Razmig Hovaghimian

Last updated
Razmig Hovaghimian
Razmig Hovaghimian 2012.jpg
Born
Cairo, Egypt
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley (BA)
Stanford University (MBA)
OccupationEntrepreneur and company executive
Known forCEO & co-founder, Viki
CEO & founder of Hoodline
Senior executive officer of global content, Rakuten
Co-founder, Embrace

Razmig Hovaghimian is an American entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of the international online streaming video site Viki, and senior executive officer of global content, board observer and Entrepreneur in residence at Japanese ecommerce company Rakuten. [1] He is also a co-founder and board member of non-profit neonatal health company Embrace. [2] He also founded Hoodline, formerly Ripple News, a hyper-local, automated data newswire later acquired by social media neighborhood site Nextdoor. [3] [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Hovaghimian was born in Cairo, Egypt, to Armenian parents. [2] He moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of 16. [2] Hovaghimian attended the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in political economy and minoring in business administration. [2] After graduating, he spent time as a consultant in the US and Europe, before relocating to Japan to work as a management consultant at ad agency Dentsu. [2] He returned to the US to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received an MBA. [5]

Career

Embrace

While attending Stanford, after a summer spent working with the United Nations in South Sudan, Hovaghimian and fellow Stanford classmates Jane Chen, Linus Liang, Naganand Murty and Rahul Panicker founded Embrace, a non-profit that designed and patented an affordable infant incubator for the developing world. [2] [6] Embrace grew to a company based in 14 countries as of 2014. [2] Embrace received an INDEX People's Choice Award, and in 2010 was selected as an Innovative Technology for Public Health by the World Health Organization. [7]

NBC Universal

In 2007, Hovaghimian went to work at NBCUniversal in the strategic planning group. [2] By 2009, he was a senior vice president, working on the company's digital and international growth strategy. [2] Hovaghimian left NBC later that year to focus full-time on another company he founded, Viki, an international online video service. [2]

Viki

International online video service Viki also started as another class project while Hovaghimian was at Stanford. He met co-founders Changseong Ho, a fellow Stanford student, and his wife, Jiwon Moon, who was studying education technology at Harvard. Viki gets its name from combining the words video and wiki. [8] It was originally created as a language-learning tool, helping its users learn languages by creating subtitles on online videos. [2]

Hovaghimian served as the company's CEO. [9]

In 2010, Hovaghimian incorporated Viki and moved to Singapore, where he set up the company's headquarters and hired its first engineers. [10] He chose Singapore for the company's headquarters in part due to its proximity to key Asian markets. [10]

Viki eventually morphed into an international online video site, licensing content from countries across the globe, with subtitles crowd sourced from an international community of viewers and volunteer translators. [8] In September 2013, the company was acquired by Japanese e-commerce group Rakuten, for $200 million. [11] At the time, Viki had 22 million viewers per month, and over 200 different viewer countries in Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. [12] In August 2013, the World Economic Forum named Viki as one of its 2014 Technology Pioneers. [13]

Rakuten

In December 2013, following its acquisition of Viki, Rakuten announced that Hovaghimian would become its senior executive officer of global content. [2] He oversees Rakuten's entire video content business worldwide, including Viki.com and Wuaki.tv, which airs paid premium content in Europe. [11] He was also named an observer to Rakuten's board of directors, and became the company's first Entrepreneur in Residence. [11] [1]

Hoodline

In 2016, Hovaghimian founded Ripple News, a city-focused news platform. [3] Later that year, Ripple acquired Hoodline, another local news site, and took the name Hoodline as the new combined company. In 2019, the Hoodline was acquired by neighborhood social media site Nextdoor. In 2020, publisher Impress3 Media acquired the Hoodline website and brand name from Nextdoor. [14]

Film producing

Hovaghimian was an executive co-producer, along with Adam McKay, Will Ferrell and Meileen Choo, of Oh Lucy!, a 2017 film starring Josh Hartnett and Shinobu Terajima, and based on a 2014 short film of the same name. [15]

