Japan's Rakuten acquires VC-backed video site Viki
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has acquired Viki, a VC-backed global video streaming platform.The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Viki is a video site that brings primetime TV shows, movies, music videos and other content to new audiences abroad while opening up new markets to content providers.
The company has offices in Singapore, Seoul and San Francisco. According to AVCJ research, Viki raised a $4.3 million Series A round in 2010 from a number of VC investors including: Neoteny Labs, Charles River Ventures, The Raine Group, Omidyar Network, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Embarcadero Ventures. Viki then went on to raise a $20 million Series B round in late 2011 from SK Planet plus existing investors Neoteny Labs, Greylock, Charles River and Andreessen Horowitz.
By using its social TV and subtitling intellectual property, the website claims its community of viewers has crowd sourced subtitles in more than 160 languages and translated more than 400 million words to date.
"Viki is a one-of-kind company with an entirely unique approach to video streaming that is truly global and truly engaging," said Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten chairman and CEO, in a statement.
"They are fast, agile, and highly mobile. Their smart and creative approach to bringing popular content to global audiences will enable Rakuten to move quickly into new markets around the world."
Rakuten plans to leverage Viki's global footprint, content and language analytics to further expand the scope of its $16 billion internet services ecosystem. Viki, which makes its main revenue from selling advertising against its video content, is looking to leverage Rakuten's 85 million registered users in Japan and its digital commerce and media experience to grow its user base in Japan and Europe.
The deal is part of Rakuten's on-going efforts to broaden it digital content offerings, and launch its internet services into new markets through inorganic expansion. Last year the company acquired Kobo, one of the world's fastest-growing e-reader services; that same year it also aquired Wuaki.tv, a European video-on-demand service.
Last week Rakuten led a $23 million financing round for the Silicon Valley-based start-up behind online shopping app Slice. Russia Partners, a unit of New York PE firm Siguler Guff & Co, and NPD Group also joined the round along with existing investors DCM, Innovation Endeavors and Lightspeed Ventures.
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