Taiwan Mobile has made a strategic investment in SoundOn Global, a podcast platform and Apple Podcast’s Chinese language hosting partner in Taiwan.
The specifics of the deal are being kept under wraps.
SoundOn was purchased for an unknown fee in January 2021 by Singapore’s Kollective Ventures and Turn Capital (the family office of Joseph Phua, Co-Founder of 17LIVE).
SoundOn offers a variety of audio goods to customers, including original podcasts, hosting services, a social audio entertainment platform, a podcast player, and a 360°audio advertising solution.
SoundOn expanded its audio presence beyond podcasts last year with the acquisition of social audio service Goodnight. By the end of 2021, its user base had surpassed 11 million, with more than half of them coming from outside countries, particularly the United States.
More than six million people have signed up for MyMusic, Taiwan Mobile’s audio-streaming service. The audio collection of MyMusic will be expanded to include SoundOn’s programmes. The number of podcast programmes on MyMusic is expected to increase by 20% as a result of the cooperation. The number of people who listen to podcast episodes is expected to increase by 40%.
Jamie Lin, President of Taiwan Mobile, shared: “We see great potential in the global podcast and audio market. Since the launch of ‘Podcast Zone’ on MyMusic in 2020, the platform now has more than one million episodes which help to drive continuous growth in the number of registered users and number of podcast/music listens. SoundOn has a close community and a high degree of expertise in podcast and audio entertainment. We expect that, through our partnership with SoundOn Global, both platforms will be able to share resources, create synergies, attract more talented creators, and jointly lead the positive development of podcast and audio entertainment industry.”
