The takeover of Brand Karma’s Online Reputation Management services by TrustYou is part of the Taiwan-based company’s “reboot” to become a leader in virtual reality content, said Morris Sim, CEO & co-founder.
Under the agreement – terms were not disclosed – TrustYou will take over all of Brand Karma’s existing ORM customers. The two companies’ management had been visiting customers in the region the last couple of months to ensure a smooth handover. “That’s been our top priority,” said Sim.
Morris Sim: Brand Karma to focus on creating VR content and digital marketing consultancy.
He told WIT, “We’ve been in the business of making social media useful for travel & hospitality for 10 years now. Before it was very fringe, now it’s very mainstream, and we’re proud of having been a part of its rise in importance.
“The DNA of the company however, leans a bit more towards future things. The current opportunity in virtual reality (VR) is unbelievable – a wave is building into 2016 led by Samsung, Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, and Google – and the opportunity for travel brands was too big to give up. The timing was just right for us to find a partner to run our ORM business while we focus on the next big thing for our clients, and more broadly, the travel industry.”
The company has been “quietly investing” in building a core team since last year. “Since then, we’ve already proven the value of VR to some of our travel clients, having created hundreds of custom VR experiences for hotels and destinations across Asia throughout 2015.
“The plan now is to intelligently scale. When you consider our 10-year history in both software development and content marketing, we’ve been waiting for a market shift like this, and the excitement within our company can no longer be contained.”
Sim said the partnership with TrustYou means Brand Karma can now focus on creating VR content, as well as digital marketing consultancy. “This focus is invaluable, given the magnitude of the VR opportunity in travel. It also gives us access to TrustYou’s customers in Europe and the Americas, many of whom have been asking TrustYou for services that we provide.”
Benjamin Jost: Expansion in Asia for TrustYou with new partnership.
For TrustYou, it gives the Munich-based company an expanded footprint in Asia. Said Benjamin Jost, CEO & co-founder, “We are expanding rapidly in Asia – our office in Singapore has grown to five staff and we are still hiring in Singapore, but also locally in all major markets. We are just now opening a TrustYou branch in Japan and has hired the former MD of Groupon to run the office.
“We are in talks with many hotels throughout the region and expect major business coming from APAC.”
He said that TrustYou’s meta-reviews strategy fits well with Asia’s “mobile first” market. “We certainly do care about mobile and are launching a new mobile app in the coming weeks that will allow hoteliers to easily connect with guests while on the go. As I have been saying for years, the ‘mobile first’ trend will definitely benefit us because wherever time and space is limited, users need to digest the most relevant data in the least amount of time. And our Meta-Reviews are perfect for that task.”
Sim said the agreement means that “our combined customers get the best of two companies. Brand Karma focuses on strategy and using new innovations such as VR to make a brand’s sales and marketing efforts stand out whereas TrustYou focuses on the everyday customer’s voice (both ORM and GSS) and making that voice useful commercially via meta-reviews.”
