Lock Screen Advertising Platform
Buzzvil, a Korean smartphone lock screen advertising platform company, announced on Dec. 23 that it has attracted investment worth 13 billion won (US$11.05 million).
The investment was jointly made by five investment companies, including LB Investment, KTB Network and POSCO Capital. Also, it is the first investment two years after the company received 4 billion won (US$3.4 million) from Softbank Ventures in December 2013.
Jung Kyung-in, venture capitalist at LB Investment which led the latest investment, said, “Buzzvil will lead the rapidly growing mobile advertising market, based on the explosive potential in the platform strategy, which has been proved with lock screen business expertise for years through HoneyScreen and the success of OCB Lock, and its strong SDK patents.”
With the latest investment, Buzzvil plans to horizontally expand its lock screen platform business, which has hit its stride. After launching its first lock screen advertising app service, HoneyScreen, in January 2013, the company currently has 6 million users in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Later, Buzzvil released the Buzzscreen SDK, which activates the lock screen function in existing apps with simple insertion in May, starting the lock screen platform business in earnest.
Partner companies that use the Buzzscreen SDK send messages to the first screen and operate the advertising service, just like HoneyScreen, after receiving advertisements from Buzzvil. The two companies share advertising profits from the lock screen. In this way Buzzvil can expand its users and revenues, while its partners can increase daily active users (DAU) and retention rates without additional marketing expenses. OK Cashbag, one of the partners, has recorded 400,000 DAU four months after using the Buzzscreen SDK and operating the lock screen service, OCB Lock.
Buzzvil CEO Lee Gwan-woo said, “Investors highly appreciated our platform business Buzzscreen strategy beyond the single app HoneyScreen.”