Pivot to K-Pop leads to possible US$400000 seed funding
- Team began with a general track video web page, however determined to pivot with a sharper awareness on K-Pop
- Pivot has paid off, with Eumakh near securing US$400,000 in seed funding
THEY began with an internet tune video platform, but a pivot right into a extra focused website online – Korean pop track – has led Eumakh close to sealing US$400,000 in seed investment.
The team in the back of Eumakh, Korean for “track,” first labored collectively on AtticTV, a ‘music discovery’ web page which allowed users to view track clips and customise their own library of ‘mixtapes’ to share with friends.
According to a file in e27, AtticTV grew at a regular charge within the first 3 months of its live beta, hitting 15,000 monthly precise visits. However, the ones halcyon days did not closing – human beings simply weren’t sticking to the website, stated founder and chief executive officer Johnson Goh.
“Because of the dearth of recognition, the value of consumer acquisition turned into pretty excessive. When we ‘niched down,’ we located obtaining clients to be a much smoother and cheaper process,” he told Digital News Asia (DNA) through e-mail. “Thus the pivot.”
AtticTV has been placed on hiatus for the time being. “We experience that we ought to serve enthusiasts of specific genres of motion pictures simply properly, and then expand from there into exclusive niches, rather than creat a everyday song carrier and compete with the likes of Spotify and Rdio proper off the bat,” he added.
That pivot has paid off. According to TechCrunch, Eumakh is presently last a US$400,000 seed-funding spherical, with buyers inclusive of Taipei-based totally challenge capital company TMI, statistics which was confirmed with the aid of Goh. TechCrunch additionally stated that the begin-up “plans to make money through promoting intermission video commercials and merchandise using music motion pictures as a sale mechanism.”
Goh is operating with the identical crew he had at AtticTV, which includes his accomplice and co-founder Grey Ang.
Goh, who has a degree in mechanical engineering, has worked in income for a direct-selling agency and an insurance organization formerly. “Plus, start a plethora of ventures that failed,” he delivered.
Ang, with a diploma in image design, had formerly worked at a tech outsourcing organization referred to as Motionworks.
“I hired Grey (Ang) on an outsource challenge for a gaming web page. And I found him to be an brilliant developer, so the relationship take to each other,” Goh said.
His associate develops the packages as “he's an wonderful self-taught programmer,” he introduced. “I, then again, take care of marketing, design and commercial enterprise relationships -- additionally self-taught.”
The concept for a music shipping carrier got here from Goh’s frustration. “I were given the idea because I hate looking for music on YouTube. The discovery mechanism is not geared in the direction of song in that it would not help me discover songs to concentrate to.”
“Additionally, it's time-consuming and I need to click on and search for new songs after each song performed. So, we notion that there must be a better manner,” he added.
When requested what Eumakh’s differentiator became, beyond its desire of Korean pop or K-Pop, Goh stated, “We are developing a internet site/ application that pursuits to become the very best manner for people to devour the movies they care about. Each area of interest has very extraordinary desires for video.”
“For instance, folks that are obsessed on sports highlights may also most effective need to look at motion pictures that are associated with the sports groups that they observe, and not highlights of all matches as currently supplied by means of spotlight shows on TV.
“And they could simplest watch it within a seventy two-hour window from the time the match is performed,” he brought. “Similarly, K-Pop fans have a particular set of motion pictures that they care about, and our task is to deliver the ones videos to them inside the fastest way possible, and provide continuity to the films.”
K-Pop is not pretty much Psy of Gangnam repute or Rain. Eumakh estimates the whole marketplace length to be approximately one hundred million lovers global, with approximately 30%-forty% being English-talking or people who eat English content material, that is the begin-up’s initial audience.
“In phrases of geographic strategy, we are focused on South-East Asia and also South American international locations to start off with, due to the big fan-base and low penetration of K-Pop content there,” said Goh.
Eumakh is likewise operating on Chinese and Spanish variations. “We do not have an precise estimate (of the marketplace length), but we determined thru our analytics that numerous our users use these languages,” he brought.
As for america$four hundred,000 seed fund, Goh stated it'd be used to set up a improvement group of three to 4 programmers, and to also supply Eumakh an 18-month runway “to find a sustainable manner to collect and hold customers by using offering them with fee that is essential to them.”
This lead time would also be vital for Eumakh to determine out the lifetime cost of a patron and paintings towards hitting a spoil-even factor.
DNA also quizzed Goh on existence as an entrepreneur.
DNA: What has been the hardest hurdle up to now?
Goh: I in my opinion assume that prioritizing time is always the toughest. There are one million activities, and yet we only have possibly eight hours of really effective time.
DNA: How do you hold your self prompted?
Goh: I’m now not sure. Being an entrepreneur is something that I always wanted to do. And I have a tendency to make public declarations to make sure that I may not have a desire however to push myself to do it.
Plus, the hot Korean women do assist. :)
DNA: What have you ever learned approximately being an entrepreneur up to now?
Goh: I’ve learnt to look at entrepreneurship as a ten-12 months career, in place of looking to be a short in a single day success tale. You attempt something, you fail, you study. And it is a rinse-and-repeat procedure of locating that method that works.