Bushiroad acquired Social Info, and established a Vtuber office. What are they aiming for? (Report)
Bushiroad held "Bushiroad Group DX Announcement" somewhere in Tokyo on Aug. 26.
Bushiroad has been expanding various business of TCG, live events, wrestling production, character contents, including "BanG Dream!", and others.
"Bushiroad Group DX Announcement" focused on the business related to online media (Digital Transformation), and announced the actual status and outlook.
■Announcement 1 "Concerning the acquisition of Social Info"
Bushiroad will acquire a 100％ stake in Social Info, which COLOPL owns, as of Sep. 1.
Social Info operates a news media "Social Game Info" to feature the trend of the social game industry and new releases, and "Anime Recorder" to feature news about anime or voice actors.
Hashimoto Yoshitaka, the CEO of Bushiroad, talks about the purpose of acquiring the two media.
"Our company owns an advertising agency 'Bushiroad Move'. By acquiring Social Info, we would like to expand the business of Bushiroad Move, and help other companies in this industry to promote their business. We will not share biased information in favor of Bushiroad. We would like to stimulate our industry together, and promise that we will ensure the neutrality as a media."
Nemoto Yuuki, an employee at Bushiroad, has been appointed as the CEO of Social Info. He is a producer of "BanG Dream!" project, and will continue to be responsible for it.
■Announcement 2 "Concerning the partnership with Linga Franca"
Linga Franca operates the manga application "Manga Doa", which offers more than 7000 works. Bushiroad will acquire a 50％ stake in Linga Franca, and form a capital alliance.
Bushiroad, which has been issuing a paper-based media "Monthly Bushiroad", launched the e-book business, which is also a new approach as "the acquisition of Social Info". They will expandbusiness in consideration of today's trend that the sales of e-books have been increasing.
Hashimoto talks about the purpose, saying, "This means we secured a bookshelf at an e-book store."
To ensure a bookshelf at a book store enables them to advertise their own products, to publish various works, and to try new attempts. Bushiroad will produce its own new comics, and develop its entertainment business in cooperation of IG Port, a parent company of Linga Franca.
As a first step, the comic adaptation of "Assault Lily" will be exclusively released in advance of its TV anime to be broadcast from Oct.
Shinpuku Kyohei, the CEO of Linga Franca talks about the partnership.
"We have already developed and published a little rich content called voice comic from Aug. 1 in cooperation with Bushiroad. This is a service to enable you to read a fully voiced manga, which is the first attempt in this industry, I think. I hope our 2nd, 3rd attempt can also develop a new market in cooperation with Bushiroad."
■Vtuber Office has been established.
From the MOG(Mobile Online Game) department, new social games including "Assault Lily Last Bullet", "D4DJ Groovy Mix", "ARGONAVIS from BanG Dream! AAside", and others will be offered.
The TCG department prepared an environment, and built "Bushiroad Remote FIght", a system for network play, using Discord. The new platform enables you to battle against players all around the world by capturing information from a paper card with a camera.
As for live performances and wrestling production, Bushiroad will try to offer more opportunities to enjoy them by using the knowledge they've learned through holding exclusively online events.
Specifically, in addition to the event at a venue, they will offer online live streaming with a fixed camera, live streaming at theaters, and delivering archived videos. These services will be offered for a fee.
They are also considering a live streaming all over the world, using simultaneous interpretation. In the future, the cast will advance to the world.
Furthermore, Bushiroad established a Vtuber office "Irodori Post". They will place more importance on character contents by pursuing characteristics, and create new IP even though Vtuber industry tends to focus on the talent.
They are currently having an audition, and the second round will begin.
■Event "Bushiroad Game Festival" will be held!
The event will be held online and offline starting Sat, Sep. 19 to Wed, Sep. 30. Bushiroad's applications and TCG will be gathered together including "Assault Lily Last Bullet" and "D4DJ Groovy Mix", which will be delivered soon.
In the end, Hashimoto talked about the outlook with his enthusiasm, saying "We will take all measures to prevent spreading of infection and hold an event at a venue. By combining online and offline events, we will develop a strategy to complete media mix by ourselves."
