Singaporean, Malaysian companies in live-stream e-commerce platform JV

Singaporean, Malaysian companies in live-stream e-commerce platform JV

24 Jul 2020

Singaporean company, Netccentric Ltd (NCL) Group has entered into a joint-venture (JV) agreement with Malaysia’s Commerce DotAsia Ventures Sdn Bhd (Commerce.Asia) and Docono Holdings Sdn Bhd to operate a live streaming e-commerce business platform.

The move is part of NCL’s progressive transformation from its existing services-based to a platform-centric business model. 

In a statement today, the group said under the agreement, a new company called Nuffnang Live Commerce Sdn Bhd will be established to spearhead NCL’s foray into live commerce through the Bid Go Live! (BGL) platform developed by Docono.

In the same breath, the JV company will leverage Commerce.Asia‘s e-commerce enabling ecosystem as well as NCL’s brand and influencer reach.

The name Nuffnang stems from NCL’s wholly-owned subsidiary Nuffnang Sdn Bhd, an established ‘influencer’ and content marketing company in Malaysia and throughout Southeast Asia, the group said.

The subsidiary has one of the largest influencer community reaches by revenue in Malaysia.

Nuffnang has one of the most comprehensive networks of some 13,000 celebrities, personalities and content creators across all levels of society and diversity with a collective reach of more than 20 million consumers in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

As part of the agreement, Docono co-founder Daniel Wong will be assuming the role of chief technology officer at NCL to spearhead the technology development and automation initiatives of the group.

The shareholding structure of Nuffnang Live Commerce consists of NCL owning a 40 per cent equity interest and Commerce.Asia and Docono owning 30 per cent each.

NCL majority shareholder and director Ganesh Kumar Bangah said the group’s new direction represents a strategic expansion towards a platform-based strategy that is able to capitalise on the growth of the global social influencer and social commerce industry.

“With this platform strategy, we aim to connect multiple groups including merchants, influencers and consumers to create positive network effects.

“The beauty about this joint-venture is that Nuffnang Live Commerce is set to bring forth strongly the strengths of all three shareholders into a single entity set to capitalise on a fast-growing trend in e-commerce,” he said.

Ganesh sees tremendous growth in the years ahead even though the field of live commerce is still in its infancy.

“Live commerce represents the fusion of e-commerce and livestreaming which centres around influencers showcasing and promoting products and services to viewers.

“We expect this industry to soar in the years ahead. In 2018 alone, live commerce generated over RM60 billion in transactions on Taobao, Alibaba’s premier Order to Cash e-commerce marketplace in China,” he said.

Source: Bernama