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Japan’s influencer marketing startup BitStar secures $12M series C led by Global Brain

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based BitStar, develoing the BitStar influencer support platform and the E-DGE YouTuber production, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 1.3 billion yen (around $11.8M US) in a series C round. This round was led by Global Brain with participation from ABC Dream Ventures (VC arm of Asahi Broadcasting), Colopl Next, Wright Flyer Live Entertainment (WFLE; a wholly owned subsidiary of Gree that offers a live VTuber app), Intage Open Innovation fund (jointly operated by Intage Holdings and SBI Investment), Makers Fund (a Hong Kong-based fund specialized in entertainment businesses), Asahi Shimbun, and Nagoya TV Ventures (corporate venture capital of Nagoya Broadcasting Network) also participating. Among the investors from this round, Colopl Next was the sole investor for the series A round in August of 2016 (amount undisclosed, estimated at several hundred million yen), and Global Brain was the sole investor for the series B round in June of 2017 (300 million yen investment). From October of 2017 ABC Dream Ventures participated as an investor (investment amount and round not disclosed). Including funds procured in the seed round (amount not disclosed) from East Ventures in 2014, the cumulative procurement from external investors is probably…

The BitStar and Global Brain teams
Image credit: Global Brain / BitStar

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based BitStar, develoing the BitStar influencer support platform and the E-DGE YouTuber production, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 1.3 billion yen (around $11.8M US) in a series C round.

This round was led by Global Brain with participation from ABC Dream Ventures (VC arm of Asahi Broadcasting), Colopl Next, Wright Flyer Live Entertainment (WFLE; a wholly owned subsidiary of Gree that offers a live VTuber app), Intage Open Innovation fund (jointly operated by Intage Holdings and SBI Investment), Makers Fund (a Hong Kong-based fund specialized in entertainment businesses), Asahi Shimbun, and Nagoya TV Ventures (corporate venture capital of Nagoya Broadcasting Network) also participating.

Among the investors from this round, Colopl Next was the sole investor for the series A round in August of 2016 (amount undisclosed, estimated at several hundred million yen), and Global Brain was the sole investor for the series B round in June of 2017 (300 million yen investment). From October of 2017 ABC Dream Ventures participated as an investor (investment amount and round not disclosed). Including funds procured in the seed round (amount not disclosed) from East Ventures in 2014, the cumulative procurement from external investors is probably around 2 billion yen (about $18M US).

Additionally, BitStar announced its partnership with WFLE, in which WFLE will support the 3D conversion, recording, and distribution of VTubers from 2D models produced by BitStar, with the two companies jointly producing multiple VTubers (Virtual YouTubers) in 2019. The investments from multiple broadcasters are reflective of BitStar CEO Taku Watanabe’s previous remarks on moving to produce products in collaboration with them. The company is also collaborating with Asahi Broadcasting and Asahi Shimbun for the creation of next-generation media under the latter two companies’ #ONE! new channel brand.

Makers Fund is a $180 million US fund established by Jay Chi, who led the McKinsey Video Game Project, and Michael Cheung, also hailing from McKinsey and the former Senior Director of Tencent Holdings. In May of this year, BitStar started a promotion for the Greater China and Southeast Asian markets through a business tie-up with Fun! Japan, but Makers Fund seems to further spur this movement.

BitStar (formerly known as Bizcast) was established in July 2014 and launched BitStar, a matching platform for companies looking to do promotions for and with YouTubers. It has more than 1,500 YouTubers who do not belong to a specific MCN (multi-channel network) and their total number of followers exceeds 80 million (as of September 2016). Recently, the company has started new business such as the Costar fan club service Costar, a quantitative analysis program to measure the effect of influencers called Influencer Power Ranking (IPR), and the VTubers business.

