GlamAsia.com launches in Singapore

Such positioning has brought success to Glam Media, the company behind the website, in other markets, including the US, Europe and Japan, industry players have said. Jim Goh, chief executive officer at Briq Communications, said Glam Media offers interesting engagement and content for females going after premium quality products.

“If Glam Media can do here what they are doing in the US and localise it, they can attract a group of people who are going after for premium quality products, instead of the mass,” he told Campaign.

While there are publications that target this demographic already, he added that the advantage of Glam Media was that it was for social media, and the company already has its own platform.

Glam Media has expanded its regional presence in Singapore recently. With local technology start-up Clozette, they launched GlamAsia.com, the Southeast Asian version of web property for women, GlamMedia.com.

Clozette is the technology partner and publisher for spearheading the company’s push into the Southeast Asia region. It will generate and curate exclusive content from Glam Media’s sites and integrate its fashion social network platform, Clozette.co, into GlamAsia.com to power its community.

Clozette’s editorial team will also be developing original content for GlamAsia.com, ensuring that stories are relevant to the local audiences.

Yuki Yamamura, senior vice president at Glam Media, said Southeast Asia is an important growth opportunity for the company.

“The region is one of the strongest performing markets globally, and with a fast-growing middle class and increased internet connectivity as well as social media consumption, we anticipate a vast appetite for quality information. Through our extensive networks, we will present brands with an effective way to reach South East Asian women.”

Chloe Neo, business director at OMD, meanwhile noted that the industry has seen the launch as a catalyst to the local and regional digital scene, due to it evolution over the years.

“It has led many innovations, be it in terms of content development or technology advancement. With the rapid growth of internet connectivity and ownership of devices such as smartphones and tablet computers expected in 2012, we can anticipate a  greater surge and demand for quality sites like those under Glam and with it ecommerce opportunities as internet penetration and income rise,” she told Campaign.

Glam Media also runs other web portals such as Glam.com and Brash.com, targeted at male consumers. A six year-old company, it recently acquired Ning Social networks, a private social network company that provides 100,000 social networks for personalities such as former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. This acquisition will allow the company to reach over 240 million users monthly and generate over 2.6 billion of page views, Glam Media has said.

Roger Yuen, founder and chief executive of Clozette, said, “Social commerce and digital engagement are revolutionary new ways that businesses can reach diverse audiences and connect with increasingly fragmented consumers to build user and aspirational communities.”