UUUM, Japan's biggest YouTuber agency, lost 90% of its market value and was taken private

UUUM, Japan's largest influencer agency, was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth market on February 17, 2025, after a tender offer by FreeKout Holdings made it a wholly owned subsidiary. At the peak of the YouTube boom the company had been worth more than ¥100 billion; by delisting its market value had shrunk to roughly a tenth of that.

UUUM listed in August 2017, riding a boom its own roster had helped create: revenue grew from ¥160 million in FY2014 to nearly ¥7 billion by FY2017, three consecutive years of triple-digit growth. Its flagship creators were the era's biggest Japanese YouTubers — Hikakin (whose channel HikakinTV opened in July 2011), Hajimesyachou and Tokai On Air — and the market briefly valued the company above ¥100 billion.

The decline was structural. From 2020 a wave of popular creators left, many complaining that UUUM's 20% commission was too high. YouTube advertising, nearly 60% of revenue, stagnated after FY2020, and when short video arrived in Japan in 2021, ad rates fell to a tenth or less of what long-form earned. FY2022 ended with an operating loss of nearly ¥200 million; in FY2023 a write-down of nearly ¥700 million on the inventory of its rushed P2C (personal-to-consumer) brand business pushed the net loss above ¥1 billion.

FreeKout Holdings, an internet advertising company, launched its tender offer in 2023 and UUUM left the stock market in February 2025. After delisting it retreated from parts of the P2C business, scaled down its game and live-streaming units and reorganized around influencer marketing — betting the same model, under a parent, on better execution.