COVER announced that it will be opening its inaugural overseas branch COVER USA in North America. The main objective for opening their first location outside of Japan is aimed at localization efforts to facilitate global expansion.
I wonder if it’s partly so that they can have a studio in the US. My understanding is that EN talents have to go to Japan if they want to use the 3D equipment, so it would make sense from a business perspective to have a working studio in the US. Lowers the travel expenses that I’m betting Cover had to reimburse every time an EN talent flies to Japan for a studio trip
I think someone mentioned before that Cover only covers travel expenses for certain events, like fes but if they want to go to the studio for their own 3D live or something then the talent has to pay for it
Right, though I think 3D birthday lives and group anniversaries are covered.
I wonder what will actually change in terms of logistics and bureaucracy - is it just gonna be “now there’s a physically-closer location for special collabs and stuff, but JP Cover still calls all the shots” or are they going to re-base EN talents to be managed by Cover USA (possibly with differences in management style etc)?
That will be an interesting puzzle as some EN talents physically live in Japan, so it would be weird for a USA office to manage them. Though I guess they’re already used to doing it remotely
This is a big step, hope nothing changes for the worse.
…I’d also hope this translates to cheaper product prices, but if it happens it’s still probably going to be Americas-only. Pain Euro.
They have a related investor relations presentation here [PDF] (this is the official link from their IR website).
The parts most relevant to the announcement (and less general-IR stuff) start on page 40. Some highlights for Cover USA’s role:
- “prompt and independent decisions” with direct communication between them and JP Cover
- local event planning
- local merchandise sales
“Independent decisions” seems kinda dangerous after the whole NijiEN shitshow… hope they choose the staff well and regularly check that everything’s fine.
I think starting with already well-established EN talents (and thus expectations about norms etc) would help here.
If they do get new management and the talents think that new management ends up doing something completely nuts, they’ll probably be willing to speak up about it and then even contact JP Cover about it if they felt it was that bad and not being satisfactorily addressed.
Dare I hope that Europe is finally getting cheaper merchandise shipping thanks to this? The prices for shipping from Japan are just obscene.
Afaik shipping from the US isn’t much cheaper, unfortunately.
The presentation roadmap at page 46 does mention Europe for 2025 though, so maybe there’s some hope to be had.
They acknowledged that Europe exists? Win in my book already.
Excited to see what possibilities this opens up!
