Brightcove's new subsidiary in Japan adds general manager, announces first
customer, and closes $4.9 million financing; gorin.jp to publish Beijing
Olympic video with Brightcove
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Brightcove Inc., the leading
global Internet video platform, today announced that it has appointed
technology industry leader and entrepreneur Hisashige Hashimoto as general
manager of Brightcove KK, Brightcove's Japan-based subsidiary. It was also
announced that Web TV distribution giant, PRESENTCAST, has selected the
Brightcove Internet video platform for gorin.jp, the exclusive online video
portal in Japan for coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. gorin.jp is
backed by all of Japan's commercial television broadcasters.
As general manager, Mr. Hashimoto will lead Brightcove's operations in
Japan and drive overall customer acquisition efforts targeted at Japanese
media companies and marketers. Mr. Hashimoto joins Brightcove after two years
as president and chief executive officer of Paygent, a mobile auction escrow
service he launched in 2006 and grew to 2,000 customers before leaving in
2008.
Prior to Paygent, Mr. Hashimoto worked in three different senior management
positions for Macromedia KK, helping lead the Education, Channel Marketing,
and Platform Product Marketing divisions. Before Macromedia KK, Mr. Hashimoto
spent 14 years with Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
"Since the establishment of Brightcove KK, we've seen tremendous interest
in the Japanese market for our Internet video platform," said Jeremy Allaire,
Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. "With the addition of Mr.
Hoshimoto as general manager and the signing of a highly prestigious first
customer, Brightcove KK is poised for accelerated growth in Japan,
contributing to our overall international expansion."
PRESENTCAST, a joint venture formed in 2006 by leading television
broadcasters and advertising agencies in Japan, will tap Brightcove as its
Internet video platform for gorin.jp, the official website providing exclusive
online video content in Japan from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. PRESENTCAST
will program and distribute more than 200 advertising-supported video segments
from the Games available online at gorin.jp from August 6 to September 23,
2008.
Financing officially closed for Brightcove's majority-owned subsidiary in
Japan (Brightcove KK) on July 18. On that date the entity was formally
established in Japan with investments of $4.9 million from Dentsu, Inc.,
J-Stream, Inc., transcosmos, Inc. (transcosmos), and Cyber Communications,
Inc.
(CCI).
About gorin.jp
Gorin.jp was established by 132 commercial broadcasters around Japan as
the official online video distribution website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games. From August 8 to September 23, 2008, this site will present to the
Japanese online audience popular events and high-profile athletes in action
and free of charge. The site will allow users who missed their favorite events
to catch up, and will also show clips from events not aired in Japan. In
addition, the site will offer a constant view of actual Olympic coverage on
TV.
For more information, visit http://www.gorin.jp (Japanese content only).
About PRESENTCAST
PRESENTCAST INC. is a joint venture formed in April, 2006 by the leading
broadcasters and advertising agencies in Japan. They include: Nippon
Television Network Corporation., TOKYO BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INCORPORATED, Fuji
Television Network, Inc., TV Asahi Corporation, TV TOKYO Corporation, DENTSU
INC., Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Incorporated, ASATSU-DK INC. and Tokyu Agency
Inc. PRESENTCAST INC. launched the TV DOGATCH service (http://dogatch.jp), in
December 2006 to help navigate TV information and promote distribution of TV
and TV related content via the Internet.
About Brightcove
Brightcove is the leading online video platform. Media companies,
businesses and organizations worldwide use Brightcove to publish and
distribute video that reaches more than 135 million unique viewers every
month.
Founded in 2004, Brightcove is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business with
offices across North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit
http://www.brightcove.com
SOURCE Brightcove Inc.
North America, Nate Hermes of SutherlandGold Group, +1-415-706-5678,
nathan@sutherlandgold.com; or Europe, Stephen Orr of AxiCom, +44 20 8392 4056,
stephen.orr@axicom.com; or Japan, Hiro Suzuki of Upstream Asia (Japan),
+81-3-3568-1215, hiro.suzuki@upstreamasia.com, all for Brightcove Inc.
