iflix bags investment from Japanese entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo

Iflix has secured an investment by Japanese entertainment conglomerate Yoshimoto Kogyo, and both parties will also collaborate to form an exclusive joint venture based in Singapore. The joint venture will showcase Yoshimoto Group’s most popular content across iflix’s territories in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and the corresponding distribution of iflix’s content in Japan. The joint venture will also produce localised versions of proven content formats from Japan, expanding iflix’s original content offering. The move underscores iflix’s growing focus on developing and creating engaging local programming specifically for Millennials and Gen Z generations, and Yoshimoto Kogyo’s mandate to promote the export of Japanese content and formats to younger international audiences. It is also Yoshimoto Kogyo's first investment in overseas media, the press statement read, and it hopes to accelerate development for future projects in Asia. Iflix's spokesperson declined to comment on the monetary value of the investment, adding that more details on the joint venture will be announced in due time. “We have an incredible opportunity to deliver a uniquely localised product for iflix audiences based on proven Japanese comedy formats with mass appeal through this joint venture. We are thrilled to collaborate with Yoshimoto Kogyo to experiment, explore and create new content to cater to a mobile-savvy, discerning global iflix audience," said Mark Britt, co-founder and group CEO of iflix. Hideaki Shimizu, vice president of Yoshimoto Kogyo, said that this investment in iflix will be “a big step” for the company’s Asian strategy. In 2014, Yoshimoto Kogyo established MCIP Holdings in Indonesia as its base of Asian strategy and began the "Living in Asia Comedians" program, which has Yoshimoto comedians living and working in seven different countries in Asia. In 2018, it established the "Okinawa Asia Entertainment Platform," an integrated national platform for distributing various types of content on the Internet. (Photo courtesy: 123RF)