Vietnam-based loyalty and ecommerce firm Society Pass Inc (SoPa), on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Thoughtful Media Group (TMG), a social commerce-focused, premium digital video MPN headquartered in Thailand with an operating presence in the United States, Vietnam, and Philippines.
The acquisition of TMG marks SoPa’s first foray into Thailand and adds to SoPa’s growing ecosystem of technology-enabled companies located in the Southeast Asian (SEA) countries of Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, SoPa said in a statement.
Along with this latest acquisition, Bien Kiat Tan has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of TMG, along with Jittra Cheng as TMG Thailand Country Director and Quynh Vo as TMG Vietnam General Manager. The three executives will drive Thoughtful Media forward in its next stage of growth.
TMG is a leader in digital and social commerce across Southeast Asia region. The firm recorded revenues of $5.8 million in 2021.
Since its founding, its data-rich MPN has uploaded over 675,000 videos with over 80 billion video views. The current network of 263 YouTube channels has onboarded over 85 million subscribers with an average monthly viewership of over 600 million views.
“TMG’s social commerce-focused business model perfectly complements our future growth strategy for SoPa as we drive consumer eyeballs and generate revenues for riveting consumer brands throughout SEA. I am proud to appoint Bien Kiat Tan as the Chief Executive Officer of TMG, along with Jittra Cheng as TMG Thailand Country Director and Quynh Vo as TMG Vietnam General Manager, and look forward to their expert leadership in steering our operations to greater heights,
“As we grow our presence across SEA, we are confident that the SoPa ecosystem will nurture and accelerate the growing portfolio of brands,” said Dennis Nguyen, SoPa Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Originally founded in 2010, TMG today creates and distributes digital advertising campaigns across its MPN in both SEA and the US. With its intimate knowledge of local markets, digital marketing technology tools and social commerce business focus, advertisers leverage TMG’s wide influencer network throughout SEA to market and sell advertising inventory exclusively with specific placement and effect.
As a result, TMG’s content creator partners earn a larger share of advertising revenues from international consumer brands.
“Partnering with SoPa allows TMG to unlock strategic opportunities with influencers and advertisers as well as design cross-marketing synergies for companies in the SoPa ecosystem. Powered by these synergies, we are confident in driving tremendous revenue growth in 2022 and beyond,
“Focusing on the new influencer market trends, TMG is nurturing its content creators to develop short videos and build presence in the social commerce space, which is booming in Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia. TMG is creating synergies by leveraging its creators and creative talent to serve the sister platforms in the SoPa ecosystem as well as its Brands and millions of consumer base,” said Tan.
Meanwhile, Cheng said : “Given the immense potential of the Thai market, I look forward to lead TMG to be the leader in digital and social commerce across SEA, backed by SoPa’s unique modus operandi, and take my team along in this successful journey.”
“With an amplified focus on content creators, TMG is building additional support including infrastructure like new studios for its influencers and creators to host live streaming, and educating creators on content across multiple platforms. TMG assists its creators in effective monetisation through social commerce and earning commissions while working with brands,” he said.
According to the statement, TMG looks at doubling its current team size of 17 to over 30 people in the next couple of years, powered by the growing ubiquity of social media influencers on shaping purchase decisions and driving increasingly greater numbers of brands to shift advertising budgets to this dynamic outlet.
TMG’s digital advertising tools and expertise bolsters Society Points, SoPa’s paradigm shifting loyalty platform. SoPa’s product offering uniquely positions TMG as a leading SEA retail marketing and advertising hub for international and regional consumer brands.
As a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem in Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand and with offices located in Singapore, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Angeles and Bangkok, SoPa is an acquisition-focused e-commerce holding company operating seven interconnected verticals (loyalty, merchant software, lifestyle, food and beverage, telecoms, digital media, and travel).
SoPa’s business model focuses on analysing user data through its SoPa loyalty platform and circulation of its universal loyalty points or Society Points. The SoPa loyalty platform drives customer acquisition and retention for merchants.
Since its inception, SoPa has amassed over 2.1 million registered consumers and over 6,700 registered merchants/brands onto its platform. It has invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture with cutting edge components to effectively scale and support its consumers, merchants, and acquisitions