Honors and awards

Personal life

Hovaghimian lives in San Francisco, California, with his wife and children. [1] [ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rakuten</span> Japanese e-commerce company

Rakuten Group, Inc. is a Japanese electronic commerce and online retailing company based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communications services such as the messaging app Viber, e-book distributor Kobo, and Japan's fourth mobile carrier Rakuten Mobile. Rakuten has more than 28,000 employees worldwide, operating in 29 countries and regions, and its revenues totaled US $7.2 billion with operating profits of about US$347.9 million as of 2016. Rakuten was the official sponsor of the Spanish football club FC Barcelona from 2017 until 2021, and the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, as of 2022. It is often referred to as the "Amazon of Japan".

RhythmOne plc, previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin Kan</span> American internet entrepreneur and investor

Justin Kan is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of live video platforms Justin.tv and Twitch, as well as the mobile social video application Socialcam. He is also the cofounder and former CEO of law-tech company Atrium.

Richard Barton is an American internet entrepreneur and the chief executive officer of Zillow Group. Barton founded online travel company Expedia, Inc., real-estate internet company Zillow, and job search engine and career community Glassdoor. He also founded the online travel photography sharing website and app Trover, which was acquired by Expedia in 2016. Barton was also a venture partner at Benchmark, and is on the board of directors for Netflix, Avvo, Nextdoor, and Artsy. He serves on the Stanford University Board of Trustees.

Rakuten.com/shop was an e-commerce marketplace based in San Mateo, California. Previously known as Buy.com, it was founded in 1997 by Scott Blum. In 2010, it was purchased by Japanese company Rakuten, and rebranded as Rakuten.com. This business was shut down by Rakuten in 2020.

OverDrive, Inc. is a digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, online magazines and streaming video titles. The company provides digital rights management and download fulfillment services for publishers, libraries, schools, corporations and book retailers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TalkTalk TV Store</span> UK-based video-on-demand service

TalkTalk TV Store was a UK-based transactional video-on-demand (VoD) service available on Macintosh and Microsoft Windows computers, games consoles, tablet computers and Smart TVs. Content is generally streamed, with downloading currently possible on Windows PC/laptops. The blinkbox brand had been extended to companion services offering digital music and books.

Walmart Labs became part of Walmart Global Tech, the technology and business services organization within Walmart. Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman founded Kosmix in 2005. In April 2011, Walmart acquired Kosmix and formed @WalmartLabs, a research division, out of it. In 2016, Walmart combined Walmart Labs and its information systems division (ISD) into one team called Walmart Technology. In August 2020, Walmart Technology launched its new identity as Walmart Global Tech as part of a new technology and shared services organization within the world's largest retailer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiroshi Mikitani</span> Japanese billionaire businessman and writer

Hiroshi Mikitani is a Japanese billionaire businessman and writer. He is the founder and CEO of Rakuten, Inc. He is also the president of Crimson Group, chairman of the football club Vissel Kobe, chairman of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and a board member of Lyft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinobu Terajima</span> Japanese actress

Shinobu Terajima is a Japanese actress. Her feature films include Akame 48 Waterfalls (2003) and Vibrator (2003). For her role in Caterpillar (2010), Terajima won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 60th Berlin Film Festival while her performance in Oh Lucy! (2017) earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Payoneer</span> Financial services company

Payoneer Global Inc. is an American financial services company that provides online money transfer, digital payment services and provides customers with working capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinterest</span> American photo sharing and saving website

Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboards. The site was created by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp, and had 433 million global monthly active users as of July 2022. It is operated by Pinterest, Inc., based in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nextdoor</span> Hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods

Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. is an American company which operates a hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in San Francisco, California. Nextdoor launched in the United States in October 2011, and is currently available in 11 countries. Users of Nextdoor are required to submit their real names and addresses to the website. However, since 2022 the platform no longer verifies addresses in the United States. New users will only have to confirm their email address to join the platform.

Rakuten Viki is an American video streaming website. It streams videos similar to other services, but also allows users to subtitle content available in 200 languages as well as provides original programming. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, it has offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea.

