OPENREC Raises 1.4 Billion Yen for mellow-fan Expansion

The money will go toward taking its event series to locations across Japan, working with Yucho Asset Management on regional revitalization built around fandoms, and creating its own intellectual property and expanding overseas.

One platform for online, live and merchandise

OPENREC rebranded its live-streaming service OPENREC.tv as mellow-fan in July this year. It positions the service as "fandom infrastructure" linking talent agencies, artists and entertainers with their fans. The company says that as social media and streaming spread, fan support now spans daily streams, fan-to-fan exchange, events and merchandise, and that agencies struggle to run all of it alone.

Online, mellow-fan delivers official live streams and exclusive video, plus a Discord server for subscribers where fans can talk to each other and directly with creators. Offline, it plans and produces events ranging from fan meetings of a few hundred people to Tokyo Dome-scale shows, linked with streaming. Merchandise, including the apparel brand with mellow, is handled in-house from planning to sales, and the company also runs a tie-up business producing sponsored streams and events for brands.

The company says unifying these touchpoints lets operators see fan enthusiasm in one place, and that data on fan behavior can feed marketing and content creation.

Growth

Since the rebrand, OPENREC has managed fan communities for acts including KAWAII LAB., and runs channels such as Kano Eiko Channel and Tegoshi Channel. Revenue last fiscal year rose 1.5 times from the prior year, with growth in subscriptions, merchandise, events and advertising. Events for core fans are being turned into regular series as a recurring revenue source, and merchandise sales at events exceed ticket sales.