SAMG Entertainment (CEO Kim Suhoon, hereinafter SAMG Entertainment) is entering Japan, the world's largest character market, to launch full-scale global business operations.
SAMG Entertainment announced on the 23rd that it has established a local corporation in Japan. Based on its achievements in Japan, where intellectual property (IP) competes globally, SAMG Entertainment plans to expand into the United States as well.
The name of the Japanese corporation is "Nikoniko Entertainment." Its headquarters are located in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, and SAMG Entertainment holds 100% ownership. Nikoniko Entertainment will serve as a foothold to expand SAMG Entertainment's IP fandom beyond Japan to global markets such as the United States.
According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the size of Japan's character market is approximately 23 trillion KRW (2.6508 trillion yen) as of 2023, making it the third largest market worldwide after the United States and China. Although Japan's market is mainly focused on 2D animation, there has been increasing demand for 3D animation, especially in the kids' sector, where hit 3D animation works have recently emerged. This aligns with SAMG Entertainment's strength in 3D animation and is the reason for its full-scale entry into the Japanese market.
Nikoniko Entertainment is led by CEO OKAMURA MASATO. CEO Okamura is an expert who has worked in the global kids entertainment industry for over 20 years. He was in charge of overseas business at Sega Toys for more than 10 years and has been consulting for global toy entertainment companies in Japan and North America since 2012.
CEO Okamura of Nikoniko Entertainment stated, "SAMG Entertainment is one of the few content companies worldwide that internalizes the entire IP business value chain," and added, "I joined because I am confident that SAMG Entertainment, with capabilities equal to global content companies, can succeed in the global market."
SAMG Entertainment explained that it has planning and production capabilities for 3D animation and global IP business development skills, attracting significant interest from Japanese content companies. Additionally, since Japan is a market rich in creative character industry personnel such as writers, designers, and MD developers, SAMG Entertainment aims to leverage this to strengthen its IP planning capabilities. Based on this, it plans to enter the North American market as well.
CEO Okamura said, "A distributor to develop SAMG Entertainment's MD in Japan has already been decided, and discussions on IP-related collaborations with major Japanese content companies are underway," adding, "Since we are receiving numerous inquiries from major content companies not only in Japan but also overseas, through Nikoniko Entertainment, we will promote and enable experiences of SAMG Entertainment's IP worldwide."
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