KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 2): REV Asia Holdings Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Media Prima Digital Sdn Bhd, has acquired a 25% stake in Monster Scape Sdn Bhd, the owner and publisher of Chinese social news portal TanTanNews (www.tantannews.com).

As part of the deal, REV Asia will be representing the online news portal as the exclusive advertising reselling partner.

REV Asia managing director Voon Tze Khay said the acquisition of TanTanNews will further strengthen REV Asia's dominant position in the millennial Chinese-speaking online community, and enable it to expand to users in the social news and entertainment segments.

"The addition of TanTanNews will allow REV Asia to scale at a rapid pace in helping potential advertisers reach out to the younger Chinese market inclined to reading news content. In addition to sponsored content, REV Asia will also extend its small and medium enterprise content offerings to TanTanNews," he said in a statement today.

REV Asia has in its existing portfolio online brands such as SAYS, OhBulan!, RojakLah, Viral Cham, 8coin, Sirap Limau, MyResipi, Kongsi Resepi, JUICE, and its most recent addition, Mashable Southeast Asia.

Media Prima Digital chief executive officer Rafiq Razali said moving forward, the group will continue to look out for strategic acquisitions and partnerships that will drive growth for the group in the digital segment, as well as complement its core businesses.

Media Prima Bhd's digital revenue rose to RM64.3 million for the nine-month financial period ended Sept 30, 2018 from RM28 million a year ago.

Launched in 2013, TanTanNews focuses on the latest news and trendiest stories on entertainment, travel, fashion, and lifestyle.

TanTanNews recorded a total of 2.8 million page views and 1 million users in November last year, Media Prima said, citing data from Google Analytics.

TanTanNews founder Sean Teoh said joining Media Prima will enable it to help more advertisers reach out to its audience, while it can also leverage Media Prima Digital's platforms to build more creative contents.

"This partnership will also allow us to focus on our technology for building more innovative products to serve all users across Media Prima Digital and TanTanNews," he added.