Heart Media acquires Luxuo.com

Luxury publisher Heart Media has acquired Luxuo.com and hopes to engage a new wave of affluent readers and luxury brands in the digital space.Luxuo.com launched in 2007 in Hong Kong and has since grown to become one of Asia’s largest luxury portals with a focus on affluent audiences.The site also boasts a big audience in the social media space, with over 354,000 followers on Facebook, 104,000 followers on Twitter and 12,300 followers on Instagram. Luxuo described its share of the digital advertising dollar among major global luxury brands as strong.Heart Media’s stable of luxury titles include Wow, Men’s Folio, L’officiel Singapore, Art Republik, L’officiel Malaysia and Wow Jewellery.Olivier Burlot, CEO & publisher at Heart Media, said the acquisition of Luxuo provides the group with a strong foothold in the online luxury vertical space.“Luxuo has gained the trust of a discerning and sophisticated audience and will serve as a powerful gateway for our luxury titles to target and engage readers and advertisers across the region,” he said.He said based on the success of its Singapore and Malaysia operations, Heart Media will continue to seek out new acquisitions across the region.Alongside the acquisition, Heart Media has named Ashok Soman as general manager of the group’s digital operations.Soman has played a key part in creating a market, in his capacity as managing editor and later general manager of the online luxury magazine, Luxury-Insider, from 2008 till 2015.“With its abundance of energy and passion, Heart Media is the perfect partner to take Luxuo to the next level. Already one of the leading luxury portals in the world, Luxuo has tremendous potential in terms of serving its audience better and in delivering advertiser messages more efficiently. I am honoured and humbled to be leading the team on what promises to be an amazing journey.”