Ustream Forges Joint Venture With South Korea’s KT Corp., Raises $10 Million

Live video streaming service Ustream continues to expand its presence in Asia with the help of major telecom corporations.

Today, the company is announcing that it’s teaming KT Corporation, a leading telecommunications provider in South Korea, to launch Ustream Korea. Ustream will be launching its new Korean portal in January 2012, with a new office opening in Seoul that month as well. The joint venture includes a new $10 million funding round for Ustream, which brings the company’s total funding to $98.7 million.

The bulk of that funding comes from Japanese telecom provider Softbank, which forged a deep relationship with the company in February 2010 and has invested 75 million.

Ustream says that since Ustream Asia launched 17 months ago, the portal has seen its video views grow by 307%, with the number of unique visitors growing 266%. Here’s the roster of brands using the Ustream Asia service so far, from the company’s press release:

Toyota, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Nintendo, NHK World, NIKKEI, Coca Cola Japan, MTV Networks Japan, Yahoo! Japan, and more.