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Platforms Featured APAC

AnyMind Group joins TikTok as marketing partner, TikTok to be integrated into influencer marketing platform AnyTag

Singapore – AnyMind Group, the end-to-end commerce enablement company with a focus on Asia, is now officially part of TikTok’s marketing partners program, and will specifically join the list of enablers under the platform’s assistance for creative to brands. Through this, brands will now be able to plan and execute TikTok creator marketing campaigns within the group’s influencer marketing platform AnyTag

Through the integration, brands that use AnyTag will be able to access all the features of the TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM) – the official platform for brand and creator collaborations on the short-video platform. Brands will be able to tap into TikTok’s first-party insights on audience demographics, growth trends, and best-performing videos, amongst others to identify the right creators for creator and paid advertising campaigns.

In addition, marketers can tap on AnyTag to understand a creator’s posting insights – including the best times for a creator to publish a post to get the highest user engagement. The integration also omits the need for marketers to toggle between TTCM and AnyTag to run influencer marketing campaigns with different groups of influencers, with AnyTag now having integrated capabilities for influencer discovery, campaign activation, campaign management, tracking, and reporting for TTCM campaigns.

Purwa Jain, managing director of product growth for AnyMind Group, said, “TikTok is an entertainment platform that we’ve worked with across various levels, from market entry and on-the-ground collaborations to tech integrations, to help marketers and creators to glean increased value from both our companies and corresponding platforms. We’re looking to expand the partnership to enable marketers to leverage TikTok even more effectively, ultimately driving forward the ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, Adrian Man, director of ecosystem partnerships for APAC & MENA at TikTok, shared that creators as the lifeblood of the platform make TikTok constantly think of new ways to make it easy for them to connect and collaborate with brands. 

“We’re thrilled to be integrating with an elite group of trusted partners to help brands discover and work with diverse creators who can share their message in an authentic way,” Man said. 

At present, AnyTag enables marketers to discover influencers, and activate, manage, track and attribute influencer marketing campaigns, including affiliate marketing campaigns that leverage influencers.

Aside from AnyTag, AnyMind Group has also developed connections for its other platforms with TikTok. In August 2022, its e-commerce management platform, AnyX, was connected with TikTok Shop to help businesses and online merchants improve cross-channel operational efficiency on even more e-commerce channels across Asia, including e-commerce marketplaces, brand.com sites, and social commerce platforms.

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Marketing Featured East Asia

AnyMind Group opens up new office in Shenzhen

Shenzhen, China – End-to-end commerce enablement company AnyMind Group has announced the opening of a branch office and commencement of operations in Shenzhen, China. As part of the new office opening, Ben Chien, managing director of Greater China, will oversee the Shenzhen office and lead the team there.

AnyMind Group’s Shenzhen office will also provide additional means for the company to hire engineering and product development talent from Mainland China. They can decide to be situated across the company’s four engineering hubs including Tokyo, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Bangalore, joining the company’s multinational development team of 20 nationalities from Asia, MENA, Europe and Latin America. 

This is AnyMind Group’s 19th office across 13 markets including Southeast Asia, East Asia, India and the Middle East. The company, which started operations in Singapore in April 2016, is now headquartered in Japan.

Chien joined AnyMind Group in 2018 through the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Acqua Media, a company he founded, and has been leading the company’s Greater China business including remotely working with businesses in Mainland China. 

He said, “We’re well-positioned to meet the unique needs of app publishers in Mainland China, where monetization is not just focused around advertising but also e-commerce and other channels. In time, we will expand our offerings in Mainland China that have already received great traction across Asia, providing our customers with core business infrastructure to advance the next generation of commerce.” 

Chien added, “In addition, we can already support businesses in Mainland China for cross-border expansion, and will be able to support our customers outside of Mainland China to tap into this growing and unique market.”

Meanwhile, Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder at AnyMind Group, commented, “Under Ben’s entrepreneurial leadership, we have steadily grown the Greater China region over the years and I’m entrusting him to now scale our distinctive mix of technology and offerings into Mainland China, furthering our move to advance next-generation commerce across Asia. As a company, we’re always creating new value for our customers, not just through our technology, but also in opening up new possibilities for them, such as tapping into new markets to grow.”

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Technology Featured APAC

AnyMind Group launches new HTML5 game feature ‘AnyManager GAMES’

Singapore – AnyMind Group, an end-to-end commerce enablement company, has launched a new HTML5 game feature on its publisher platform AnyManager called ‘AnyManager GAMES’. This enables web publishers to increase ad revenue sources by implementing a variety of games on their sites.

‘AnyManager GAMES’ enables web publishers to choose from a library of already-developed HTML5 games, try the games out in AnyManager, and implement these games on their desktop and mobile sites by implementing a single JavaScript tag. In addition, publishers can implement a variety of ad formats on their selected games including banner and interstitial ad formats. 

With the new game feature, publishers can now increase their means of ad income without the need to develop their own games or create additional content, whilst providing users with a new point of engagement on their sites. 

AnyMind Group said that with this new feature, it looks to expand its publisher base and available inventory for publishers, and provide advertisers in Asia and internationally with access to a greater ad inventory pool. 

Hitoshi Maruyama, managing director of publisher growth at AnyMind Group, said that they are entering the age of next-generation commerce, where business can be done through a single platform, is borderless and open, and data can be utilised and maximised freely across traditionally siloed business functions. 

“We have empowered publishers in Asia for the past five years through our constantly growing suite of solutions, and we will continue to move the needle for innovation to bring more growth to publishers,” added Maruyama.

In July 2022, AnyMind has raised ¥4b in funding, around US$91.7m, to strengthen the company’s advancement in the e-commerce enablement space and fund future acquisitions.

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Platforms Featured East Asia

AnyMind’s ¥4b funding to strengthen e-commerce enablement 

Singapore – Japan-based end-to-end commerce enablement company AnyMind has raised ¥4b in funding, around US$91.7m, to strengthen the company’s advancement in the e-commerce enablement space and fund future acquisitions.

The Series D funds were raised from new investors including JIC Venture Growth Investments, Japan Post Investment Corporation, Nomura SPARX Investment, and PROTO Ventures Inc., along with existing investor Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.

In addition, the funds raised will be used for future acquisitions both in Japan and internationally. To date, AnyMind Group has acquired seven companies from various parts of the region including Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and India. The reasons to make these acquisitions were either to acqui-hire a company’s leadership, expand into new businesses or regions, acquire additional sales channels, or all three. 

Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group, said, “Despite COVID-19 and geopolitical situations impacting the world, we have still been able to achieve solid growth as a business. On the other hand, we are seeing economies across Asia, including our operating markets of ASEAN and India, rapidly regaining growth momentum.” 

He added, “We will continue to grow our business at a pace that matches our ambitions, look towards expanding our capabilities through M&A, and strengthen our investment and profit structure for growth, as we continue to become the next-generation infrastructure for commerce in Asia.”

In March this year, the company launched AnyChat, a conversational commerce platform, and in April, the company launched e-commerce management platform AnyX, which optimises e-commerce operations through central management of multiple e-commerce channels. Funds from this round will be used to further enhance existing platforms and strengthen market share across the company’s operating regions. 

On the company’s various business and product movements, Sogo said, “We will continue to make it exciting for everyone to do business by enhancing and expanding our innovations that form the infrastructure for the next generation of commerce. Over the years we have developed platforms across the end-to-end spectrum of commerce that can be used individually, and can now also be used as part of an integrated suite of tools to deliver more effective and efficient commerce for businesses.” 

He added, “We are just at the start of our journey, as we power some of the most exciting enterprises and forward-thinking publishers and influencers in this part of the world.”

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Technology Featured APAC

AnyMind Group amps up influencer platform with new fan management feature

Singapore – AnyMind Group, an end-to-end commerce enablement company, has today launched new features on AnyCreator, a platform for influencers and content creators, including functions for the management of fans, chat and email communication, and creating and delivering surveys.

The features come at no cost but are available by invitation-only. Among the new features is the new chat function where the group’s conversational commerce platform, AnyChat, has now been integrated into AnyCreator, enabling communication across connected messaging apps and platforms.

