Taiwanese start-up 17 Media (17 直播), a photo-sharing and live streaming app that has more than 15 million users worldwide, yesterday said it had sold an unspecified controlling stake to Singapore-based dating app operator Paktor Group (拍拖) to expand its presence in Asia.
The investment marked the second cash injection into 17 Media this year, after the firm in May received 150 million yuan (US$21.8 million) from China’s LeTV Sports Culture Develop Venture Capital (樂視體育創投).
“The agreement with Paktor enables 17 Media to gain access to a platform with a large and growing consumer base within the Singapore-based company,” 17 Media founder Jeff Huang (黃立成) said in a joint news statement.
Paktor chief executive officer Joseph Phua (潘杰賢) said the investment represents a milestone for Paktor to tap into the growing social entertainment industry by collaborating with 17 Media’s live streaming service.
The transaction was completed on Nov. 1 and the company received a “substantial cash injection” from Paktor, the Taiwanese firm’s public relationships official Jessie Wu (吳承禧) said by telephone yesterday, declining to disclose the amount.
Under the agreement, Phua has taken on the role of chief executive officer at 17 Media, while Huang remains its chairman, Wu said.
Wu said Paktor is to help 17 Media promote its brand in Paktor’s Southeast Asian markets, such as Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
The cash injection will enrich the company’s content production, help seek strategic partnerships and expand the number of engineers in Taiwan, she added.
Huang, best known as the founder of hip-hop groups LA Boyz and Machi, established MachiPoPo Inc (麻吉波波), parent of 17 Media, in June last year with an operational fund of NT$150 million, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
The company’s mobile application allows users to live stream videos and interact with other users. Users can receive as much as US$100 in 17 Media shares if audience numbers reach a certain target while live streaming.
The app received a positive market response when it was launched in June last year.
It was temporarily removed from both iOS and Android app stores in September last year, as many users reportedly streamed inappropriate content to attract viewers.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
RSS