. With Withfluence, representatives from Bake can simply post messages in Japanese; the contents then gets translated into the desired languages and uploaded to the corresponding social media accounts. So to speak, it becomes the social media version of WOVN.io, known for its translation of websites. Withfluence’s staff around the world then check the machine generated translations, with unsupported languages outsourced to human-powered translation service Gengo.

Se also:

withfluence-dashboard2_screenshot
Withfluence’s dashboard
Image credit: Withfluence

Additionally, Withfluence supports the multi-language expansion of artists and talent for major entertainment companies across social media, as well as displays the aforementioned influencer’s number of followers and changes in engagement rate in a timeline format that is easy to track. This information then corresponds to the popularity ranking on the online mediasphere. Until now, the reference index for deciding the guarantee fee for artists and talent was based on the viewing rate on mass media released by companies like Video Research and Nielsen. Withfluence provides the world with a new tool, giving us the ability to see each artist’s individual degree of influence with special attention to their online influence.

Withfluence indicates the posts that can increase followers and engagement rate, then be used by entertainment companies to advice their artists for better marketing. Making use of these functions, casting agencies and others are expecting to dive into the pool of influencers in their search for fresh talent.

hiro-okamoto-at-adtech-tokyo-intl-2016-1
On Tuesday, Withfluence Okamoto unveiled his influencer marketing platform at AdTech Tokyo International at Sophia University.

Withfluence was founded in May of 2016 by Hiroyuki Okamoto (CEO), who was previously running media and ad companies in Vietnam, along with Keiichi Honma (CTO) having developed web services and a translation app for foreign visitors to Japan. Before Withfluence, Okamoto and Honma developed a Thailand-based instant e-commerce platform described as an “Asian version” of Shopify, but after attending the 12th batch of Open Network Lab’s Accelerator Program shifted their attention to the launch of Withfluence.

From now, the Withfluence team plans to focus on acquisition of clients both within and outside of Japan, in addition to generating funding during a seed round before the year is out.

withfluence-hiro-okamoto-keiichi-honma
L to R: Withfluence CEO Hiroyuki Okamoto, CTO Keiichi Honma

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda