I note Alivenotdead was founded in 2007 by a group including co-founders of the popular motion picture review site Rottentomatoes.com, along with film star Daniel Wu. So a great pedigree!
Hmm ...and some prominent Asian artists on the network already - including Vanness Wu, Jet Li, Nicholas Tse and Karen Mok. Jackie Chan is also mentioned, I see.
It's certainly easy to see the synergies between mig33 and AnD:
"...Both services give artists like filmmakers, actors, and musicians a wider reach and opportunities to engage and nurture their fan base. But their approach is different: while Alivenotdead is a web-based portal with content and forums, mig33 is built in the mode of a mobile social network with gaming and private chat features.
"...Steven Goh, Co-founder and CEO, mig33 said, "mig33, now more than ever, offers artists a chance to monetise across hundreds of millions of potential fans across emerging markets, in a community that features engagement figures comparable to Facebook, Twitter and other popular sites."
"...We've already started experimenting with bringing our artist database to the mig33 platform for chats, contests and other fan interaction activities, and the results have been great," said AnD's CEO Raffi Kamalian, adding, "Looking forward, there are a lot of opportunities for promotion into some of mig33's key South Asian strongholds."
"...mig33 recently embarked on a strategy of giving artists and celebrities verified accounts as a means of drawing users to the service, which means Alivenotdead's database of 1,800 artists will come in handy to fast-track its growth.
"...mig33 is currently on a revenue share arrangement with artists, who get a cut whenever users buy a virtual item or play games.
"We think a few hundred artists may take us firmly into profitability. A few thousand makes us a big business," says Steven Goh, founder and CEO of mig33."
Wouldn't it be great to see mig33 leveraging off the AlivenotDead acquisition into the Bollywood market!
"...Though most of the artists currently on AnD appeal to Chinese-speaking markets, it already has pockets of active users in India, Bangladesh, and Kenya. Goh hopes to leverage the combined platform's existing roster to sign up celebrities in other countries.
"When we go to Indonesia or India and say that we have a relationship with a company that does some of Jackie Chan's work, that will help us acquire other artist relationships in those countries as well. We have a team in Bollywood and we are also looking at sport stars," says Goh.
"...The acquisition of alivenotdead.com will enable alivenotdead.com's growing stable of over 1,800 artists to engage with, grow and monetise their audiences among mig33’s members.
Alivenotdead.com is already cashflow positive, so will be immediately revenue and earnings accretive to the mig33 and thus Latin Gold.
AND notably for Latin, the cost of the alivenotdead.com acquisition is provided for within the existing acquisition terms for mig33.
So no additional Latin Gold shares need be issued, other than those issued to acquire the mig33 group of companies..."
LAT Price at posting:
3.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
