One Championship, JustCo, and Axinan on the growth conundrum

Growth above all else. It’s the mantra that many, if not most, early-stage tech startups live by: If you’re adding customers at a fast enough rate, the logic goes, then revenues – and eventually, profits – will follow. Someday, at least.

The reality, of course, is that things don’t always work out that way. The vast majority of startups fail before they get anywhere close to profitability. And while growth is crucial, new businesses also need to have a product or service that works, and an addressable market to sell to. On top of that, they need to be able to hold their own against competitors with similar offerings.

From left: Zhu Wei, CEO, Axinan; Teh Hua Fung, group president, One Championship; Maria Li, chief operating officer, Tech in Asia / Photo credit: Tech in Asia

For Singapore-based One Championship, the key to rapid early growth and staying ahead of the competition has been relatively simple: it’s a unique product that’s in wide demand and has no direct rivals, according to its group president Teh Hua Fung.

Speaking onstage at Tech in Asia Conference 2019 in Jakarta last week, Teh said that some of the martial arts-focused media platform’s early success was down to luck.

“We were lucky to be born in the digital, mobile age, and martial arts content happens to be great for mobile,” he said, talking during a panel discussion on achieving fast growth in the competitive landscape. “As opposed to soccer game of 90 minutes which can be quite uncomfortable or inconvenient to watch on mobile, you’re watching a few bouts [of around five minutes each] and it’s done.”

Reach, frequency, engagement

But finding a niche in a world saturated with different types of entertainment content was the real kicker.

“As long as you can scale content, you can grow,” he said. “If you look at all the [existing] sports properties in the world – EPL [English Premier League soccer], NBA [the US National Basketball Association]. NFL [the US National Football League] is the biggest at around US$90 billion – but these are all Western. When you look at all the metrics […] why doesn’t Asia have an equivalent?”

While certain sports promotions have proved immensely popular in individual countries – such as Indian Premier League cricket and Japan’s soccer J-League – there has been no pan-Asia league with mass appeal, Teh said.

“Until we came along, there was not a sports media product [in Asia] that could operate on a multi-country basis […] And I think the reason is there’s no sport apart from martial arts that can cover every single country in the region.”

One Championship analyzes growth along three self-applied parameters. First is reach, or how many pairs of eyes are watching its content. Second is the frequency with which viewers watch its events, and for how long. Finally, there’s engagement – the level to which viewers are talking about its events before, during, and after they happen, and what they share on social media.

Taking all these metrics into account, Teh said that the platform is growing healthily. “This year, we peaked at 43 million [live viewers] for our Tokyo event in March. The Superbowl does about 100 million views once a year,” he said, returning to NFL as a comparison. “We want to get 100 million every single event – and right now we’re on that trajectory.”

First-mover advantage

The enduring popularity of martial arts has enabled One Championship to rapidly capture a wide, cross-border audience for its content. Niche digital insurance products, as offered by Singapore-based Axinan, are somewhat more low-key.

This has obviously required a slightly different approach to growth. But Teh’s co-panelist and Axinan CEO Wei Zhu said during the discussion onstage that his startup has also benefited from the first-mover advantage that helped One Championship get ahead.

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