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Singapore

About Us

About The Smart Local:

TheSmartLocal is an independent media publisher that locals trust for hyper-local information on what to do in and out of their country. We share this through the 4 biggest digital platforms in Singapore – our website, YouTube channel, Facebook page and Instagram. Our website is one part editorial based and one part community based where members can upload their own reviews and have their say about everything Singapore.

We create high-quality hyperlocal content for our viewers, which in turn attracts advertisers who like our brand safe and positive image. We provide a one-stop service to clients. We help ideate and conceptualise campaigns, create content assets through editorial and video, and then distribute these to the relevant channels in our ecosystem. Other services include white label content work, social media management and ad optimisation services

Today, TheSmartLocal reaches over 3 million Singaporeans each month, and our group collectively hits over 15 million pageviews monthly. Businesses looking to work with us can check out our advertising services provided. Apart from TSL, we’ve also grown sister brands under our group with their own specialised target audiences and media kits. As of 2020, all our media publishing brands are profitable.

Investor Relations:

We have created more than 14 different revenue streams – including revenue in overseas markets and from E-commerce. We are open to listening to any investment/acquisition opportunities, and have shared our investor deck with big name global and local players who have sought us out. If the right offer comes along, we’ll be interested to discuss terms. If you are an investor, feel free to get in touch with me directly here.

Corporate Partnerships

TSL also regularly helps companies by conducting workshops on social media/content creation and we do speaking engagements such like the below at events.

Key Stats:

Reach:

  • Monthly Website views: 1.1 Million Unique Visitors, 3.5 million hits
  • Monthly Facebook Reach: 8 million+
  • Facebook Followers: 462,000+
  • YouTube Subscribers: 276,000+
  • Instagram Followers: 146,000+


running a Facebook livestream

Services:

  • Campaign Conceptualisation
  • Editorial Coverage
  • Photography Asset Creation
  • Video Production and Marketing – YouTube/Facebook
  • Event Organisation – Live Activations
  • Talents & Hosting
  • Digital Media Consultation
  • Custom Publishing
  • KOL Marketing
  • Full Post Coverage Analytic Reports
  • Telegram distribution
  • Social media management
  • E-commerce
  • Regional marketing

Timeline & Milestones:

  • Aug, 2012 – TheSmartLocal.com is founded from Bryan’s bedroom.
  • Jan, 2013 – TheSmartLocal.com hits 100,000 unique visitors a month
  • June, 2013 – TheSmartLocal expands to Malaysia
  • Jan, 2014 – Our YouTube channel, TheSmartLocal TV is started.
  • Sep, 2014 – We launch news site MS News.
  • Jan, 2015 – TheSmartLocal.com hits 1,000,000 unique visitors a month
  • Feb, 2015 – TheSmartLocal expands to Australia.
  • June, 2015 – We launch food site Eabook.sg
  • Dec, 2015 – TheSmartLocal Facebook hits a record 10 million reach a week.
  • Jan, 2016 – TheSmartLocal hits 1 million YouTube views a month
  • Dec, 2016 – We launch female site ZULA.sg
  • Jan, 2017 – TheSmartLocal hits 4 million pageviews a month
  • Jan, 2017 – TheSmartLocal hits 2.5 million YouTube views a month
  • Feb, 2018 – We run our first event, GlowBeat x SCAPE
  • July, 2018 – Launch of InsightsRN, our data analytics arm.
  • Sep, 2018 – “The $100 Nomad” is produced for Mediacorp. It is shown on national TV and on regional networks.
  • Nov, 2018 – We win Media Brand of the Year at the Mumbrella Asia Awards, beating companies like VICE, CBNC and SCMP.
  • Jan, 2019 – Leasing of our SaSS solution TSLoffice.com as a project/HR management system
  • May, 2019 – We create a Telegram network and grow it from 0 to 300,000 followers across 11 channels.
  • July. 2019 – We launch across South East Asia in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
  • June, 2020 – We launch two E-commerce brands that become profitable in the first month

Our Story


At our office in Thailand

TheSmartLocal was founded by Bryan Choo, an entrepreneur with a passion for travel, food, writing and film making. It was may seem like a mixed bag of skills, but fortunately, he was able to apply all these into the creation of TSL.

He enjoyed using sites like TripAdvisor but found out the reviews were all written by foreigners and thus, there was an opportunity for a more local voice. He felt it was locals who knew their country the best, but there was no publication that provided such a voice. In fact in that era, many people were saying Singapore was boring – which annoyed him greatly. Hence TheSmartLocal was created, to build a hyper-local resource from the inside-out that locals and tourists could use.

TheSmartLocal has since grown from a small blog into one of the most influential online media publishers in Singapore. We were fortunate to be joined by some very young and talented individuals, who have helped us get to where we are today. You can watch our #lifeattsl videos on YouTube to get more insight into our company culture.

Our Early Press Coverage

As Featured On: Yahoo, TechinAsia, e27, tnooz, etc Singapore Reviews Malaysia Reviews

Industry Coverage

If you would like to get in touch with us, you can contact us here.