Slogan(s) Just Watch Current status Active Founded 2005 | Website watchmojo.com Headquarters Montreal, Canada Motto Just Watch | |
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Type of site Reference, Pop Culture, Infotainment Alexa rank 25498 / 35769 ## (US/Global 07/2015) Launched 14 June 2005; 11 years ago (2005-06-14) CEO Ashkan Karbasfrooshan (Jan 2006–) Created by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan; Raphael Daigneault; Christine Voulieris Available in English, Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, French, Polish Types of site Reference, Popular culture, Infotainment Profiles | ||
WatchMojo.com is a Canadian-based privately held video content producer, publisher, and syndicator. With over 7.9 billion all-time video views and 14 million subscribers (making it the 34th most subscribed channel), WatchMojo has one of the largest channels on YouTube. 60% of its viewers and subscribers are male, whereas 40% are female, and 50% hail from English speaking countries.
Contents
History
WatchMojo.com was founded in June 2005 by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, Raphael Daigneault, and Christine Voulieris. Other early key employees include Kevin Havill and Derek Allen. The WatchMojo.com website was launched on 14 June 2005 and its YouTube channel was launched on 25 January 2007. WatchMojo is an independent channel, it is neither a Multi-Channel Network (MCN) nor part of one. According to the CEO Karbasfrooshan, WatchMojo employed 23 full-time employees and a team of 100-plus freelance writers and video editors by October 2014. By March 2017, that number jumped to 50-plus .
The videos it produces are typically suggestions supplied by visitors of the site on its suggestion tool or its YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages. It hit 1 million subscribers on 30 October 2013 and then 5 million subscribers on 29 August 2014. In December 2014, on the day its YouTube channel surpassed 6 million subscribers, it announced a representation deal with talent agency William Morris Endeavor.It surpassed 10 million subscribers on 5 December 2015.
During the 2016-17 regular season of the NHL, WatchMojo sponsored the NY Islanders. In October 2016, Karbasfrooshan published The 10-Year Overnight Success: An Entrepreneurship’s Manifesto - How WatchMojo Built the Most Successful Media Brand on YouTube on the company's new publishing imprint, as it ventured into digital books and guides.
Content
WatchMojo.com does not feature user-generated content nor does it allow a mechanism for users to upload videos onto its site. The website produces daily "Top Ten" videos as well as videos summarizing the history of specific niche topics. These topics can be one of 16 categories: automotive, business, comedy, education, fashion, film, anime, health and fitness, lifestyle, music, parenting, politics and economy, space and science, sports, technology, travel, and video games. Each day it publishes over 5 videos for 60–75 minutes of original content. In February 2016, it launched the MsMojo channel to better serve female viewers and fans. It also launched multiple non-English channels for the Spanish, French, German, Turkish and Polish markets."
In 2017, WatchMojo The Lineup, a gameshow that was combined ranking top 10 lists with elements of fantasy draft and sports talk radio banter; it was slated for a mid-April 2017 release
Business model
WatchMojo.com lost money the first six years of operations, broke even in 2012, and has generated a profit since 2013. Due to the 2007–2009 recession, WatchMojo.com had de-emphasized an ad-supported model in favour of licensing fees paid by other media companies to access and use their media. Later that year Beet.TV featured WatchMojo.com alongside Magnify.net as examples of companies which successfully switched from ad-based revenue models to licensing fee based revenue models.
In 2012, it shifted its focus to YouTube and as a result of its growth in subscribers and views, it became profitable .