SPH, INKEF invest in social media news curation platform
Singapore
CROWDYNEWS - a Netherlands-based social media curation platform for media companies - has raised 2.5 million euros (S$3.95 million) in Series A funding, in a round led by Dutch venture capital firm INKEF Capital and joined by the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) through its New Media Fund.
The new money, a Crowdynews spokeswoman told The Business Times, will be used to continue the startup's "rapid global expansion" with media and newspaper companies, particularly in Asia.
"Crowdynews already has a presence in Asia, but Asia is a top expansion priority for the company. While it has customers in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, India and Singapore, the company is keen to expand to other countries in the region," she said.
SPH's knowledge of Asia and the media industry, coupled with its understanding of the importance of "blending traditional and social media", will be invaluable to Crowdynews' growth plans, the spokeswoman added.
As an investor, SPH will provide guidance to enhance Crowdynews' product offerings, said Chua Boon Ping, chief executive officer of SPH's New Media Fund, a S$100 million fund launched in October 2013 that invests in new and emerging companies in media-related businesses.
Already, SPH Magazines - a wholly owned subsidiary of SPH - is a client of Crowdynews, with titles such as herworldPLUS, Men's Health and Home & Decor having incorporated Crowdynews' platform on their websites, said Mr Chua.
SPH is now looking to integrate the platform onto more of its magazine titles and in-house units, he shared.
Crowdynews, founded in 2010, works by gathering and filtering relevant content from social media platforms - such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and Reddit - and posting it in real-time alongside topical and popular news stories.
This will give the "crowd perspective" on the story, said Crowdynews, whose platform comprises three products: Twitter widget 'Article Widget', dedicated social media stream 'Breaking Burner' and expert social media content aggregator 'Amplifinder'.
Crowdynews also offers new opportunities to grow digital revenues as advertisers have an additional platform to reach out to their target audiences.
Said Crowdynews' co-founder Edwin Kuipers: "Crowdynews was inspired when the US Airways plane landed in the Hudson River. Most of the breaking news was coming from social media posts. We found a way to integrate social media into the news cycle, and media companies have loved the reader engagement plus revenue sharing model that gives them new digital income."
The latest funding in Crowdynews comes as more media companies around the world embrace social media as a gamechanger in news reporting, amid a growing investment in digital news. According to a recent study by Pew Research Center, half of news consumers now get their news digitally, with 19 per cent of them getting that from social media sites, mostly from Facebook and YouTube.
