DEAL STREET ASIA - July 1 - Taiwan-based M17 Entertainment, the parent company of Singapore-based dating and networking app Paktor, has officially withdrawn its IPO in the US, a month after suspending its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The press statement did not mention the reasons for M17's decision to cancel its IPO, which had initially aimed to raise a total of $115M.
by Mars Woo
See full article at Deal Street Asia
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TAIWAN NEWS - June 13 - Live streaming and dating app group M17 Entertainment is postponing its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as it had obtained $35M in private capital. M17 said the new round of funding would allow the company to remain private as well as "lively" and flexible, while continue to expand its business in Asia. The new funds came from Infinity Venture Partners of Japan, Convergence Ventures of Indonesia, and Majuven Capital and Global Grand Capital of Singapore.
by Matthew Strong
See full article at Taiwan News
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TECH CRUNCH - June 7 - M17 Entertainment, a Taipei-based live streaming and dating app group, priced its IPO this morning on the NYSE and was expected to open trading today. But with just a little more than two hours to go before market closing, it's still not trading, and no one seems to know why. M17 has had a rocky non-debut so far. Originally targeting a fundraise of $115M of American Depository Receipts (shares of foreign companies listed domestically on the NYSE), the company concluded its roadshow raising less than half of its target, for a final investment of $60.1M. The company priced its ADR shares at $8 each. The company's main product is a live-streaming product where creators can build their fan bases and brands. Fans can purchase virtual gifts to send to their favorite artists.
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SEEKING ALPHA - May 22 - M17 Entertainment intends to raise $115M in a U.S. IPO. The company provides an online live streaming and dating app for the more developed countries in Asia. The firm has developed a live streaming platform known as 17 Media. The platform was launched in Taiwan in July 2015. 17 Media had 33.3M registered users as of March 31, 2018. The company also operates Paktor, launched in Singapore in 2013, and Goodnight, M17 Entertainment's main dating apps. The platform allows artists to stream performances at any time and from anywhere with an internet connection. 2017 revenue was $79.5M with gross profit of $14M. The firm will use the net proceeds from the IPO for expansion into Japan and other new markets; for content development, including PGC and new content formats; and the remainder for strategic merger and acquisition opportunities.
by Donovan Jones
See full article at Seeking Alpha
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E27.CO - May 13 - M17 Entertainment, the company that owns Paktor and live-streaming service 17 Media, is hoping to raise US$115M in IPO. M17 made ~$90M in revenue in 2017, but operated at a loss of US$61.8M. In Q1 2018, the company made $37.9M and is operating at a loss of $26.9M. The strategy for the startup is to expand into Japan, expand content offerings, grow the number of artists on the live-streaming service and achieve profitability. Paktor has 14.6M people using its dating services, but that is split between the brands of Paktor, Goodnight and Kickoff.
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E27.CO - Jan 22 - Paktor's CEO Ng Jing Shen believes that online dating is far superior to the traditional way of finding potential partners, that is, via a workplace or school. "The 'class-size' of the online dating pool is bigger," Ng says. On the Paktor platform, there are ~880K monthly active users, with 180K coming from Singapore alone. Founded in 2013, Paktor now has a presence in 7 markets across APAC.
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E27 - Dec 7 - Singapore dating app Paktor, which is owned by M17 Entertainment, has released a new feature that will allow users to invite friends to help them pick the right match. Called Matchmaker, the mini-game allows existing Paktor users to invite other Paktor users or non-users to swipe on profiles with them. A minimum of three players - including the host - is required to initiate the game. All players are given 30 profiles to swipe and 10 seconds to make their decisions on each profile. At the end of the game, the matchmaker with the most number of swipes that corresponds with the host's swipes will be crowned the best matchmaker. The matchmakers will then send a randomised complimentary gift to that profile and break the ice. The recipient can then chose to respond to the host. Matchmakers can also track the user's progress with the match.
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PE HUB - Oct 27 - Paktor Group, a Southeast Asia dating app provider, has appointed Ng Jing Shen as CEO. Jing Shen will succeed Joseph Phua. Also, Paktor has promoted Shn Juay to COO. Prior to co-founding Paktor app, Jing Shen was a software engineer at Amazon.com in Seattle. Juay joined the Paktor Group in 2015 as head of marketing. Paktor is backed by K2Global and MNC Media Group.
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GIZMODO - Oct 25 - Using exploits ranging from simple to complex, researchers at the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab say they could access users' location data, their real names and login info, their message history, and even see which profiles they've viewed. They tested Tinder, Bumble, OKCupid, Badoo, Mamba, Zoosk, Happn, WeChat and Paktor. Most apps have minimal HTTPS encryption, making it easy to access user data. The researchers say they have already sent their findings to the respective apps' developers.
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WEBWIRE - Sep 12 - Shn Juay, Head of Operations from Paktor will speak on the Asia dating app market at iDate London. The event is held in London on Oct 3-4, 2017. Registration for the event can be made at http://www.idate2017.com/register-london-2017.php.
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E27.CO - Sep 12 - M17 Entertainment, a merged company between Singapore-based dating platform Paktor and Taiwanese video streaming platform 17 Media, has officially launched an office in Japan. The 17 Media app is currently ranked 11th in the social networking category on Japan's App Store. "Unlike Taiwan, Japan's live-streaming market is still very young with plenty of room for growth. It's the perfect timing for 17 Media to go into Japan now", said M17 Entertainment co-founder and CEO, Joseph Phua. M17 Entertainment claimed it reaches ~30K users live-stream on the platform each day, and globally, it has ~30M users.
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TECH IN ASIA - Aug 3 - M17, an entity that includes Singaporean dating app Paktor, has raised $40M. M17 has an in-house team producing entertainment content spanning music, commentary, and reality television shows, and aims to be an interactive multimedia platform. The company scouts for original content creators like livestreamers, music producers, and celebrities.
by Malavika Velyanikal
The full article was originally published at Tech in Asia, but is no longer available.
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TECHWIRE ASIA - Apr 18 - Asia is obsessed with finding love. The pressure to find a life partner and lock together is intense. "Leftovers" are women or men 25+ who are not in a long-term relationship. A research suggested the Chinese online dating market would generate CNY10B ($1.6B) at the end of 2016. Down in Southeast Asia, various dating apps have cropped up over the years -Tinder and Happn have established presence in the region, but local competition has been heating up. Paktor and LunchClick are homegrown Singaporean offerings while the Philippines makes an entrance with Peek-a-woo and Indonesia with a "halal app" called Mat & Minah.
by Samantha Cheh
See full article at Tech in Asia
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SG NEWS - Feb 8 - Founded in 2015, Goodnight matches people with common interests, after which, they can engage in a voice chat of up to seven minutes. It claims a user base of ~500K. Paktor has formed a new division called Paktor Labs, which is a social apps accelerator headed by Colin Hodge, previously CEO and co-founder of Down and Sweet (two dating apps Paktor bought last month). Down and Sweet, Goodnight and Kickoff (acquired last May) will all be part of Paktor Labs. These newly acquired apps will increase Paktor's user base by ~7M, bringing the total number to 20M users.
by Yon Heong Tung
See full article at SGNews
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TECH CRUNCH - Jan 21 - The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but the price was reportedly "several million". Colin Hodge, the founder and CEO of Down, will join the Paktor team and will run Down and Sweet apps. He will also be overseeing Paktor Labs and be responsible for acquiring other apps, amongst other things. Down started in 2013 (as Bang With Friends) and grew to 5M downloads, about 200k MAU and $1M annual revenue from in-app purchases.
by Katie Roof
See full article at Tech Crunch
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