The well-known popular social media platform Triller, co-owned by Ryan Kavanaugh, recently announced they are set to go public and merge with SeaChange, a video-tech international company. SeaChange is a streaming platform that enables profitable TV and streaming services. SeaChange has the capabilities of cable, OTT streaming, and advanced advertising.
Triller is a social media video app that has millions of users. SeaChange has over 50 Million subscribers and is available in over 50 countries. Similar to TikTok, Triller is a platform that allows users to create short-form videos that are set to music and share with friends, family, and all followers. Triller gained significant traction from its live-streaming series of boxing matches featuring prominent names in the social media industry.
Triller is a Los Angeles-based company originally launched in 2015 and downloaded over 250 million times. According to a recent TechCrunch article, “Triller has attracted many notable users, like “Justin Bieber, Marshmello, The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, Cardi B, Eminem, Post Malone, and Kevin Hart. The app has also inked deals with popular TikTok users, such as Charli D’Amelio and Noah Beck.” These big-name users brought lots of attention to this app gaining over 65 million users.
Earlier this year, Triller came together with multiple other platforms to have a vast experience for its users. These include Verzuz, a large Livestream music platform launched by Swiss Beatz and Timbaland, who also owns Amplify, a customer engagement platform. Additionally, they collaborated with the platform Fite, a sports entertainment live-stream pay-per-view site. And lastly, they acquired the company Thuzio. This company hosts custom premium events for influencers. Thuzio is trusted by over 500 companies, making them very well-known and reliable in the space.
A recent Deadline article stated that “In 2019, Ryan Kavanaugh‘s Proxima Media took a majority stake in Triller, which had launched in 2015 without its current social emphasis. In 2020, the company launched Triller Fight Club, drawing large, young-skewing audiences to its TikTok-like mobile app”. Both companies announced they would combine their companies for an overall value of about $5 billion.
These two companies coming together gives them a considerable advantage over other similar social media apps, leveraging an edge and making it a very competitive app. All these platforms coming together will create a unique app that will be hard to compete with, especially since all parties involved are reliable, reputable, and well known in the industry.
Depending on regulatory and stockholder approvals, they expect to close the deal in the first quarter of 2022. SeaChange will be changing its name to TrillerVerz, and its Nasdaq trading new ticker symbol is ILLR. SeaCharge was a public company, having shares jump about 38% to about $2.46.
The combined company will be led by Mahi de Silva, who is the current CEO of Triller’s parent company. In addition, the current CEO and president of SeaChange, Peter Aquino, will join the new TrillerVerz team. According to a GlobeNewswire article, “TrillerVerz believes it is positioned to become a leading AI-powered social media platform for content, creators & commerce and is anticipated to be publicly traded on a U.S. national exchange through the proposed Business Combination. TrillerVerz expects to create a leading voice in the industry and enable significant participation in the multi-hundred-billion-dollar creator economy!
This combination of companies will be a massive competitor for the social media app TikTok. As mentioned in a TechCrunch article, SeaChange CEO Peter Aquino said in a statement. “We believe that TrillerVerz’s unmatched social media reach, Gen Z engagement, and the opportunity to meaningfully expand its global multi-platform presence across content, commerce, creators, and being at the forefront of e-commerce, ad tech, and NFTs, including the metaverse, is a compelling investment with the potential to create significant value.” These companies coming together opens many opportunities to invest in the future of creativity.
The new TrillerVerz is projected to have over 750 million interactions per month! Their strategy going into this is to build one of the largest platforms for users to distribute and monetize content that elevates social media culture. Social media apps change daily, and these platforms must consistently evolve and find something that gives them a competitive advantage over other apps. Maintaining users on social media sites gives levels of success to the platform. Without daily users, social media platforms struggle to stay in business.
Failure has happened to social media platforms in the past, such as Myspace, Vine, and DailyBooth. Triller’s merging platforms proves that social media needs to keep making adjustments to keep users engaged and excited about the platform. TillerVerz is hopeful for their future and believes they will be unlike other social media platforms. They plan to make considerable impressions in the social media industry, similar to Facebook and Google. This merge will be a massive opportunity for creators to work with more brands, reach a larger audience, and create a more significant impression.
Triller’s Ryan Kavanaugh has had a lot of previous business ventures. He was a successful film producer who received over 60 Oscar nominations, and eight Oscar wins. Kavanaugh is a very successful entrepreneur with excellent returns on his investments. In addition to Kavanaugh’s business endeavors, he is also a noted philanthropist and volunteer. Philanthropist Ryan Kavanaugh is known for rescuing homeless dogs. He has served as a chairman of the board for the Art of Elysium. He encourages artists to donate their time and talents to help children battling medical conditions.
Knowing Kavanaugh’s success in all the different avenues of his business ventures, it will be exciting to see how this merger of Triller and SeaChange will take over the social media industry. And with these big expectations already in place of this merge, users can look forward to creating content in a new unique, and creative way.
