digital-entertainment
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A game needs a launch. It also needs someone to explain the delay.
ONE PR Studio brings publisher-side experience to the business of getting games understood. Its work lives between the reveal, the review, and the awkward update nobody wanted to send.
Tencent WeStart put a production studio inside the startup office
In Hong Kong, Tencent WeStart brought desks, recording rooms and corporate introductions under one roof. Its bet: digital entrepreneurs need somewhere to make the work, and someone who can help it travel.
DMM Quit Robots. Now It’s Putting ¥5 Billion Into a Return.
Anime, currency trading, English lessons and an aquarium already share the DMM name. Its return to robotics reveals how this Japanese conglomerate decides which failures deserve another chance.
Ivi found paying viewers on the other screen
An early bet on paid movies missed its targets. Russia’s streaming pioneer found a better audience on televisions - and is now selling subscriptions alongside its rivals.
AnotherBall Bet $30 Million That Your Next Face Will Be a Cartoon
The Tokyo startup turned a costly creator ritual into a one-minute phone trick. Now it has $30 million in cumulative backing, an anime studio and the harder job of proving that 200,000 curious sign-ups can become a lasting global economy.
DoubleDown Interactive
The Seattle-born social casino pioneer has spent 16 years selling the feeling of a casino without a cash-out. Its next wager is less visible but more consequential: own more of the checkout, broaden into Europe and make an old hit travel further.
Kharabeesh
Kharabeesh is a pan-Arab digital media company and YouTube multi-channel network that curates, produces and distributes Arabic-language content for the Middle East and North Africa. Founded in Amman, Jordan in 2005 as an animation collective known for satirical cartoons, it grew into the region's first YouTube-certified MCN, supporting a network of creators across comedy, animation, kids, social, tech, gaming, beauty and travel. The company reports roughly 138 channels, 44 million subscribers and more than 13 billion lifetime views.
HOOKED
HOOKED is a mobile entertainment company that pioneered "chat fiction" - bite-sized stories told as text-message conversations between characters, designed to be read in about five minutes. Built by husband-and-wife founders Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia under the company Telepathic Inc., the app turned suspense and horror into thumb-tapping cliffhangers and reached tens of millions of mostly teen and young-adult readers, repeatedly topping the App Store charts in dozens of countries.
Vianet Communication
Vianet Communication is one of Nepal's leading internet and TV service providers. Founded in 1999, it pioneered fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) internet in the country in 2011 and launched one of Nepal's first IPTV services in 2016. Headquartered in Lalitpur, the company serves roughly 260,000 fiber customers across 24 cities, holds about 10% national market share as the third-largest ISP, and in 2023 launched Nepal's first 2 Gbps XGS-PON multi-gig internet service.
Gregg Spiridellis
Gregg Spiridellis is an American media and technology entrepreneur who co-founded JibJab with his brother Evan in a Brooklyn garage in 1999, pioneering viral internet video before it was called that. He followed it up with StoryBots, the 11x Emmy Award-winning educational children's franchise acquired by Netflix in 2019. Now back with Spiridellis Bros. Studios, an AI-powered animation company backed by Ashton Kutcher, Tim Ferriss, and Google's AI Futures Fund, he is betting that generative AI is the biggest creative wave yet.