CyberAgent Ventures invests in Taiwan’s FashionGuide, a beauty and cosmetics social network

Japanese investment firm CyberAgent Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in FashionGuide, a fashion social network from Taiwan, reported TheNextWeb this week.

Launched in 1997, FashionGuide enables users to post their own reviews of cosmetics products, which turns the website into a top destination in the country for crowdsourced reviews in its category.

Catherine Chang, investment manager at CyberAgent Ventures Taiwan, said that the site sees “millions” of unique visits each month. Alexa’s web ranking puts it as the country’s 125th most popular site.

FashionGuide will use the funds to launch and support a range of new women’s lifestyle services, which includes a Pinterest-like product that was unveiled last year. It is also building mobile apps for its users.

“There’s a complete void for this type of product in the market now, and especially with the aggressive entry into Taiwan market by Taobao late last year, the demand for [e-commerce] related services should become increasingly apparent,” Chang said in the TNW article.

“We are interested in services that enhance and add value to the existing online shopping experience for users, often those will involve some sort of social layer. Social media is also where one of our core competencies lies in terms of our own group businesses and providing this type of know-how is where we believe as a financial backer we can offer valuable resources.”

This latest investment is CyberAgent Venture’s fourth in the country. After opening an office in Taiwan, the firm funded dating site i-Part, restaurant review service iPeen, and social cooking network iCook. It has also invested in startups from China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

Check out our coverage of CyberAgent Ventures’ activities in the region.