5totheContinuing its aggressive expansion in South East Asia, TO THE NEW, a leading digital services network, announced the acquisition of Singapore‐based ThoughtBuzz, a leading social media analytics company in South East Asia, just this week. This acquisition will allow TO THE NEW to strengthen its service offerings in the South East Asian market by providing its clients with social media analytics.

ThoughtBuzz is a feature-rich, web-based application that provides social media monitoring for organizations, brand or product. It is a platform for users to hear and engage with their customers and brand ambassadors across the internet. ThoughtBuzz provides content from blogs and forums, social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, review sites such as Amazon and CNET, and Q&A sites such as Yahoo Q&A and Twitter. It also maps blogs, forums, Facebook posts and Twitter users country-wise to provide social media analytics for different markets. Social media analytics are provided for English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. The company offers analytical and segmentation capabilities to track public content on social media networks as well that help marketers make informed decisions based on customers’ perceptions about the brand and its competitors.

Actually, ThoughtBuzz is the second company acquired by TO THE NEW in South East Asia, after the acquisition of Techsailor in July 2013. The digital services network conceives, creates and manages digital platforms for content, communities and commerce and is owned by Four Cross Media Ltd. TO THE NEW has digital brands like Ignitee Digital, IntelliGrape Software, Tangerine Digital and Techsailor under its umbrella and has rapidly grown to emerge as one of the leading digital service provider, delivering a comprehensive range of digital services across digital marketing, content, technology and analytics.

IDC estimates the analytics market to be a USD 51Bn business by 2016, thus the future looks bright for TO THE NEW. Social media analytics is gaining prominence across the region, according to the research firm, with organizations leveraging it to create a competitive edge and gain advanced knowledge about how their products and services are being perceived by their customers.

Commenting on the acquisition, Puneet Johar, Managing Director, TO THE NEW, said, “We have drawn up plans to invest and scale-up ThoughtBuzz and integrate it with our current offerings to clients. The acquisition of ThoughtBuzz will bring an industry level focus to our services and base them on key consumer and competitive insights.”

“TO THE NEW shares our zeal for innovation and tapping the infinite potential of the digital space. With TO THE NEW’s expertise in digital services and our analytical capability, we are confident that we will be able to provide innovative and smart digital solutions to meet end-to-end needs of the customers and clients,” said Mr. Ashok Patro, Co-Founder and COO, ThoughtBuzz.

Earlier this year, TO THE NEW had announced the intent to invest USD 13 million in its Indian operations over the next three years and further committed to invest USD 10 million to grow its footprint in the South East Asian region. So far, the company collectively manages through its business units - Ignitee Digital, IntelliGrape Software, Tangerine Digital, and Techsailor - the mandate for more than 120 clients across Asia, in diverse sectors like BFSI, Automobiles, E-commerce, FMCG, Retail, Sports, Hospitality and Media & Entertainment.

By MediaBUZZ