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., August 4, 2008 – 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. Hashimoto 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 6 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. For more information, visit 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