New functionalities also include those for email and surveys. Users can now create, schedule, and deliver emails as well as track email performance. For surveys, creating survey forms is now enabled where users are able to view and export responses and deliver these forms. Most especially, a new capability allows users to map, manage, and view people who have purchased a product from the influencer’s own brand – through the integration with Shopify – and also those that have communicated with the influencer through chat or email, and/or participated in a survey created by the influencer. 

The new features, together with the ‘link in bio’ feature launched last month, look to advance AnyCreator from being just a platform for influencers to join influencer marketing campaigns and glean social media insights, into an all-in-one platform for influencers to grow.

Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group, said, “We are looking to make it exciting for influencers and content creators to do business and grow – from content monetization and strategy to creating, launching, and growing their own brands and products – providing influencers with the technology to do just that. With influencers interacting with their followers across multiple channels in addition to social media, we can now power this engagement out of a single platform.”

The company first started working with influencers for brand collaborations on its influencer marketing platform AnyTag, and in 2019 expanded into content monetization and distribution with the acquisition of Thailand’s Moindy and the launch of its own influencer network.

In 2020, the company launched a program that enabled influencers to create and launch their own brands and products by tapping on platforms such as AnyFactory for manufacturing and AnyLogi for logistics, and in 2021, launched PopBox, an online retail store for influencers to sell their products.

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Technology Featured APAC

AnyMind Group integrates LiveRamp, PubMatic’s ID solutions into AnyManager

Singapore – Marketing technology solutions provider AnyMind Group has integrated data enablement platform LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution and programmatic digital advertising company PubMatic’s Identity Hub into its publisher and e-commerce growth platform, AnyManager.

These integrations enable AnyMind Group’s online publishers and advertisers to communicate with enriched data, delivering greater measurability, whilst preserving audience privacy throughout the process.

Through these integrations, AnyManager’s header bidding solution for publishers will be able to provide connected demand sources with more information to better reach and engage with desired audiences. It also enables the easy implementation of LiveRamp’s people-based, privacy-first identifier, RampID, through the Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS).

Once a publisher and AnyMind Group enter into an agreement, ATS is implemented on the login screen of the publisher’s site. ATS allows publishers to match authenticated user data with RampIDs in real-time, enabling advertising without reliance on third-party cookies or device-based identifiers. Advertisers leveraging RampID can unlock premium inventory, additional reach across browsers such as Safari and Firefox, and improved marketing tactics such as people-based audience targeting and frequency capping, amongst others.

Meanwhile, PubMatic’s Identity Hub integration enables publishers to simply turn on the integration with just a single button click on AnyManager for their header bidding wrapper and provides access to partnered ID solutions on Identity Hub including LiveRamp’s RampID, ID5 ID, and The Trade Desk’s Unified ID, amongst others.

CheeChien Chung, LiveRamp’s director of addressability for SEA, shared that the deprecation of third-party cookies and other identifiers has been a forcing function for innovation and improvement across the advertising industry, but more importantly, it’s highlighted that people-based marketing delivers superior performance, today.

“Publishers leveraging LiveRamp’s solutions via AnyMind can easily enable their inventory to be accessible to advertisers looking to buy and measure at the person-level on RampID, and can achieve outsized business results at scale, without compromising privacy,” said Chung.

Meanwhile, Hitoshi Maruyama, AnyMind Group’s managing director of publisher growth, said that web publishers in Asia have started exploring new business models such as media commerce and other means of content monetisation, whilst the ad tech industry has innovated to provide means for publishers to continue benefiting from ad revenue. 

“AnyMind Group is now where the facets of next-generation commerce, ad monetisation and media improvement meet, providing web and app publishers with various possibilities for exponential growth,” said Maruyama.

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Platforms Featured Southeast Asia

AnyMind Group launches e-commerce management platform AnyX

Singapore — End-to-end commerce enablement company AnyMind Group has announced the launch of AnyX, a one-stop e-commerce management platform for individuals and businesses that connects various e-commerce channels and AnyMind Group’s various platforms.

