Boutique digital-first studio Amuse Animation has opened an office in China, to be headed by distribution, co-production and licensing executive Entin Liu. The move follows the company’s recent appointment of Jiella Esmat as Chief Revenue Officer, based in London, to oversee the growth of the company’s 360 content development worldwide.
“China is an instrumental part of our expansion plan as we prepare to scale the company outside of YouTube and move into full 360 IP exploitation,” commented Esmat. “We’re building on our existing success in this uniquely dynamic market and are looking forward to brokering co-productions and long-term animation alliances between our partners in the East and the West.”
As Head of APAC reporting to Esmat, Liu will be responsible for managing local distribution and co-production relationships, and developing consumer product opportunities throughout the region.
“I am delighted to become the latest member of Amuse Animation’s growing team, and to be part of such a forward-thinking studio,” said Liu . “Having a presence in the region will help bring more opportunities to the company while continuing to deliver a steady stream of great preschool content to our partners and future clients.”
Prior to joining Amuse, Liu distributed content regionally for Fifth Season, Nickelodeon/Viacom, Regency and Paramount; facilitated co-productions for Fox, Insight TV and Tencent; and managed licensing for Aniplex (Demon Slayer), DeAPlaneta Kids & Family (Milo) — formerly Planeta Junior — and ADK (Yu-Gi-Oh!). She also worked as Director, International Distribution and Licensing at the Fox Networks Group.
Amuse Animation has a number of long-term successful partnerships in the region, including in China, where it was awarded Best Cooperation Partner and Best Content Creators at the Tencent Video Digital Content Creators Summit in 2021. The new office in China is intended to build on these mutual relationships throughout the entire APAC region and will serve as an extension of the company’s existing business activities in Paris, Gran Canaria and London.
In October 2022, Esmat, former Senior Director of Distribution and Content Partnerships for Moonbug, joined the company as Chief Revenue Officer. Based in London, Esmat’s remit is to drive the group’s core business streams focusing on the 360 exploitation of digital-first preschool properties, as well as to develop co-production partnerships and 2D/3D animation production servicing for third parties looking to combine premium animation with Amuse’s efficient and cost-effective, digital-first production workflow.
Amuse Animation’s other regional offices are based in France and the Canaries:
- Amuse Studios & Amuse Apps based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the heart of the company’s production activity, is a service studio as well as an original content creator. The group’s creative and production hub specializes in 2D & 3D animated content, entertaining and educational preschool series, audio content, and gaming apps. Their location in Las Palmas provides access to unique financial incentives offered by the Canary Islands (up to 54% for international productions) making it an ideal partner for production service work.
- Amuse Animation Paris was where the company’s original preschool animated properties were developed, starting in 2016 when it launched its first series on YouTube. Today development is carried out at Amuse Studios in the Canaries, while the Paris team manages distribution, co-productions and L&M for the group.
Founded in 2014 by Arthur Lener, Amuse Animation focuses on incubating and distributing original IPs created by the studio or in partnership with toy/content creators, and providing third party 2D & 3D animation service work. The company has created and launched 30-plus self-funded preschool properties on YouTube since 2016 and has provided studio services for global hit series such as Molang, Louis and Tulipop. Its catalog of original productions comprises 4,900 episodes in 25+ languages. The studio is currently in production on Hasbro eOne’s first ever digital-led preschool animated series, and in development on three premium series based on the Amuse’s top performing digital IPs.
