Asia Innovations Group signs strategic partnership with Korea Model Association
ASIA Innovations Group (AIG) and the Korea Model Association (KMA) signed a strategic partnership on Friday, 5 January 2018, to achieve mutual growth goals of the two companies. With the partnership, both companies affirmed their cooperation to promote business exchanges and joint projects.
The ceremony was attended by representatives of AIG, including Group CEO Andy Tian and AIG Korea General Manager Ki-Eun Cho. They were joined by KMA Chairman, Eui-Sik Yang, as well as KMA Directors Dae-woong Na and Sun Jin Lee, Education Committee members, Hyo-Jin Kim and Eun Seon Kim, and Attorney, Jin-young Lee.
The partnership is designed to enable the KMA to further leverage on the growth of the Korean beauty industry, which has seen a boom in concurrence with the rise of the Korean Wave and K-Pop content globally. This will be done in the form of having KMA’s models enter the mobile content creation scene, to serve as direct ambassadors through their online streaming channels.
Accordingly, AIG will provide its financial, technical, human, and business networks to help globalize and monetize the content business conducted by the KMA, including its flagship event, the Asia Model Festival. Annually, KMA hosts on average of 10–13 offline events in various entertainment areas, including modeling, beauty, fashion, bodybuilding, racing-car modeling, and more, where over 3,000 young talents compete to become the next big star. The KMA plans to expand its contents and talents business into mobile entertainment services and digital content business in collaboration with AIG’s interactive mobile entertainment platform, Uplive, as well as its universal virtual gifting protocol, GIFTOGifto with these new talents.
Mr. Andy Tian, CEO and Co-Founder of AIG, said: “We are looking forward to the mutual growth of the two companies by participating in various on-line and off-line events through this partnership. We expect Uplive and GIFTOifto to have a ground-breaking role in the global content platform industry, and support KMA’s mission with our global technology and media platforms. “
The Asia Model Festival, which has been organized for the past thirteen years by the KMA, is the largest event of its kind in Asia. Attracting participants from 27 countries in the region, it is composed of three main components. These are, the ‘Face of Asia’ beauty pageant, ‘Asia Beauty Festival’ fashion show and the ‘Asia Model Awards’, an awards ceremony that recognizes the best in the business across Asia.
As part of the partnership, AIG will collaborate with the KMA to create and develop innovative digital content for its models.
Over 90 models and influencers from the ‘Face of Asia’ beauty pageant will have their own live-streaming channel on the Uplive app, giving them access to the platform’s now global 25 million users, allowing them to further widen their fan base and popularity. The models will also be able to utilize Uplive’s GIFTO protocol to create and receive customized virtual gifts on their own existing social media channels on Facebook and Instagram. Together, the models and influencers involved in Asia Model Festival have an aggregate reach of over 100 mln fans and viewers across Asia.
Ms Sun-Jin Lee, Director of the Korea Model Association and a former contestant on ‘Face of Asia’, said: “We are delighted to be embarking on our strategic partnership with the Asia Innovations Group,” adding that, “ this is an exciting opportunity for our current and aspiring models to move into the digital space as it incentivizes them to create fun and exciting online which will help them build their own personal brands to engage and grow their fan base.”

