Paving the way for KBank to approach new generations of audiences and reaffirm digital platform leadership.
Beacon Venture Capital (Beacon VC) completes an investment in Ookbee, the provider of Southeast Asia’s top digital lifestyle platform, to support the launch of C Channel Thailand (TH). Under collaboration of Ookbee and C Channel Japan (JP), this joint venture will offer online lifestyle content, along with another new business to be announced within the first quarter of this year. Through this partnership, KASIKORNBANK (KBank) aims to approach greater audiences of new generations, which will reemphasize its digital platform leadership.
Mr. Thanapong Na Ranong, Managing Director of Beacon VC, said Ookbee is one of the promising Thai startups, which has successfully redefined the digital publication landscape for the Southeast Asian market. At the early stage of business, Ookbee provided e-book products with content provided by publication companies. Currently, its products have diversified to professional- and user-generated content, focusing on new trends and digital innovations with comprehensive online payment channels.
In addition, Ookbee is planning to launch another new and exciting business in 1Q18, which will not only help strengthen businesses that produce content for Ookbee’s current platform, but also spur the creation of better quality and more diverse content for service users, being part of Ookbee’s endeavor to meet the lifestyle needs of millennials. Beacon VC has set a target that such an investment will allow KBank to reach audiences, specifically post-millennials, in unique and creative ways.
Mr. Natavudh Pungcharoenpong, CEO of Ookbee said that their vision is to grow and expand platforms to accommodate creative content creation and consumption, as well as strengthening economic returns for creative communities. Meanwhile, C Channel Thailand (TH) is an online VDO fashion magazine for women, featuring creative lifestyle content. It was launched by Ookbee in 2017 and has been popular since then. C Channel Thailand (TH) can be viewed via th.cchan.tv and www.facebook.com/cchannel.thailand. It has over 250 million monthly views and over 150,000 average views per clip.
The partnership with Beacon VC will help Ookbee add value to C Channel Thailand and introduce new business to the market within 1Q18. The cooperation marks a significant step toward complementing Ookbee’s current digital lifestyle businesses and strengthening its ties with creative communities to enhance productive collaboration and foster its business presence.
Since its inception in 2011, Ookbee has become No. 1 provider of digital lifestyle platform in Southeast Asia with over 10 million users and more than 1 billion page views per month. Ookbee provides a variety of informative content and entertainment on various modes of platforms, including e-books, translated novels, comics, music, videos, blogs, story chat, horoscope, from the company’s producing teams and user-generated contents. The startup is expected to scale up to Series C funding round by the end of this year.
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