Rakuten TV is a video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service, offering movies and TV series for subscription, rental and purchase. It is owned by the Japanese company Rakuten. Rakuten TV's catalogue includes content from studios around the world, including Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony Pictures, local distributors, and independent labels, being the smallest and least known service among its competitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sukhinder Singh Cassidy</span>

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is a technology executive and entrepreneur. Formerly the president of StubHub, she has worked at various tech and media companies including Google, Amazon and News Corp, Yodlee (YODL), and Polyvore. In 2011, she founded JOYUS, the video shopping platform for women, and served as CEO then Chairman until 2017. Singh Cassidy is also Founder of theBoardlist.

Uproxx is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital in 2014. The site's target audience is men aged 18–34. It was acquired by Warner Music Group in August 2018, with Myer and CEO Benjamin Blank remaining in control of the company's operations.

Chris Larsen is a business executive and angel investor best known for co-founding several Silicon Valley technology startups, including one based on peer to peer lending. In 1996, he co-founded the online mortgage lender E-Loan, and during his tenure as CEO E-Loan became the first company to freely provide consumers' FICO credit scores. By 2000, E-Loan's market value was estimated at $1 billion In 2005, Larsen left the company when it was sold to Banco Popular. In 2006, he co-founded Prosper Marketplace and he served as CEO until 2012. Later in 2012, he co-founded the company Ripple Labs, Inc., which developed Ripple, software that enables the instant and direct transfer of money between two parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Film Detective</span> Television channel

The Film Detective is an American classic film restoration, distribution, and streaming company based in Rockport, Massachusetts, and is a division of the American entertainment company, Cinedigm. Launched in 2013, The Film Detective offers an extensive library of over 3,000+ hours of classic films and television series, with a focus on both renowned classics and B-movies across genres including comedy, drama, film noir, horror, musical, mystery, science fiction, and silent. Services offered by The Film Detective include a classic film and television app on web, iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV; a 24/7 linear channel offered across multiple leading OTT platforms including Sling TV, Plex, STIRR, DistroTV, Local Now, and Rakuten TV; and exclusive, limited-run Blu-ray and DVD releases.

Timed comments are a feature offered by some audio and video players and websites where people can add comments associated with specific times in an audio or video. These comments are then displayed in the player when that time is reached while playing the audio or video.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Viki Video Site Founder Leaves CEO Spot, Stays at Rakuten". Vox. January 30, 2015. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Razmig Hovaghimian: from failed pizza maker to founder of Viki". Tech in Asia. April 20, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  3. 1 2 Kafka, Peter (August 18, 2014). "Ripple wants to deliver local news — and it wants your help writing it". Forbes. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  4. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (September 10, 2018). "Hoodline raises $10M for its hyper-local, automated data newswire". Techcrunch. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  5. ↑ Blair, Gavin (December 4, 2013). "Crowd-Sourced Online Video Site Viki Breaks Down Language Barriers". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  6. ↑ Lee, Ellen (November 12, 2010). "Embrace may keep babies warm - and alive". SFGate. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Embrace". Stanford: Design for Extreme Affordability. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  8. 1 2 Park, Madison (June 9, 2014). "Can fans unravel the Babel of the world's TV dramas?". CNN. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  9. ↑ "Is Viki Better Than Netflix and Roku?". Wall Street Journal. July 16, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  10. 1 2 Weizhen, Tan (September 4, 2013). "S'pore-based start-up sold for rumoured S$255m". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Next Gen Innovators 2014". Forbes. August 18, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  12. ↑ Venkataramanan, Madhumita (September 3, 2014). "Infographic: Where local TV gets seen overseas". Wired. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  13. ↑ "Next Gen Innovators 2014" (PDF). WE Forum. August 22, 2013. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  14. ↑ Rinker, Brian (October 14, 2020). "Local media company that owns SFist acquires Hoodline from Nextdoor". Forbes. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  15. ↑ McNary, Dave (December 16, 2016). "Josh Hartnett, Shinobu Terajima to Star in U.S.-Japan Drama-Comedy 'Oh Lucy!'". Variety. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.