VICE eyes APAC expansion with new HQ in Singapore

Global youth media brand VICE Media has made Singapore its Asia Pacific (APAC) headquarters, as part of its latest effort in expanding offerings across the region. VICE Singapore will be fully operational by January 2018.Hosi Simon (pictured) will relocate to Singapore to assume his new role as the CEO for VICE APAC. Prior to this role, Simon served as global general manager of VICE Media for over a decade, where he oversaw the strategy, growth and operations of VICE digital assets around the world. This includes VICE’s owned and operated channels, publishing and large-scale brand partnerships, and mobile and OTT platforms. He also helped to launch many of the newer VICE offices worldwide.Under the direction of Simon, the VICE Singapore regional headquarter will serve as the nucleus for its APAC activity. It will serve as a content hub offering the full scale of VICE services, including complete production capabilities, locally staffed editorial content, and creative services through Virtue Worldwide, VICE's creative arm.VICE also announced new offices and partnerships that will allow the youth brand to expand its reach and library of intellectual property. These series of deals are expected to allow VICE to further cultivate the growing young audiences across the APAC region, growing its presence across multiple screens and reaching millions of new viewers.These announcements include updates and new deals for its markets in Indonesia, Japan and India, as well as its Virtue Worldwide's latest partnerships with major brands in APAC."The vast expansion in the region follows the series of deals VICE announced earlier this year, providing major inroads into the nascent mobile content market in the APAC region, and furthers VICE’s ability to bring content directly to young people on whatever screen they are watching," a VICE spokesperson said in a statement.VICE's Virtue Worldwide has entered into major brand partnerships that will see the creative agency that was born out of VICE provide creative services throughout the APAC region. Launch partnerships in the region include Unilever in Indonesia, National Basketball Association in China, Budweiser in Australia, Nike in Thailand and the Philippines, as well as a BMW/Alexander Wang collaboration concerning a new vehicle launch in China.VICE Indonesia will remain in close partnership with Jawa Pos TV, which will air branded VICELAND blocks and VICE News Tonight episodes, and digital content in primetime slots beginning this month. Consumers aged 18 to 34 years old comprise 50% of Indonesia’s overall population, opening the door for VICE to reach the young audience on whatever platform they consume content.Based on the earlier success of VICE’s partnership with DOCOMO Digital in Japan, VICE has also expanded its partnership with telecommunications company DOCOMO, to bring VICE's subscription video on-demand service VICE+ into Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand. The deal is expected to allow VICE content to reach millions of new young people in a region with a fast growing youth population.“We believe there is a huge opportunity for VICE to build out a deeply relevant, highly local, youth media company across the APAC region,” Simon said.“With the growing importance of local culture to young people, along with a surging youth population and increased connectivity, some of the most dominant forms of global youth culture across technology, music, fashion, consumer brands, food and identity will come from this part of the world. We hope to play a significant role in creating and giving a voice to these movements, and helping to bring them to the rest of the world,” he added.VICE has operated in the APAC region since 2003, and currently has offices in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and Indonesia.