iKala Acquires KONTENT Marketing to Strengthen Influencer Marketing Strategies
Taiwan, January 12th, 2023 — iKala announced today the acquisition of KONTENT Marketing, a Taiwanese digital marketing company specializing in KOL marketing, digital ad placement, and content production and planning. The acquisition will strengthen the growth of KOL Radar, iKala's AI influencer marketing service, by combining KONTENT's extensive content production services with iKala's AI influencer data marketing software-as-a-service (SaaS) and one-stop influencer marketing services. This vertical integration will solidify the company's competitive advantage and accelerate iKala's ability to help both existing and future enterprise customers grow their customers through performance-based influencer marketing.
KOL Radar is a one-stop service that helps brands identify optimal recommendations for influencer matches, track data, and evaluate campaign performance. Its influencer database has officially expanded to more than one million cross-border influencers by the end of 2022. The acquisition of KONTENT Marketing demonstrates iKala's determination to expand its service scope. iKala seeks to utilize KONTENT Marketing's professional resources in influencer marketing in vertical markets, as well as its expertise and creativity in digital advertising and multimedia content production, to fully meet the diverse needs of enterprises and brands in data-driven influencer marketing and digital marketing projects.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the market size for influencer marketing has grown to $16.4 billion (around NT$503.6 billion) in 2022, and is expected to reach $84.9 billion (around NT$2.6 trillion) in 2028. As the pandemic drives companies to accelerate their digital transformation and increases cross-border influencer marketing demand, iKala responds to the global trend by actively facilitating outbound opportunities for Japanese businesses to expand to Taiwan through KOL Radar. As part of iKala, KONTENT will be able to increase the range and effectiveness of its influencer marketing services, particularly in the growing market for cross-border campaigns. The move also allows iKala to offer its AI influencer marketing solutions to a wider range of industries and enables KONTENT's existing customers across the retail, beauty, and public sectors to benefit from AI technology and data analysis when choosing influencers for their campaigns.
"As we witness a global shift in consumer behavior and attention, and the acceleration of the creator economy, we see a favorable outlook for the development and growth of the influencer marketing industry. By acquiring KONTENT, we can optimize the effectiveness of our integrated AI technology, data, and influencer marketing services and bring more growth opportunities for our current and future customers in Asia. We will continue to innovate in the field of AI influencer marketing and expand our cross-border influencer marketing services through KOL Radar, allowing brands to take advantage of AI-driven digital transformation and comprehensive data marketing solutions," said Sega Cheng, Co-Founder and CEO of iKala.
"KONTENT has always been committed to helping brands use influencer marketing to increase their visibility and reach new customers. As a leading AI company in Asia, iKala is perfectly aligned with our goal and uses AI technology to help businesses implement successful influencer campaigns. We are excited to join forces with iKala to expand our market presence and leverage AI data to enhance our influencer marketing services. We believe this will enable us to offer even more comprehensive and data-driven influencer marketing solutions to a wider range of businesses," said Chen Shih-Kai, CEO of KONTENT Marketing.
iKala offers AI-driven digital transformation solutions that help companies leverage their data and reach customers at every stage of their journey.
The use of cloud services and MarTech solutions ultimately facilitate the establishment of long-term customer loyalty.