Press Releases

• GlobalRoam subsidiary GNum invests S$2 million for significant minority stake in homegrown analytics firm aSpecial Media, which is founded by three former SPH executives
• Investment allows GNum to expand its expertise to help businesses intuit consumer trends and widen their marketing reach
• A Special Media has more than 29 million consumer profiles and 300 enterprise customers

SINGAPORE, 21 July 2015 – Homegrown telecommunication services provider GlobalRoam Group Limited (“GlobalRoam”) has invested S$2 million in aSpecial Media a Singapore startup, and will launch a new service to help enterprises analyse consumer behaviour from the way they silently scan the Internet.

GlobalRoam said today its subsidiary GNum Pte Ltd (“GNum”) made the investment for a significant minority stake in aSpecial Media, a Big Data firm set up by three former Singapore Press Holdings executives and backed by several prominent local entrepreneurs and angel investors.

GNum concurrently announced that it would launch GNum Analytics, a service that combines its own IP telephony service with the analytics applications of aSpecial Media. The service will help businesses track the behaviour and buying patterns of the “silent majority” of Internet users.

This “silent majority” frequently scans the Internet for news and information but – unlike the vocal minority of Tweeters or Facebook users – may not actively post comments on social media or blogs. Yet, it is the opinions and preferences of the former that shape buying patterns as e-commerce becomes increasingly prevalent.

In recent years, traditional advertising to get consumers to open up their wallets has yielded mixed results. Small enterprises, in particular, often find traditional advertising costly, and even struggle to get their messages across to their target audience given the growing ubiquity of advertising tools, including social media channels.

On their part, marketing experts increasingly seek deeper insights on the average consumer. Until now, these insights have been hidden and overshadowed by dependence on social media analytics, which largely decipher patterns based on relatively smaller audiences who actively post their views on social media.

Businesses can now effortlessly track and analyse consumers’ behaviour to decipher potential trends and develop more targeted strategies to reach out to their audience. aSpecial Media’s unique algorithm understands consumer’s interest by analysing what they read on their smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. By studying their reading behaviour in real time, aSpecial Media is able to show what people are interested in.

This data is stored and continuously updated as interest profiles – a more efficient predictor of potential consumer activity than demographics. Capturing data this way gives insights into consumers’ behaviour and interests that businesses otherwise would not detect from plain social media postings.

aSpecial Media currently has over 29 million consumer profiles, analyses more than 127 million articles read every month, and approximately 300 enterprise customers. The funding from GNum will help it move faster towards its goal of becoming Asia’s largest database of real-time behaviour to enable businesses to reach the right person at the right time.

aSpecial Media’s shareholders include Singapore’s National Research Foundation, Mr Leslie Loh, founder of System Access, the banking software developer acquired by US-based SunGard Data Systems in 2006, and Mr Frank Levinson’s Small World Group incubator. Mr Levinson is co-founder of Finisar, the world’s largest supplier of optical communication components.

GNum will leverage on aSpecial Media to expand its own core IP telephony business. GNum’s parent company, GlobalRoam has a patent-pending technology that allows calls from any device to be routed to a user’s mobile phone through a personalized call link that can be easily shared through text or image hyperlinks in email signatures, documents, and websites.

GNum’s call links – already launched in Singapore and coming to new markets – allow businesses and users to stay contactable without having to reveal their numbers in the public domain. Enterprises using GNum Analytics will be able to study caller trends and, eventually predict what these callers are likely to purchase or are interested in.

On 20 October 2014, GNum received S$7.0 million of seed funding from Tembusu Partners Pte Ltd, a leading private equity firm in Singapore.

Mr. Clarence Tan, Founder and CEO of GlobalRoam, said, “This investment via our subsidiary GNum elevates the value positioning of GlobalRoam beyond IP telephony and will allow us to engage enterprises more directly using the power of Big Data.”

Mr. Alexandre Yokoyama, CEO of GNum, added, “GNum will soon integrate aSpecial’s capability to decipher consumer patterns from the way people get informed and read about a specific product or service, which can improve and enrich the relationship of SMEs with their customers. GNum aims to deliver a global toll-free service enhanced with analytics data in a unique and user-friendly product.”

Mr. Chris Yeo, CEO of aSpecial Media, said, “This investment and partnership enable both sides to grow our regional presence rapidly. aSpecial Media will be able to tap on the existing relationships that GlobalRoam and GNum have with regional telcos which will accelerate our plan to boost the number of consumer profiles to 100 million in the next three years.”

*** END OF PRESS RELEASE ***
Issued on behalf of GlobalRoam Group and aSpecial Media by WeR1 Consultants Pte Ltd:

Media Contact:
WeR1 Consultants Pte Ltd
38A Circular Road, Singapore 049394
Tel: (65) 6737 4844
GNum: www.gnum.com/pr
Ian Lau: ianlau@wer1.net
Frankie Ho: frankieho@wer1.net

About GlobalRoam Group Limited

Established in 2001, GlobalRoam is a Singapore-based company that offers integrated telecommunication services. Innovation is the core of GlobalRoam, and our vision is to be a global leader in connecting people across diverse media.

Our products are built on a solid foundation of ground-breaking technology protected by a set of patents. We are the ideal technical partner for telecommunication companies with the aim of delivering the best solutions to both our partners and end-users.

For more information, please visit: http://www.globalroam.com

About GNum Pte Ltd

A commercial spinoff of GlobalRoam Group Limited, GNum was established in 2014. Equipped with a patent-pending personalized URL calling solution, GNum users can enjoy anonymity and privacy through its service. GNum collaborates with telecommunication companies to provide reliable calls with exceptional quality. The company aims to connect the mobile and online world with its innovative international toll-free service, allowing people to receive calls anytime, anywhere from GNum.com/name.

Register with us today to reserve your personalised call link!

For more information, please visit: http://www.gnum.com

About aSpecial Media

Big data analytics company aSpecial Media analyzes online users’ behaviour in real-times as they view content through their phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. This data is stored and continuously updated as rich Interest Profiles, which is a more efficient predictor of potential activity than demographics. To date, aSpecial Media has a portfolio of 29 million unique interest profiles which have been collected and up to date, and these are growing at a compound rate of 25% per quarter.

For more information, please visit: http://www.aspecialmedia.com/