Acquisition of marketing startup is the latest step in TNL’s push for a broader spectrum of digital offerings
Taipei-based media and journalism startup TNL Media Group acquired Ad2iction Interaction, a Taiwan-based digital marketing startup, for an undisclosed amount last week. Ad2iction Interaction will continue to function as an independent agency, and likewise, will continue to run its brands autonomously.
News houses are increasingly recognizing the need to go digital. Content creators are increasingly turning to digital platforms such as social media, mirroring users’ increasing preference for digital sources to get their news on-the-go. This acquisition will imbue TNL’s online news platforms with Ad2iction’s proprietary marketing tech.
Both startups were founded in late 2013, and just a few months apart. Founded in October 2013, Ad2iction Interaction is an advertising tech startup with a focus on digital marketing through mobile and data analytics. In addition to its cloud-based ‘Ad2 CMP,’ a creative management platform with around 500 clients that enables screen-behavior analysis and content creation for mobile, it also operates platforms such as film site Agent Movie.
TNL Media Group was started as The News Lens, an independent Taiwanese news site, in August 2013. It has since then taken on a series of partnerships such as the acquisition of tech news site INSIDE Hard-wire, and sports news and commentary platform Sports Vision in 2018. The Group also operates a market research wing called TNLR which provides customer insights to big names such as Dell, Uber and Ford. While the company focuses on creating Chinese-language content for the Southeast Asian market, it has an eye on English-language content for international readers as well.
Some of TNL’s investors include YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, and the startup’s original seed investor North Base Media, according to AngelList. Since its last funding round, a Series C in 2018 where the news startup raised US$3 million (Crunchbase), the company’s current valuation rose to $61 million (AngelList).
Co-founder and CEO of TNL Media Group Joey Chung said in a press release, “Both companies believe that this is the perfect time for a strategic partnership, as we settle to build one of the main content platforms and diversify our offers of products with larger scale. We look forward to helping Ad2iction’s superior mobile advertising technology products expand to new customers and international markets while building one of the leading content and technology service platforms in the Chinese international market.”
