SAMANSA
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SAMANSA is a Short Film ecosystem founded in Japan in 2021 by Yuichi Iwanaga and Takayuki Toyama.[1]. It is a commercial business consisting of (1) a global OTT streaming platform that delivers Short Films to subscribers, (2) a Short Film production and IP generation studio, and (3) advanced data and analytics services designed to maximize the value of Short Film IP. As of September 2023, SAMANSA has over 200,000 MAUs in Japan paying for its streaming services, and displays over 800 titles localized into Japanese (with South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand planned for expansion within 2024). The name SAMANSA comes from a favorite short film character of Takayuki Toyama. It is Series A funded by East Ventures[2], X Tech Ventures[3] and MUFG Innovation Partners[4]
History
The idea for SAMANSA was born in the USA in late 2019 when both Toyama-san and Iwanaga-san were aspiring filmmakers. Noting that too many great ideas just get lost due to the hard industry emphasis on long-form video, and that “nothing’s ever left after very clever people scrape money together from crowdsourcing and friends and savings to make great stories and great productions” they set out to develop an ecosystem approach to Short Film. Citing respect for the Filmmmaker and the Audience, SAMANSA sees itself as a “conduit enabling the interests of filmmakers, distributors and Customers to find their meet points.”[5] While not itself a purely Asian platform but rather an ecosystem concept planned for the global audience, SAMANSA’s Asian roots in japan and initial growth strategy are all put in Asia as “this is just where we can more easily understand the customer. localize, operate, and build the ecosystem the right way.”
Business Value Proposition
The company believes that the Short Film genre is undervalued, citing its captivity to the traditional Festival Circuit mechanism for promotion alongside a rapid YouTube window wherein “value escapes at every step. If American Idol can expose, shape, and punch up music artists, and Spotify can profitably drive newness into a CX, SAMANSA can do the same for Short Film.” With greater time demands on consumers inundated with media, and with technology driving higher quality production value tools into the hands of producers, “our platform, streaming service and search, social marketing and community events like Sippin’ Shorts really enable busy people to find and enjoy a great story with great production value over a quick lunchtime coffee at their favorite café or post-work meet up with friends.” Along with this approach the company fully localizes its content for every market it enters, thus using professional grade subtitling and localization to expose its content and its aligned filmmakers to a global audience. Citing Spotify’s success in music and podcasts, SAMANSA’s founders note that “it will be the same in principle, and while ïts harder for video, its now possible as content will explode and needs a platform that enables monetization for everyone.” The company plans a freemium model launch for certain markets from 2024. It adds over 30 new titles to its streaming platform each month.
Technical Platform
The company developed its own CMS and streaming platform in Japan, and is on Web, IOS and Android devices via app. The company uses edge services and managed streaming services with AWS and MUX. The platform deploys Widevine and other DRM.
Pioneering Online / Offline Marketing
While conventionally using social media to drive awareness and community, SAMANSA also takes a novel approach to online/offline marketing Pioneering an events-based “instant community” basis to its CX, the company has successfully POCd an event mechanism called “Sippin Shorts(TM) – community events at select coffee shops and bars organized both by customers and by SAMANSA, promoted on the platform and social media, that builds community viewing experiences.
Studio and IP Development
The company has started developing its own content, citing an ongoing need for a pure ecosystem play to be deeply involved in production and data usage. “While there are natural differences, you can think of SAMANSA as the Netflix of Short Film.” SAMANSA’s first production, Iron Lung, starring is set for release on in December 2023, where it will be premiered to a global audience and then taken on a Festival Run. In the pipeline are 5 other projects that will launch in Q4’23 and Q1’24. SAMANSA has announced it will produce at least 4 Short Films per Quarter looking ahead and expects success to enable it to “ramp up this production from across the world.”
Type of business: Short Film ecosystem developer
Founded: 2022
HQ: Tokyo, Japan (insert address)
# of Employees: 35
Platform URL: www.samansa.com
Available in: Japanese (Korean, Bahasa Indoensian, Thai and English planned 2024)
MAUs: 200K as of October 2023 (Japan only)
Titles: over 800 (as of September 2023, with 1 new title added per day)
Original productions: 4 completed by Q4’24, with 3-4 new short films per quarter 2024
Social Media: over 800M views, with 250K unique followers across platforms
Key Executives and Personnel
Co CEO and Head of Content Strategy Takayuki Toyama
Co CEO and Acting CFO Yuichi Iwanaga
Promoters
East Ventures
X Tech Ventures
MUFG Innovation Partners
References
- ↑ "Service Homepage (web)".
- ↑ PR Times, Japan. "Info article".
- ↑ "X Tech Ventures homepage (Japanese)".
- ↑ "MUFG Innovation Partners Homepage".
- ↑ Cinema Planners, ed. (Oct 2021). ""Who is Samansa?"".
External links
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