3Minute promotes female Youtubers, gets funding from Line

Hitomi Nagata is one of the 3Minute models already registered for Line Blog. She is known for her kick-boxing prowess.

Line’s new “lifestyle” fund, the US$42 million Line Life Global Gateway, just selected its first investee. 3Minute is a YouTube production studio specializing in promoting female Youtubers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

3Minute is jumping on Japan’s nascent Youtuber boom. Google Japan has been putting a lot of resources into raising awareness of local YouTube stars, plastering posters in many of Tokyo’s most exclusive advertising spots like Shibuya Station. Tokyo is home to one of only five YouTube spaces in the world.

The startup, only a little more than a year old, recruits popular models and celebrities and assists them in making and promoting YouTube videos. The more views generated, the more advertising money flows in for both the talent and the studio.

Already, 3Minute has one big win – Hong Kong’s number one female Youtuber, Hanna Tam, is a client. The other seven ladies listed vary in popularity. Some are established brands with 50,000 plus Twitter followers and thousands more YouTube subscribers while a couple have yet to establish a YouTube channel of their own.

In a statement, Line noted that 3Minute is helping to identify and raise the next generation of influencers. Accordingly, these rising stars will be featured on Line’s own services like Line Blog and Line Q[uestion].

The move could end up paying big dividends for Line if 3Minute is successful in picking up the stars of the future. Considering the claims about Facebook’s loss of teens, Line’s investment is looking like a hedge bet for maintaining cultural relevance.

See: Line reports 2014 revenues of $656M, reaches 181M monthly active users