Gushcloud International: Building Talents and Brands That The World Loves

Despite the impact of the pandemic, the influencer economy is thriving today. According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, from $9.7 billion in 2020, the market is projected to grow to $16.4 billion this year. In 2020, there was a huge shift in consumer and audience behavior. With lockdowns, social media became an essential tool for businesses, work, entertainment while new media formats and platforms emerged and dominated the industry. With this expedited global digitalization and the advent of Web3, the growth and potential of Gushcloud Talent Agency (popularly known as “Gushcloud International” or just “Gushcloud”) have never been more relevant.

Technology-driven digital media and entertainment global brand, Gushcloud is one of the biggest names in influencer marketing today, headquartered in Singapore. It is one of the pioneers in the influencer marketing industry and the creator economy. “At Gushcloud, we are always trying to push boundaries, partner up with players in the adjacent industries to build more sustainable revenue and income streams for digital talents, influencers, and content creators,” said Althea Lim, Gushcloud’s Group CEO and Co-Founder.

Gushcloud has in-house expertise to successfully develop and manage digital influencer marketing campaigns. It helps brands strategize and launch influencer marketing campaigns. The company’s services are designed to help influencers increase revenue through sponsorship opportunities as well as to further develop their digital properties (IPs, Brands) and fan base.

The Gushcloud Story

Gushcloud co-founders Vincent Ha and Althea Lim started out in the advertising, events and marketing industry. Vincent was the financial brain and Althea was the marketing power. As a team, they were quick to identify that there was a growing demand for brands to directly reach out to young people who were popular on social media platforms to do “word-of-mouth” marketing for them. Hence, they launched Gushcloud in 2011 and started their business as an influencer technology marketplace, GushAd. It hosted rewards programs where companies could reach out to participants or influencers, called Gushers, and then mobilize them via incentives. Gushers would receive rewards and money as they perform tasks such as tweeting, blogging, sharing, or downloading.  

However, by the end of 2012, the company was running out of money and was left with less than 90 days of cash flow. While the technology was working, product and market fit seemed to be dwindling in America because the market timing wasn’t right for influencer marketing. Hence, the co-founders flew back to Singapore and pivoted to becoming the first influencer agency in Singapore and Southeast Asia, where Gushcloud started signing key influencers (bloggers then) to be managed and represented by the company.

Althea adds, “At Gushcloud, we care deeply about our talent (influencers and content creators). We believe that they will be at the forefront of driving influence, entertainment and even politics. With that, they will effectively and strategically impact culture and the ways of the world. Hence, the company’s collective motto is ‘Creating Tomorrow’s Positive Influence’ via our mission of ‘creating sustainable careers in the creator economy.”

Today, Gushcloud’s network consists of over 120,000 of the largest influencers worldwide. The company is creating a global ecosystem that includes talent management, representation, licensing, sponsorship opportunities, IP building, fintech solutions, Web 3.0 solutions driven by metaverse communities, online to offline solutions and vice versa, live and social commerce solutions that will help drive more sustainable revenue streams and growth to the creator economy.

Growth in the U.S. and Future

Gushcloud’s initial foray and growth in the U.S. was primarily precipitated by the company’s partnership with media mogul and Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, whose key networks and goodwill in Hollywood paved the way to make good headway with talent, artists, and brands to explore and foster critical relationships in the North American market.

Despite being an organization that is actually Asian in origin, Gushcloud has established its presence in the U.S. and is continually looking to deepen its roots here. By doing this, Gushcloud has crystalized its aspiration of being a bridge between East and West.

The company is currently working with and representing, among others, supermodel Naomi Campbell, NBA star Kyle Kuzma in China, the majority of the cast of Netflix’s Bling Empire, and hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg in the Asia-Pacific Region. “In the next 5-10 years, Gushcloud will continue our expansion into Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, Latin America, India, and the Middle East,” revealed Althea Lim.

With an eye on the future, Gushcloud is now also in the process of enhancing its IP and brand production capabilities so that it can best support the company’s global creator ecosystem.

Meet the Leaders

Althea Lim, Gushcloud Group CEO & Co-Founder

Althea Lim started operating within the media and influencer space as early as 2010. She later on co-founded Gushcloud International with business partner Vincent Ha.

In 2015, Gushcloud was acquired by Yello Digital Marketing Group but with Althea’s and Vincent’s vision of pushing Gushcloud to greater heights; they later on bought back their stake from Yello in 2018. By late 2019, under Althea’s leadership as Group CEO, Gushcloud has become a global digital creator and media company focused on influencer marketing, commerce and entertainment with the largest coverage in Asia Pacific. Today, the company is based in 11 countries and has close to 300 full time staff. With Althea’s exceptional contribution to the entertainment and influencer marketing industry in APAC, she was chosen among the personalities featured in the 1st Encyclopedia Edition of “Most Successful People in Singapore” by Britishpedia Media Group. She was also included in the 2021 Tatler’s “Asia’s Most Influential: Singapore” list and was conferred the Outstanding Leadership Award at the Marketing 2.0 Conference in Dubai in 2022. With Althea at the helm, the management team continues to build Gushcloud as the definitive bridge between east and west while building sustainable careers in the creator economy.

“Gushcloud has in-house expertise to successfully develop and manage digital influencer marketing campaigns.”