So Media Group

What So Media Group does

So Media Group is a privately held Perth, Australia-based operator of niche digital media and marketing services, founded by Adam Barrell. The company runs a portfolio of four owned publications — So Perth (local events and city life), So Binge (entertainment), So Where Next (Australian travel), and Startup News (Australian startup ecosystem) — that monetize advertising, sponsored content, and email sponsorships against first-party audiences captured via owned social channels and chatbot funnels.

The company operates a dual business model. On the media side, it publishes content distributed through social channels and email and sells direct advertising and sponsored placements to local and national advertisers. On the services side, the company designs, deploys, and manages chatbot marketing experiences for external clients, applying internal expertise built on the ManyChat platform; this capability was originally developed for the company's own audience capture and was commercialized as a paid agency offering. The company has executed two acquisitions — Carma The Social Chameleon (September 2021) and AmpersandMC (July 2022) — to bring social media expertise and broader marketing-services capability in-house.

Monetization spans direct advertising inventory on the four owned publications, sponsored and branded content placements, email-campaign sponsorships, and external chatbot-marketing retainers. Customer segments appear skewed to Perth-area SMB advertisers and Australian brands seeking chatbot-marketing execution. Publicly displayed audience and reach metrics on the company's own properties report very small figures (1K social audience, 1K email subscribers, 0M impressions and views), which is inconsistent with broader reach claims and limits confidence in scale assumptions. Headcount is reported at 1–10 employees; the company has no disclosed funding rounds or revenue figures.

Name

So Media Group

Legal name

So Media Group

Website

https://somediagroup.com.au

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

So Media Group is a Perth-based private operator of four niche Australian digital publications (So Perth, So Binge, So Where Next, Startup News) and a ManyChat-based chatbot marketing agency, serving local and Australian SMB advertisers and brands.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Perth

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Others

Revenue model

1. Advertising and Sponsored Content: Revenue generated from brand advertisers seeking to reach the company's engaged audience through sponsored articles, social media campaigns, and native content placements across So Perth, So Binge, So Where Next, and Startup News platforms
2. Chatbot Services: Building and managing custom chatbot solutions for clients across Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms, including competition bots, coupon systems, and email capture tools
3. Email Campaigns: Email marketing campaign services sold to advertisers targeting the company's subscriber database

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

No source content was provided in the input between the 'Information starts here' and 'Information ends here' markers, so a detailed description of the core offering cannot be grounded in evidence.

Product overview

So Media Group operates as a multi-platform digital media publisher offering a network of niche publications spanning news, lifestyle, travel, entertainment, and startup coverage. The core portfolio includes four flagship products: So Perth (Perth news and lifestyle), So Where Next (national travel), So Binge (entertainment streaming), and Startup News (WA startup coverage). Supporting the publication network is a chatbot marketing platform that enables first-party data capture, social competition automation, and digital coupon distribution across social media, websites, and email channels. The group has expanded through acquisitions including AmpersandMC (marketing agency) and Carma The Social Chameleon (social media agency).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• So Perth: Perth's essential news and lifestyle destination covering breaking headlines, food, drink, and events.
• So Binge
• So Where Next
• Startup News

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 20,000 emails captured with customer insights

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• ManyChatcoreTechnology or IntegrationManyChat is identified as the platform partner for chatbot development and deployment. So Media Group uses ManyChat to build chatbots for clients across Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms. The partnership page shows ManyChat branding and the company is listed as an agency partner.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• ManyChat: Leading chatbot platform infrastructure provider and So Media Group's core technology partner; comparable as the underlying technology enabler for So Media Group's chatbot services offering.

Direct peers

• Pedestrian Group: Australian youth-focused digital media publisher operating multiple vertical brands (Pedestrian.TV, Business Insider Australia partnership); directly comparable niche-vertical digital publishing model targeting engaged Australian audiences.
• The Urban List: Australian city-based digital lifestyle publisher monetizing through advertising and content; comparable as a niche-vertical media brand with engaged audiences and direct advertiser sales.
• Mamamia: Australia's largest independent women's digital media publisher with multi-vertical content and advertising-led revenue; directly comparable to So Media Group as a multi-brand Australian digital publisher monetizing through advertising and sponsored content.
• Broadsheet: Australian digital publisher covering food, travel, design, and lifestyle across multiple cities; directly comparable niche-vertical lifestyle media model monetizing through branded content and advertising.
• Man of Many: Australian men's lifestyle digital publisher covering culture, style, and tech; comparable as an independent Australian niche-vertical digital media brand monetizing through display and sponsored content.
• Concrete Playground: Australian digital publisher focused on what's on across dining, travel, and culture in major cities; closely comparable to So Where Next as a travel/lifestyle vertical publisher serving advertisers.
• Junkee Media: Australian independent digital publisher focused on youth culture, music, and entertainment; directly comparable as a niche vertical digital media brand targeting advertising revenue.

Broad incumbents

• News Corp Australia: Major Australian media conglomerate operating digital news, lifestyle, and travel verticals; comparable as a broad incumbent publisher competing for national advertising spend across overlapping verticals.
• Nine Entertainment: Australia's largest media company operating across publishing, broadcasting, and digital; comparable as a broad Australian media incumbent with overlapping digital advertising inventory competing for the same advertiser budgets.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/somedia_group

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A2 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about So Media Group