MARKETING Magazine Asia

REV Media Group Sdn Bhd , Malaysia’s number one digital publisher, announced today that it acquired the intellectual property (“IP”) assets of popular Chinese social news portal, Tantannews, from Monster Scape Sdn Bhd, to expand and strengthen its reach among the Chinese speaking online community.

REV Media Group — a subsidiary of Media Prima Berhad, Malaysia’s leading and largest media group — has acquired the website domain, Tantannews.com, and its related social media assets.

Tantannews’ strong digital presence will contribute to REV Media Group’s digital business and its media solutions strategy for advertisers. At its peak, Tantannews had more than 7 million users and 20 million page views per month.

Launched in 2013, Tantannews is Malaysia’s top Chinese social news and content portal that primarily focuses on the latest news and trendiest stories on entertainment, travel, fashion and lifestyle.

The addition of Tantannews will accelerate the growth of REV Media Group’s Chinese Network which includes popular brands across multiple media platforms including, ViralCham, Rojaklah, 8TV and 8FM.

Media Prima reaches over 98% of the Malaysian population, and audiences across all ages and market segments through its multiple media platforms and brands.

Strengthening the Group’s Chinese audience reach through REV Media Group’s acquisition of Tantannews complements Media Prima’s strategy to remain Malaysia’s leading media group.

Samuel Wee, Chief Executive Officer of REV Media Group, said: “This is an exciting and strategic acquisition for REV Media Group as there is a growing demand for Chinese-language content from our audiences, particularly from those inclined to reading news content. The acquisition of Tantannews solidifies our position as the leading digital publisher across all market groups in Malaysia.

Sean Teoh, Founder of Tantannews, said: “We are happy to see Tantannews continue to grow under the leadership of Sam and the team from REV Media Group, and as part of the largest media group in Malaysia. We found Tantannews 10 years ago from a Facebook page to allow users to discuss news on social media. At its peak, the site had more than 7 million users and 20 million page views per month.

Moving forward, my team and I at Monster Scape have decided to focus more on technology by investing resources in the development of our own content management system that can be used to develop different types of content, as well as a content marketplace where more than 6,000 part-time mobile journalists create content on a part-time basis. The goal is to create an army of content creators across the region in video, visual and text formats who contribute news and community information.”

He added that the acquisition will allow his team to focus on MOpress and the technology platform. The marketing division will be renamed Data & Co to focus on data marketing, an omni-data marketing platform and tools to help brands and marketers turn their users into digital assets of choice.

By collecting first-hand user data, brands can take advantage of real-time information in an ecosystem to reach audiences around the world. This means that businesses, customers and partners can build real community-based relationships. This agency model offers a comprehensive service for early stage businesses, growth and expansion stage businesses, that need to implement their digital strategy.

Data & Co is currently serving more than a hundred companies and are expanding their services to be more data-driven.

The business is seeing growth in Malaysian businesses selling their products and services overseas. Visit www.dataco.my to find out more.

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