Dating app Paktor is leaving no stone unturned to be the leading player in the social dating industry. Among the series of developments that have been taking place, the recent one reveals its merger with the live streaming firm 17 Media.
Paktor will merge with the Taiwan-based firm to form M17 Entertainment, the leading social entertainment company in the region. It had acquired a controlling stake in 17 Media for an undisclosed amount to expand its business to social entertainment in December last year.
M17 will stand strong with a team of 200 employees and will be equipped with assets of Paktor Group as well as 17 Media. It is slated to be positioned as the largest social entertainment company in Asia, spanning 8 offices in the region. Paktor Group and 17 Media CEO, Joseph Phua will be designated as the Group CEO of the company.
In the official release, the newly-formed company claims to have grown their revenues 10-times in the last 6 months across their teams to $100 million in annualized revenue. It further mentions that with the way it plans to expand, it expects to achieve $200 million in annualized revenue by the end of 2017.
With the merger, M17, through the services in its portfolio, claims to have touched a combined user-base of 50 million. Also, it is in process of closing a funding round led by KTB China Synergy Fund. The announcement is expected to made in a few weeks.
This is the third major move in 2017 that the company has made. It had made a string of strategic acquisitions, taking over a few dating apps – American casual dating startup Down, voice-chat dating app Goodnight, and group dating app Kickoff. It had then relaunched in South Korea as Swipe and appointed a former top Jiayuan executive, Shang Hsiu- Koo, as CFO.
The group had secured $32.5 million in an oversubscribed round in October. With a total of about $53 million in its kitty, Paktor is currently the top dating platform in Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and South Korea, while 17 is the number one live streaming app in Taiwan and Hong Kong and ranks top 3 in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. There are currently 50,000 active broadcasters streaming on 17.
