After acquiring a controlling stake in Taiwan live streaming company 17 Media last year, Southeast Asian mobile dating leader Paktor is now merging the two companies together to create M17.
M17 Entertainment is the new parent company for mobile dating app Paktor and 17, a live streaming platform that lets celebrities, entertainers and influencers create and share live video content and photos.
17 is currently the top live streaming app in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and top three in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, with a total of 50,000 active broadcasters currently streaming on the app.
Paktor Group, led by founder & CEO Joseph Phua, acquired a controlling stake in the Taiwan-based platform last December.
Merging the two companies into M17, which was done via a share swap, creates “the leading social entertainment company in the region” according to the business, with a total team of over 200, eight offices across the region and a combined user base of 50m.
As M17, the companies have grown their revenues 10 fold over the past six months to reach $100m in annualised revenues, with this figure expected to increase to $200m by the end of this year.
The founder & CEO of Paktor, Joseph Phua, will be the CEO of the new entity.
With the announcement, M17 has also revealed that Korean private equity and VC firm KTB Network has invested in the group via its KTB China Synergy Fund, as part of a larger round expected to close in a few weeks.
This continues a busy year for the business, having announced a set of four dating app acquisitions in February, launching in South Korea as Swipe and hiring ex-Jiayuan executive Shang-Hsiu Koo as CFO last month.