BT Capital, Social Media and the Asian Markets

One of the most interesting moves in media as of late has been the formation of BT Capital by Chinese maverick mogul Bruno Wu and German Corporate mogul Thomas Middelhoff.

There are a lot of reasons why this company could be interesting. Number one is their need to create content that feeds the magic dragon that is Chinese social media and e-commerce.

In their recent joint interview on Charlie Rose, both men seemed to have a key eye on how much of a demand there is for content that is not necessarily exclusive to either East or West. It seems we are on a cusp of a real change in terms of how content is made and distributed. In China there is a need for further expansion into Social Media for both Western Media Companies, as well as the Chinese themselves.

While current government and corporate leaders are still weary of the inevitable explosion of Social Media into their culture, there is no doubt that they are excited about the massive boom of e-commerce.

Just take a look at the company profile of China’s groundbreaking e-commerce leader and their affiliated groups like Alibaba Group, a privately owned Internet-based e-commerce business that cover business-to-business online marketplaces, retail and payment platforms, shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services. In 2012, two of Alibaba’s portals together handled 1.1 trillion yuan or $170 billion in sales – that is more than competitors eBay and Amazon combined. What’s more, the company is estimated to have a valuation between $55 billion to more than $120 billion.

Now just with this company and its affiliated groups alone, imagine what will happen when Social Media starts to take on the same kind of role it has here in the West.

Now, take a moment and drink this in.

Give some thought as to what Asia could be doing for your brand. What we are witnessing here is very much like the early days of Silicon Valley Commerce. Remember in the late 1990′s when Amazon and eBay seemed exotic?

Asia has deep roots with Envisage Agency. Not only do we have key personal who work from there, but our CEO is from Southeast Asia and cut her teeth coding for several of the biggest tech companies of the region when she first broke into the professional labor force. In fact, it was her early days working with programmers that lead her into advertising. And it’s been advertising that has lead her back to her Asian roots, watching the booming growth of social media and e-commerce of the entire region were the seeds for her to form Envisage Agency.

Her passion for these platforms is the nucleus of what formed us and why we are in business. We have to say, it is an exciting time to be doing what we are doing. The growth potential in Asia for business of all kinds, is a horizon that is so vast, it is almost impossible to bring it into focus without some big picture thinking. Yet once the Social Media tail starts wagging the e-commerce dog of Asia, we are going to be seeing an explosiveness in terms of content and interaction – the likes of which will make what we have witnessed here in the West as a mere prelude.

Take the time to think about how you and your brand can come into focus in the market.