in Insights
[January 2017] Innity Featured Publisher of the Month
It’s really hard to pick one of our partners to be featured on our blog as all of them are great. This month, we decided to feature Japhub from Hong Kong. Japhub features Japan-related info that ranges from Japan fun stories, culture, anime, entertainment, food, Jpop, travel and more. Due to the extensive topics and rich content that Japhub has, their readership base increased rapidly over the years. And so, it’s our pleasure to have an interview with them this month!
Name: Mr. Justin Tang
Position: Head of Strategic Business Unit
- Can you tell us a little about Japhub and how it got started?
Japhub was launched on 1st Jan 2017 with Kengo (健吾) as our chief Editor (or he named himself as Restaurant Manager for Japhub). The initial idea for building Japhub.com was because we saw that there was a need to have more in-depth information about Japan.
- What is your strategy to stand out from your competitors?
There were websites/publications that introduced Japan but their main focus was on Eat, Play, Shop and we believed the market actually wants more than that. So besides the popular Eat, Play, Shop contents, we have editors in Japan to research other topics such as culture, music and news, etc. In general, we would like to introduce Japan from different directions.
- What are the challenges faced when building content on the Japanese culture and lifestyle in Hong Kong?
We are providing content that is not closely related to Hong Kong, so compared with the local news media, it is a big challenge for our editorial team to research or dig out exciting or interesting topics.
- What are the limitations or flaws you find in the digital industry? What do you think the industry needs to grow?
Digital World / Media Industry is always changing or keep growing in an exceptionally fast pace. The topics or graphics that were well accepted yesterday may not work today any more. To the industry, we believe not only content is king, creativity and presentation is also playing a significant role.
- Any words of wisdom you’d like to share with new and aspiring new publishers?
Keep listening to the audience and learn from experience.
- Other than your own, what are your favourite websites out there?
Yes-News.com
- What role does Innity play in your business and what do you like most about working with Innity?
Innity is one of the main revenue sources for Japhub.com and the new formats they offer not just boost up our income but also lights up our website.
- Where do you see Japhub in 3 years time and what do you hope to achieve?
We target to have double-digit growth in the coming 3 years and become the number one Japan-related website in Hong Kong and Asia.
