Drama Streaming Giant Viki.com acquired for 200 million USD!

Reported by Kian Nourollahi | Edited by Siavash Eskandarian

Most drama fans today have heard and most likely have used Viki.com to watch asian dramas. Today, in a move that will leave many fans shocked, the streaming giant has announced that it has been acquired by Japanese E-commerce giant Rakuten. As for the sale price? Sources close to the deal say it's around 200 million USD.

Razmig Hovaghimian, the CEO and co-founder of Viki, wrote a blog post announcing the news.

When we started Viki, we set out to build a “cultural silk road,” a streaming website built for the fans and by the fans. Our community remains the spine of what we’ve built, and it will continue to be so--soon on the world stage--bringing down language barriers and making the world a better place, one word at a time. 

We’re happy to tell you that we’ve reached another important milestone in Viki’s history. Today, we announce that we’ve been acquired by Rakuten, a Japanese Internet company that’s well known for its community-driven e-commerce platform. 

For a start-up founder, your first instinct is to build on your own. It became clear, however, that in order for Viki to truly live up to its potential, we needed to join a larger family with similar drive, passion, and the bias to disrupt. We chose Rakuten because the company shares the same values and philosophies we do: putting the community first, and building the global culture we love so much.

While Viki will continue to operate independently, we now have the resources to truly build Global TV Powered by Fans. What this means:

We’ll bring more on-air content/genres to more regions of the world. We’ll grow the team to build community features faster than we’ve been able to before.
We can launch even more community programs and perks, including ad-free viewing and much more.
Most importantly, we’ll remain community first, putting much of our energy behind getting you closer to the content you love. 

We'll continue to keep you updated through this blog and QC Newsletter. In the meantime, my deepest gratitude to you all. I look forward to our next phase of growth together, as always.It is now time to truly unlock the world. 

Thank you for all you do. From your biggest fans,
Razmig & the Viki family"

So what do you think? Are you happy about this news? Let us know what you think in the comments below.