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| Type of business | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
Type of site | OTT platform |
| Available in | English |
| Founded | 2007; 18 years ago (2007) |
| Headquarters | San Mateo, California, U.S. |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Founders |
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| Products | |
| Parent | Rakuten |
| URL | www |
| Advertising | Supported |
| Registration | Optional |
| Users | 53 million (As of 2021[update])[1] |
| Launched | December 2010 (2010-12) |
Rakuten Viki is an Americanover-the-topsubscription video on-demandstreaming service. It streams videos similar to other services, but also allows users to subtitle content available in 200 languages as well as providing original programming. Headquartered inSan Mateo, California,[2] it has offices inSingapore,Tokyo, Japan, andSeoul, South Korea.[3]
The name Viki is aportmanteau of the words video andwiki, drawing on the latter's use of volunteers forcontent management.[4] The company won theCrunchie award for best international start-up company in January 2011.[5]
Viki was founded in 2007 byRazmig Hovaghimian, Changseong Ho and Jiwon Moon.[6] Funding for the company originally came from Neoteny Labs, a Singapore-basedstart-up fund headed by Joichi Ito, and from the co-founder ofLinkedIn,Reid Hoffman.[7]
The company moved to Singapore in 2008 to take advantage of government backing and thecity-state's role as apan-Asian hub.[8] In December 2010, Viki exited the beta phase of itssoftware and made its services available to the general public.[6] It was purchased by Rakuten in 2013.[4]
In September 2011, Viki debuted a newiPhoneapp called Viki On-The-Go, allowing users to watch content on theirsmartphones. The company also partnered withSamsung Southeast Asia that year to develop anAndroid app.[9][10] Viki.com drew 14 million unique views in August 2011. Viki raised $20 million fromGreylock Partners,Andreessen Horowitz, andBBC Worldwide in October of that year.[7][8][10]
In May 2012, Viki announced deals withWarner Music Group, SEED Music Group ofTaiwan, andLOEN Entertainment of South Korea, bringing thousands of music videos to the site.[11] In that same month, BBC Worldwide announced an extension of its relationship with Viki, including a deal to work with the company onadvertising.[9]
In July 2012, Viki signed a non-exclusive deal with the Chinese social networkRenren, in which Viki would provide a video site for the social network called VikiZone.[10] The deal includes only a portion of the Viki catalog and is offered for free.[12]
In the year following its acquisition byRakuten,[13] Viki went from about 22 millionmonthly active users with 10 million on mobile to 35 million monthly active users and 25 million mobile users.[14]
The company has a list of partners for sourcing original content, including BBC Worldwide. The company has also signed distribution deals for its original content with Hulu, Netflix, Yahoo!,MSN,NBC, andA&E, as well asTVB inHong Kong,SBS in South Korea,Fuji TV in Japan andAmedia in Russia.[9]
Viki streams premium licensedcontent in a similar way thatHulu does inU.S. markets.[2] The site then puts the content on one of its channels, and the content can be subtitled by community volunteers.[15] Community members can subtitle their favorite videos in their preferred languages, under aCreative Commons license using Viki's subtitling technology, enabling individuals to collaborate globally, in dozens of languages at once.[16] The subtitling software developed for the company allows many volunteers to translate a video concurrently in up to 160 languages.[2] Viki alsosyndicates its shows with fan-generated subtitles to partners such as Hulu,Netflix, andYahoo!, and receives fees andrevenue from thosedistributors.[17] Of the approximately 200 language subtitles available on the site, roughly 50 of these are vulnerable or endangered languages.[18]
Viki has more than 100 original programs, including entertainment shows, drama and mini-series.[19]
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