Through the convenience of AnyX, an individual or business can manage operations across e-commerce marketplaces and platforms, and consolidate and activate data across available e-commerce stores. With AnyX, businesses can also easily embark on cross-border e-commerce activities by tapping on the platform’s integrations with e-commerce marketplaces across the region.

At launch, AnyX is already connected to regional e-commerce marketplaces and platforms namely Shopee, Lazada, Rakuten, Amazon, and Shopify. Additionally, it is also connected to numerous AnyMind Group platforms such as AnyTag, AnyChat, AnyManager, AnyFactory, AnyDigital, and AnyLogi.

Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group, commented on the launch of AnyX, saying that over the years, they have constantly made it exciting for everyone to do business through their technology, and AnyX is yet another milestone for AnyMind as an end-to-end commerce enablement company.

“We will continue to connect even more functions across our proprietary product suite, enabling easier and more exciting commerce for all. We’re looking to advance next-generation commerce by enabling commerce to be done anywhere, bringing forth a world where every business is borderless,” Sogo said.

AnyX is now available to AnyMind Group customers internationally, with customers having the option to use the company’s various platforms individually, or as part of a suite through AnyX. In the near future, AnyX will also support the automated triggering of actions across platforms, including order management, inventory allocation and management, and revenue/pricing management.

AnyMind Group is also working on connecting further with local or niche Asian e-commerce marketplaces and more third-party applications and will integrate future products that the company develops.

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Platforms Featured APAC

AnyMind Group jumps into conversational commerce with launch of AnyChat

Singapore — AnyMind Group, an end-to-end commerce enablement company that started in 2016, has announced the public launch of its conversational commerce platform, AnyChat. The tool is optimised to help businesses digitise online CX and CS which was limited traditionally to retail assistants in brick-and-mortar retail stores.

Presently, AnyChat provides e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses with a platform to easily manage and execute real-time chat conversations across chat apps, facilitate purchases, and design chat flows for end customers. This will allow AnyChat users to design and trigger automated end-user notifications and messages for purchase confirmation, product delivery, offers and discounts on products, and more, by tapping on customer and purchase information from e-commerce platforms. When integrated, these components intend to replicate the support that shoppers experience from an actual retail store assistant.

In addition to these features, the platform also supports the storage, analysis and utilisation of conversation data for chat flow and conversion optimization, and will be connected with other AnyMind Group platforms such as the company’s logistics management and marketing platforms. AnyChat is currently integrated with LINE, with plans to subsequently be connected with other chat and e-commerce platforms.

Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group, commented on the launch of AnyChat, saying, “Over the years, we’ve constantly expanded the depth and breadth of our products across the spectrum of commerce, from cloud manufacturing and e-commerce enablement to marketing, logistics management, and publisher and creator monetization. AnyChat further expands our capabilities in driving our purpose to make it exciting for everyone to do business, enabling greater efficiency and effectiveness for online commerce.”

The company has started delivering AnyChat on select brands from its ‘D2C for Influencers’ program in Japan and Thailand, and will subsequently launch the platform across its various markets to both influencer D2C brands and enterprise D2C brands.

AnyMind Group is currently operating out of 13 markets across Southeast Asia, East Asia, India and the Middle East and focuses on two business areas termed ‘Brand Commerce’ and ‘Partner Growth’.

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Marketing Featured Southeast Asia

AnyMind Group extends AnyTag beyond ad, pr agencies, unveils new features

Singapore – Marketing technology solutions provider AnyMind Group has recently announced that it is opening up its influencer marketing platform, AnyTag, to talent management agencies, influencer agencies, and multi-channel networks.

The AnyTag platform, which is already being used by marketing and public relations agencies across Asia, has a feature for influencer companies that enables deeper social media and channel analytics of their own influencers, identification of brand collaboration opportunities, and real-time campaign reporting. It also provides influencer companies with a single platform to better understand their talent and keep track of brand collaborations that their talents are working on.

Furthermore, influencer companies can also tap on AnyMind Group’s offerings in the direct-to-consumer space, including cloud manufacturing, e-commerce, and logistics, to enable their talents to create their own brands and sell their own branded products.

Following this endeavor, the company has also announced new features for marketers including lookalike modeling of influencers through natural language processing (NLP) where they can easily identify influencers who are similar to high-performing influencers from previous campaigns and easier identification of brands an influencer has worked with before which can also aid in decision-making when selecting influencers for a campaign.

Both initiatives aim to make influencer marketing more collaborative, addressable, and accurate.

AnyMind Group’s Chief Operating Officer Rohit Sharma said that they now have the technology and business infrastructure to drive greater industry advancement across Asia and beyond.

He further shared that over the years, they have built a highly robust platform not just with a keen focus on functionality, but also one where they help marketers unlock opportunities for big data utilization in influencer marketing – from understanding user conversions and conversations to predictions, recommendations, among others. 

“We will continue innovating and pushing boundaries in the technological aspect of influencer marketing and drive the next stage of evolution,” said Sharma.

Most recently, AnyMind Group announced the launch of the new features on its publisher platform, AnyManager, to help mobile and web publishers to tap on the continued growth of mobile usage. The company also announced a strategic partnership with Japan-based multi-channel network (MCN) UUUM to mutually utilize UUUM’s resources and AnyMind Group’s technology and data for influencer marketing and direct-to-consumer (D2C) offerings.

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Technology Featured Southeast Asia

AnyMind Group upgrades publisher platform to accommodate use of PWAs, native apps

Singapore – Marketing technology solutions provider AnyMind Group has announced the launch of the new features on its publisher platform, AnyManager, to help mobile and web publishers to tap on the continued growth of mobile usage. 

AnyManager is a web and mobile app publisher monetization platform that allows users to consolidate, manage, and track their revenue streams across a wide range of demand sources. It also provides publishers with features including header bidding and automated pricing optimization, along with integration with Google Analytics and 3rd-party ad verification, viewability, and brand safety tools.

Initially launched as a platform with features just for web publishers, AnyMind Group has expanded the functionality of its AnyManager platform for native mobile app publishers in the past year.

The new suite of features center around helping web publishers leverage progressive web applications (PWA) infrastructure, and for native mobile app publishers to gain more insights from their app store data, and are designed to provide both sets of publishers with greater accessibility and insight into user acquisition and monetization.

According to AnyMind Group’s Managing Director of Publisher Growth Hitoshi Maruyama, in a mobile-first region like Asia, and in some markets even mobile-only, it is imperative that publishers are able to grow further by fully maximizing their potential audience while keeping up and capitalizing on the latest technologies. 

“We are also seeing, and in fact powering, more fluidity by mobile app and web publishers in expanding opportunities by leveraging further on social media channels and e-commerce, augmenting possibilities for borderless growth,” said Maruyama.

Through AnyManager, web-based publishers that are looking to better tap on the world’s mobile-connected population can now leverage features for PWAs. By implementing PWAs, they can improve user experience such as speeding up site load speeds and creating a push notification system to inform users of the newly published content.

Web-based publishers can tap on targeted push notifications to specific user segments based on device, location, and other parameters including users that have clicked on a site during a certain period or frequency of clicks, allowing web publishers to notify users of new content, promotions, and opportunities, directly on their mobile device. Data from push notifications is also linked to a publisher’s own Google Analytics data and advertising yield data, both available through AnyManager. They can also tap on customizable Add-to-Home screen prompts and formats to easily cue browser notifications for site visitors to add a site as a PWA on their mobile devices. 

Meanwhile, native mobile app publishers can now access analytics features for app store and conversion improvements along with competitive analytics. This is in addition to current functionality for advertising demand activation and mediation and an app health score feature that provides publishers with a rating of their native mobile app based on factors including development, monetization, analytics, and user acquisition.

Furthermore, publishers can tap on a new feature called AnySDK, a software development kit (SDK) for ad monetization that enables the delivery and mediation of ad requests from major mobile platform partners through a single SDK. Native mobile app publishers can gain greater insight into user opinion of their apps by tapping into natural language processing-driven features such as sentiment rating and analysis of user comments, and identification of keywords and phrases based on app store rating, which helps publishers to better understand and highlight potential app issues, improvements, and fixes.