Translated Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s influencer marketing startup BitStar expands into Greater China, Southeast Asia

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup BitStar, the company behind influencer support platform under the same name and YouTuber production E-DGE, announced earlier this month that it has partnered with Fun Japan Communications (Fun! Japan for short) to start offering promotion services targeting the Greater China and Southeast Asian markets. Fun! Japan is an online community for “Japan freaks” consisting of 4.4 million followers and 760,000 members living in the Asian market. It aims to help Japanese companies expand into Asia or invite more visitors from the region by developing touchpoints with consumers, measuring the performance of online promotional activities,or building up a long-term relationship with locals. The partnership with Fun! Japan will allow BitStar to offer their clients looking into these markets by helping them launch their campaigns with performance measurement. Some of our readers may recall that we covered BitStar (known as Bizcast at that time) in September of 2015 for the first time. But it seems like there have been many changes in the influencer marketing industry since then, gradually but drastically. TV broadcasters initially tended to rival online video services like YouTube due to fears that the latter may take disposable time from consumers…

BitStar CEO Taku Watanabe
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup BitStar, the company behind influencer support platform under the same name and YouTuber production E-DGE, announced earlier this month that it has partnered with Fun Japan Communications (Fun! Japan for short) to start offering promotion services targeting the Greater China and Southeast Asian markets.

Fun! Japan is an online community for “Japan freaks” consisting of 4.4 million followers and 760,000 members living in the Asian market. It aims to help Japanese companies expand into Asia or invite more visitors from the region by developing touchpoints with consumers, measuring the performance of online promotional activities,or building up a long-term relationship with locals. The partnership with Fun! Japan will allow BitStar to offer their clients looking into these markets by helping them launch their campaigns with performance measurement.

Some of our readers may recall that we covered BitStar (known as Bizcast at that time) in September of 2015 for the first time. But it seems like there have been many changes in the influencer marketing industry since then, gradually but drastically.

TV broadcasters initially tended to rival online video services like YouTube due to fears that the latter may take disposable time from consumers (for enjoying watching TV shows). But since data covering consumer reactions is not enough with conventional media companies, there’s an increasing number of them partnering or integrating with emerging services including influencer marketing. Taku Watanabe, CEO and Founder of BitStar, thinks a service provider offering three functions at a time: media creation, production and ad agency — all of which used to be separately operated but vertically integrated in the past — can eventually win the game.

Because of such reasons, it seems like BitStar is diversifying its business lines. In addition to online fan club service Costar, quantitative analysis platform Influencer Power Ranking (IPR) and multichannel network for virtual YouTubers, the company is now planning to produce new products in partnership with brand communities, fan communities and TV broadcasters. Although online video media has been getting extremely popular in recent years, if a media company is accepted by an audience in design or format, they are likely to be imitated later on. This is why BitStar thinks it’s very important to have more companies work together.

Comprising of 75 employees as of March of 2018, BitStar raised an undisclosed sum of seed round funding from East Ventures back in 2014, estimated several million US dollars in a series A round from Colopl back in August of 2016, and about $2.7 million in a series B round from Global Brain back in July of 2017, in addition to an undisclosed sum from TBS Innovation Partners and ABC Dream Ventures — investment arms of leading Japanese broadcasters respectively — back in October of 2017.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s BitStar, matchmaking engine for YouTuber stars and brands, secures $2.7M

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Bizcast, the Japanese startup behind a matchmaking platform for YouTuber marketing called BitStar, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.7 million) from Japanese investment firm Global Brain. This round succeeds their seed round where they fundraised an undisclosed amount from East Ventures backed in 2014 followed by their series A round where they have raised an estimated amount of several million dollars from Japanese gaming company Colopl (TSE:3668) back in August last year. This is a actual series B round, but the secured amount scale and the investment conditions apparently correspond to a series A round. Due to this funding, Kazuhiko Miyama (Partner of Global Brain) is appointed to Outside Director of Bizcast. Since this round has not closed yet, Bizcast implied the possibility of additional funding within the round from other companies having a potential of business synergies with it. Founded back in July 2014, Bizcast launched the BitStar platform that matches YouTubers with their client companies in September 2015. Currently, the platform has more than 1,500 YouTubers who do not belong to specific MCNs (multi-channel networks) and have more than 80 million followers in all. In…

