Vividthree: Forging the Future of Digital Entertainment

Date: March 9, 2022

vividthree - ceo

Mirroring American inventor and artist Paul Budnitz’s pithy observation, “Everything beautiful that we create in life requires a leap of faith”, entrepreneur Charles Yeo founded SGX-listed Vividthree Holdings Ltd nearly two decades ago on a combination of hope, trust and passion.

“In those early years, it was all about making ends meet and surviving with whatever limited choices we had at the time,” Yeo recalled.

“Like myself, my co-founders Sky Li and Jay Hong came from humble backgrounds. We thought of starting our own business together, and since we had a passion for digital entertainment, we took a leap of faith and established Vividthree.”

And it was this unshakeable, shared faith that laid the foundation for Vividthree’s 19-year journey, where it evolved from a small multimedia production company into an established digital content producer today.

“At the end of the day, you must believe, believe, believe, because ultimately, thoughts become things!” Yeo pointed out. “Believing is a process of internalisation. If you believe in what you do and enjoy what you do, things will fall into place, and you will get to where you are meant to go.”

Yeo, who is also Vividthree’s Managing Director, graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with an Associate Diploma in Multimedia (Distinction) in 2000. He went on to obtain his Master of Business Administration from Murdoch University in 2017.

Headquartered in Singapore with subsidiaries in Malaysia and China, Vividthree specialises in visual effects (VFX), animation and virtual reality (VR) for content creation and services across the Digital Entertainment and Out-of-Home Entertainment sectors, as well as collaborations in Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions (MICE) projects.

Today, the Group is renowned for its position as Singapore’s leading 3D animation and VFX studio with a multi-award-winning track record.

In 2017, Vividthree expanded into the immersive media space with VR and augmented reality (AR) capabilities. The Vividthree brand of excellence can be found in many popular works, including Singapore’s box-office breaking trilogy Ah Boys to Men, SG50 Future of Us Exhibition, NS50 Home Team parade and Train to Busan VR Tour show.

The Group has also secured the exclusive rights to develop a VR tour show for Peninsula, the sequel to the 2016 Korean box office hit Train to Busan, as well as intellectual property (IP) rights to the highly popular web comic, Silent Horror, which has amassed more than 100 million views since February 2015.

A subsidiary of Mainboard-listed film, television and online content producer mm2 Asia Ltd, Vividthree made its trading debut on SGX Catalist in September 2018.

Continuous Evolution

Yeo credits Vividthree’s success today to the Group’s ethos of evolving by embracing and leveraging new technologies. “Technology is one element that we cannot avoid or neglect,” he pointed out.

“Vividthree was able to make the switch to digital entertainment and focus on IPs. Content is always king, and digital content production has much higher margins than if we were just carrying out contract work for customers.”

Despite challenges brought to bear on the industry by COVID-19, there are many lessons to be learnt.

“The pandemic emphasised the importance of digital technologies – in the ways we conduct our business as well as for our clients – and highlighted the need to have an Online-to-Offline presence, to reach a wider audience,” Yeo noted.

“As a result, we have expanded our business focus to include more digital content and entertainment, such as digital content IPs, and changed our modes of delivery, an example of which is ComicVid,” he added, referring to the Group’s Over-The-Top (OTT) comic video platform that allows users to read comics as well as watch them in videos.

Vividthree has also ventured into blockchain-related technologies, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies. In December 2021, the Group developed digital collectibles of the characters of its Silent Horror web comic for sale to NFT collectors and comic fans.

In January 2022, it deepened its push into NFT gaming with an investment in Singapore-based GammaR, a platform that helps NFT game developers bring their innovations to market.

Limitless Opportunities

Sales of NFTs – ranging from cartoon apes to digital art and video clips – reached some US$25 billion in 2021 as the crypto asset boomed in popularity, data from market tracker DappRadar showed.

“As part of our long-term strategy to beef up our library of IPs, Vividthree has been exploring opportunities in the fast-growing gaming sector to boost revenue streams,” Yeo said.

The Group’s infrastructure and expertise in content production, IP management, and ability to scale concepts into reality through MICE activities, are key drivers that enable it to leverage on rapid growth of the global gaming industry in general, and surging interest in NFT and blockchain games in particular, he added.

Blockchain games have also enjoyed an explosion in demand, partly due to the ongoing pandemic. According to data compiled by Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA), NFT games generated US$2.32 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2021, accounting for an estimated 22% of all NFT trading volumes industry-wide during the period, as blockchain games gathered steam.

“We want to tap into the limitless opportunities offered by blockchain to accelerate our expansion plans,” Yeo said.

“Our focus is to develop as a content production company, with added layers of blockchain gaming and crypto mining that would generate new revenue streams for us – this is an ongoing transformation journey,” he added.

While growth opportunities abound, the Group continues to grapple with the challenges of attracting and retaining talent for its creative production processes, as well as securing strong IPs.

Together with the repercussions of COVID-19 on the broader industry, which includes shrinking advertising and production budgets, there’s much to keep the 44-year-old occupied till the wee hours.

“But that’s also because I spend a lot of time reflecting on the decisions that I’ve made or the plans that were implemented,” Yeo admitted with a laugh. “I’m a person who always feels that things could have been done better, or thinks of how we can do things better moving forward.”

The father of two boys and a girl, aged seven to 14, always reminds his children to “just do it”.

“Go ahead and try, even if you don’t think you are good at it. Pursue your dreams and dare to take that leap of faith in whatever you believe in,” he added. “Life is too short to be afraid of failure.”

Vividthree Holdings Ltd

Headquartered in Singapore with subsidiaries in Malaysia and China, Vividthree specialises in Visual Effects (VFX), animation and Virtual Reality (VR) for content creation and services across the Digital Entertainment and Out-of-Home Entertainment sectors, as well as collaborations in Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions (MICE) projects. Since its establishment in 2006, Vividthree has secured its position as Singapore’s leading 3D animation and VFX studio with its multi-award-winning track record. In 2017, the Company expanded into the immersive media space with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) capabilities.

The company website is: www.vividthreeholdings.com

Click here for the company’s StockFacts page.

For the half year ended 30 September 2021 financial results, click here.

 

First published on SGX website on 4 March 2022

About kopi-C: the Company brew

Text: Jennifer Tan-Stanisic
Photo: Company file

kopi-C is a regular column on the SGX Research website that features C-level executives of leading companies listed on Singapore Exchange. These interviews are profiles of senior management aimed at helping investors better understand the individuals who run these corporations.

For previous editions of kopi-C: the Company brew, please click here.

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