- Thoughtful Media Group Inc acquires second company in Indonesia, Newave Strategic, a leading KOL management agency in Indonesia
- TMG onboards +10,000 Indonesia-based influencers onto its digital advertising platform with acquisition
- Post acquisition, Newave is re-branded as Thoughtful Media Indonesia and its leadership and employees are fully integrated into Thoughtful Media regional operating structure
- Thoughtful Media Indonesia forecasts continued compelling revenue growth in 2023 and beyond
Thoughtful Media Group Inc (Thoughtful Media or TMG), the Thailand-based social commerce-focused, premium digital advertising network of Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa) (Nasdaq: SOPA), Southeast Asia’s (SEA) next generation, data-driven, loyalty, fintech and e-commerce ecosystem, today announces the acquisition of Newave, the go-to advertising platform for nano and micro influencers (KOLs with under 100,000 followers) in the Indonesian social media scene. Newave’s +10,000 influencers on its talent roster turbocharges TMG’s social commerce advertising business in both Indonesia and SEA.
Founded in 2017, Newave has ridden the popularity of social media and social commerce in Indonesia advertising market. Newave Head of Strategy, Ilhamka Nizam, explains, “According to Datareportal, 68% of Indonesians or 191 million people are on social media as of January 2022. Covid drove millions of Indonesians to shop online for more than 3 hours daily via their social media. Naturally, brands increased their marketing budgets every year since Newave was founded. For 2023, we expect Indonesia-based brands to invest more than 30% of their marketing budget on influencer marketing.”
To meet demand for influencers from increasing advertising budgets, Newave focused on identifying and servicing up-and-coming nano and micro influencers as these KOLs represents 66% of all influencers in Indonesia according to INSG.CO. Newave Co-Founder, Bunga Nizam, comments, “When we founded Newave, we realised that onboarding hundreds and thousands of nano and micro influencers is the unique selling proposition that sets Newave from other so-called influencer marketing companies. Why? Because it is easier to make your audience engage with your content if you share a familiarity with them. And how does one share familiarity with the audience? In essence, nano and micro influencers, comprised of family and friends and not celebrities, personalise advertising content. In addition, advertisers can deploy specifically tailored marketing campaigns as often as they want with a cheaper budgets and optimised results. As a result, we have been fortunate to onboard more than 10,000 influencers onto our talent roster.”
Ms. Pamela Aw-Young, TMG Vice-Chairman, exclaims, “TMG is ecstatic to welcome Newave onto our ever-expanding TMG regional platform. By merging Newave’s dominant position in the nano and micro influencer space with TMG’s social commerce focused ecosystem, we provide additional channels for regional and local brands to market their products and services. Since our parent company, SoPa, acquired TMG in July 2022, TMG has grown from strength to strength with headcount growing from a dozen professionals to over 60 staff in just under a year. We look to triple our revenues year-on-year in 2023. As we enter Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia markets in 2H 2023, TMG is uniquely positioned to be the premier SEA regional digital advertising agency offering a significant value proposition for advertisers, merchants and influencers in SEA’s biggest economy.”
Newave Co-Founder, Bulan Nizam, adds, “Newave is proud to become an integral part of TMG and SoPa. TMG’s broad advertising network and SoPa’s extensive user and merchant bases in SEA allow us to fully become the premier digital advertising company in the world’s fourth most populous country. Thoughtful Media Indonesia is well positioned to generate significant revenues in 2023 and occupies a central position in Indonesia’s large and fast-growing digital advertising market.”
About Thoughtful Media Group Inc (TMG)
Founded in 2010, Thoughtful Media Group Inc is a leading digital advertising platform in SEA. Through our network of talented creators across multiple industries in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, we help brands maximise marketing budgets and achieve business objectives through some of the most innovative marketing campaigns in the region.
In 2022, Society Pass Inc (Nasdaq: SOPA), SEA’s next generation, data-driven, loyalty, fintech and e-commerce ecosystem, acquired Thoughtful Media Group. Since then, we have fully evolved into a digital-first and fully integrated advertising powerhouse. For more information, please check out our website: www.thoughtfulmedia.com.
About Society Pass Inc.
Founded in 2018 as a data-driven loyalty, fintech and e-commerce ecosystem in the fast-growing markets of Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, which account for more than 80% of the SEA population, and with offices located in Angeles, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, and Singapore, Society Pass Incorporated (Nasdaq: SOPA) is an acquisition-focused holding company operating 6 interconnected verticals (loyalty, digital media, travel, telecoms, lifestyle, and F&B), which seamlessly connects millions of registered consumers and hundreds of thousands of registered merchants/brands across multiple product and service categories throughout SEA.
Society Pass completed an initial public offering and began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SOPA in November 2021. SOPA shares were added to the Russell 2000 index in December 2021.
SoPa acquires fast growing e-commerce companies and expands its user base across a robust product and service ecosystem. SoPa integrates these complementary businesses through its signature Society Pass fintech platform and circulation of its universal loyalty points or Society Points, which has entered beta testing and is expected to launch broadly at the beginning of 2023. Society Pass loyalty program members earn and redeem Society Points and receive personalised promotions based on SoPa’s data capabilities and understanding of consumer shopping behaviour. SoPa has amassed more than 3.3 million registered consumers and over 650,000 registered merchants and brands. It has invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture to effectively scale and support its consumers, merchants, and acquisitions.
Society Pass leverages technology to tailor a more personalised experience for customers in the purchase journey and to transform the entire retail value chain in SEA. SoPa operates Thoughtful Media Group, a Thailand-based, a social commerce-focused, premium digital video multi-platform network; NusaTrip, a leading Indonesia-based Online Travel Agency; VLeisure, Vietnam’s leading provider of hotel management and payment solutions; Gorilla Networks, a Singapore-based, web3-enabled mobile blockchain network operator; Leflair.com, Vietnam’s leading lifestyle e-commerce platform; Pushkart.ph, a popular grocery delivery company in Philippines; and Mangan.ph, a leading local restaurant delivery service in Philippines.
For more information on Society Pass, please visit:
Website at https://www.thesocietypass.com or
LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/societypass or
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thesocietypass or
Twitter at https://twitter.com/society_pass or
Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/societypass/.
Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may include “forward-looking statements,” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend” and similar expressions, as they relate to us or our management team, identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, the Company’s management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors detailed in the Company’s filings with the SEC. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are qualified in their entirety by this paragraph. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company’s registration statement and prospectus relating to the Company’s initial public offering filed with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.
Media Contacts:
Rokas Sidlauskas
Chief Marketing Officer
rokas@thesocietypass.com