L to R: Kazuhiko Miyama (Partner of Global Brain), Yasuhiko Yurimoto (CEO of Global Brain), Taku Watanabe (CEO of Bizcast), Nao Harada (COO of Bizcast), and Yuta Yamashita (CTO of Bizcast)

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Bizcast, the Japanese startup behind a matchmaking platform for YouTuber marketing called BitStar, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.7 million) from Japanese investment firm Global Brain. This round succeeds their seed round where they fundraised an undisclosed amount from East Ventures backed in 2014 followed by their series A round where they have raised an estimated amount of several million dollars from Japanese gaming company Colopl (TSE:3668) back in August last year. This is a actual series B round, but the secured amount scale and the investment conditions apparently correspond to a series A round.

Due to this funding, Kazuhiko Miyama (Partner of Global Brain) is appointed to Outside Director of Bizcast. Since this round has not closed yet, Bizcast implied the possibility of additional funding within the round from other companies having a potential of business synergies with it.

Founded back in July 2014, Bizcast launched the BitStar platform that matches YouTubers with their client companies in September 2015. Currently, the platform has more than 1,500 YouTubers who do not belong to specific MCNs (multi-channel networks) and have more than 80 million followers in all.

In typical MCNs, about 20% of monthly ad incomes from YouTube is charged as the commission fee; however, Bitstar aims acquisition of major YouTubers by allowing registration for free and by offering business matters, as well as accompanying services such as tax returns procedures or exposure support. According to the company, over 1,000 video clips are served via the platform while the repeat ratio of their clients reaches 51%.

Bizcast has developed unique tools on its own to crawl audience reactions on social media regarding YouTubers registered to the platform. By analyzing which YouTuber will have the most powerful effect for each topic, Bizcast brings the best matchmaking to satisfy with both YoutTuber and client companies.

Finding next YouTube stars and overseas expansion

Originally started as a matching platform for YouTube marketing, BitStar wants to enhance the functions of producing high-quality video content and managing its own media channels in order to expand the area of activities of YouTubers, seeking to collaborate with entertainment business companies having lots of artists or performers. The company’s vision can be seen in, for example, the “WEGO YouTube” channel jointly provided by WEGO, a popular Japanese apparel brand among the younger generation, as well as a recent partnership with China’s up-and-coming news app Toutiao which is now entering into the Japanese market.

Taku Watanabe (CEO of Bizcast) told that it will also focus on accelerating the cycle of finding talents, raising personnel, and monetization:

I think it is a great advantage that we already have a close relationship with clients since we started as an advertisement platform. We know which kind of needs clients have and which type of talents to raise.

Coincidentally with this funding, Bizcast also announced that it has tied up with Japanese travel agency giant JTB. There is a background factor to this tying-up that BitStar was used in the promotion of one of JTB’s travel product series. By enforced marketing efforts using BitStar-suggested YouTubers, the staying time of JTB website increased four-fold and the daily page view increased seven-fold at most; therefore, JTB evaluates BitStar highly for driving a new traffic of young customers.

JTB, also being a LP (limited partner) of the Global Brain’s 6th fund in 20 billion yen ($180 million)-scale, aims to push on business collaborations in attracting foreign visitors and overseas promotion support for the Japanese companies in anticipation of 2020 Tokyo Olympics, for example, the cooperation with Fun Japan Communications, a JTB-affiliated digital marketing company specifically targeting the Asian market.

As seen in cooperation with Toutiao, Bizcast seemingly attempt to advance into the Chinese influencer market as well. There is a possibility that the firm will expand into Taiwan within this year, and may become a competitor of AdAsia Holdings, the leading player in this field. As an aside, AdAsia Holdings announced last week that it appointed a new vice president to enhance the entry into the Taiwanese market.

The following is one of JTB’s video clips that promote travels to Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, made by a BitStar-suggested YouTuber.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy