iMedia, a new digital media company focusing on content and technology, and social influencer marketing, has announced its launch with the acquisition of majority stakes in Oh Media Sdn Bhd, the owner and publisher of Malay social news portal Oh! Media (www.ohmedia.my) and in Ittify Sdn Bhd, the owner and operators of leading social influencer platform ITTIFY (www.ittify.com).
Adding on to these acquisitions, the company also announced it has signed Exclusive Advertising Representation Agreements with Goody Technologies Sdn Bhd, the owner and publisher of Chinese and English Social News portal, Goody25 (www.goody25.com) and GoodyMy (www.goodymy.com) and with Newswav Sdn Bhd, the owner and publisher of Malaysia’s fastest growing news app, Newswav (www.newswav.com). With the acquisitions and exclusive advertising representations, iMedia now has a countrywide reach of over 8 million Malaysians.
Since its founding in 2008 by Khai Hassan, Oh! Media has grown to become one of the largest Malay language social sites in Malaysia. With over 1 million monthly unique users and a Facebook following of 3.5 million fans, Oh! Media is the go-to resource for social news, entertainment, travel and food for its core demographic of young Malays aged between 18-35. According to Khai, “We are extremely excited to take the Oh! Media brand to new heights with iMedia’s backing."
Ittify was founded in 2015 by Guan Sheng and is a social media influencer marketing platform bringing brands and influencers together. In four years of operations, Ittify has amassed more than 6,000 influencers and completed over 250 campaigns with brands from all industries. Of the partnership with iMedia, Guan says, "As a startup, we are extremely excited to be working with iMedia. Having developed a strong tech platform and a stable business, we feel now is the right time to accelerate revenue growth and get the brand in-front of more clients."
Launched in 2015, Goody25 features the latest news on lifestyle, fashion, food, travel, art and design, and photography and has consistently placed in the Top 20 websites visited by Malaysian Internet users based on Alexa rankings. Google Analytics reported a total of 2.5 million unique visitors with 8 million pageviews for Goody25 in May this year.
Newswav, launched in 2018, is Malaysia’s fastest growing news app. They are consistently ranked in the Top 5 News app category on both Google Play and Apple App store. According to Firebase statistics, Newswav reaches out to an average of 500,000 monthly active users.
With the launch of iMedia, Voon Tze Khay as the co-founder will helm the chief executive officer role and be responsible for day to day operations, conceptualising the M&A strategy to bring maximum growth and profitability to the business.
Joining Voon to form the senior leadership at iMedia are his co-founders Jacky Tee as the company’s chief financial officer, Loh Ken Wei as chief commercial officer and Brian Alexis as sales director. In addition, the company brings on board digital sales specialists Han Jian, Derry Lim and Leonard Chooi as head of sales.
“iMedia is well positioned to capitalise on the immense growth in the digital marketing, commerce and advertising landscape in Malaysia. With strategic M&A strategies in place coupled with fast organic growth, we are confident to see the company reaching greater heights soon,” said Voon.
He added, “The demand for social influencer marketing and commerce, video advertising as well as branded content is growing at an exhilarating pace of double-digit percentage year-on-year. iMedia brings on table the perfect opportunity for advertisers who wants a premium-brand safe environment, targeted audience segment and consumers who wants engaging and personalised entertaining content.”
On its investment into iMedia, Catcha Group’s Patrick Grove said, “iMedia has a fantastic starting point with its acquisitions of Ittify and Oh! Media. There is much more to come and we look forward to working with the team to realise their vision of becoming South East Asia's largest social, content and tech media company.”
