Funding Extends Company's Leadership Position in China's Rapidly Expanding Online Advertising Market
BEIJING, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Yoyi Media, China's leading provider of precision targeted online advertising and marketing solutions for advertisers and media publishers, today announced the successful completion of its Series A financing round, led by Steamboat Ventures and Gobi Partners.
Yoyi Media's award-winning product suite enables businesses to effectively and efficiently reach key customers by delivering highly targeted advertising and other promotional materials based on a viewer's individual characteristics, including age, profession, geographic location, income level and personal interests. The Company's innovative video and rich media advertising platforms are used by China's top-ranked websites, as well as by several of the world's most recognizable brands, including Audi, China Merchants Bank, Intel, Microsoft, and Nokia.
The financing enables Yoyi Media to accelerate its business strategy and further enhance its advertising and brand building platforms to deliver additional functionality to marketers and capture a larger portion of China's rapidly growing online advertising market, which already exceeds RMB 30 billion and is expected to grow at a 49% compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2013.
Junfeng Liu, Founder and CEO of Yoyi Media, said, "Since Yoyi Media was founded in 2007, we have rapidly grown to become the largest targeted ad network in China, serving more than 300 of China's and the world's biggest companies. We are transforming the way advertisers reach their customers and this new funding will allow us to expand our performance marketing solutions to help our clients drive additional sales and revenue growth."
Perry Chui of Steamboat Ventures said, "Yoyi Media has built a mature and experienced core team with a visionary approach to new media advertising. With over 25 years of collective experience in the online advertising industry, the senior management team understands the needs of both advertisers and publishers, and has built best-of-breed solutions to meet those demands. Yoyi Media's technical strengths have been validated by some of the largest brand-building companies in the world."
Lawrence Tse of Gobi Partners said, "Venture investors are interested in companies that not only can develop good products, but more importantly can execute on a solid plan. Yoyi Media's management team has consistently exhibited strong execution capability, and even during the economic crisis, delivered impressive month-over-month growth. We share with management a common vision and aspiration to transform how online advertising is conducted in China."
In conjunction with the investment, Mr. Chui and Mr. Tse will join Yoyi Media's Board of Directors. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About Yoyi Media
Founded in 2007, Yoyi Media specializes in the research and development of online precision targeting technology and Internet marketing services. Yoyi provides both impression-based and performance-based advertising solutions and has developed a network of top publishers in China. Through three product-line offerings YO-Focus(TM), YO-Crazy(TM), and YO-Target(TM), Yoyi Media enables marketers and brands to reach targeted audience based on their demographics, behavior, expectation, time, and location. With support centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, Yoyi Media serves top brands and their agency partners through a premium ad network that includes China's best known portals and vertical sites. For more information, please visit http://www.yoyi.tv .
About Steamboat Ventures
With offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles, Steamboat Ventures is a global venture capital fund that invests in digital media, consumer and technology companies in the U.S. and Asia. Founded in 2000, Steamboat Ventures has invested in a range of leading digital media and consumer technology companies including: Fastclick (acquired by VCLK), Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by QCOM), Pure Digital Technologies (acquired by CSCO), Quigo Technologies (acquired by AOL), NetMovie, and Duowan. For more information, please visit http://www.steamboatvc.com .
About Gobi Partners
Gobi Partners is a China-based venture capital firm focused on early stage IT and digital media investments. Gobi defines digital media as a new form of communication emerging from the convergence in telecommunications, media and technology. Gobi Fund includes IBM, NTT DOCOMO, Sierra Ventures, McGraw-Hill, Steamboat Ventures (the venture capital arm of The Walt Disney Company), and Nokia Growth Partners as investors. For more information, please visit http://www.gobivc.com .
