Roku Inc Popular Books

Roku Inc Biography & Facts

Roku, Inc. ( ROH-koo) is a U.S. listed company founded by Anthony Wood in 2002. It runs a streaming service through Roku-branded streaming players and smart TVs, supporting both advertising and subscription models on its platform. Roku tops U.S. streaming TV distribution, reaching households with an estimated 120 million people. Outside the U.S., the company operates in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and several Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. In its early years, Roku focused on making high-definition video players and launched the first connected TV device to stream Netflix in 2008. Later, in 2014, the company expanded its streaming platform's reach by partnering with TV manufacturers to license Roku’s technology. This allowed Roku's operating system to be pre-installed on smart TVs. Thereafter, Roku added channel subscriptions to its platform, and began serving targeted ads and performance-based ads. It also launched an ad-supported streaming channel and consumer electronic products such as smart speakers and smart home in the following years. History 2002–2007: Early years Roku was founded in October 2002 as a limited liability company (LLC), by ReplayTV founder Anthony Wood. Roku (六) means "six" in the Japanese language, to represent the fact that Roku is the sixth company Wood started. The company was founded as a maker high-definition video players, and was funded by Wood himself with money he had earned from selling other businesses, including ReplayTV. 2008–2013: Funding, product launch In 2008, Netflix invested $6 million in Roku as part of an equity funding round. Netflix's association with Roku also involved Wood taking a part-time job at Netflix to make a device to stream Netflix while serving as Roku's CEO. Roku launched the first connected TV device to stream Netflix in May 2008, and continued to sell devices that plug into TVs, allowing consumers to access streaming services. In the same year, Roku's headquarters moved to Saratoga, California, further south in Silicon Valley. A round of venture capital funding from Menlo Ventures was announced in October 2008. Another round of about $8.4 million was disclosed in 2009. This year also saw Netflix sell all of its Roku shares, translating to nearly 15% of Roku's equity, to Menlo Ventures to avoid the perception of potentially favoring one streaming distribution manufacturer over another. 2014–2016: Entry in smart TVs, advertising In 2012, The Verge reported that Roku had launched in the U.K. and Canada. In 2014, Roku expanded its reach by partnering with TV manufacturers as Roku's licensees, to sell Roku's operating system already installed on smart TVs. In 2015, the company launched its products in Australia, France and Mexico. It also announced that it would be sub-leasing the buildings in Los Gatos, California from Netflix. In the same year, towards measuring the success of its advertising efforts success, Roku partnered with Nielsen, a company that specializes in advertising effectiveness. In 2016, Roku partnered with Magna, a media firm that specializes advertising, in order to incorporate targeted advertising on its streaming platform. 2017–2018: Initial public offering On September 28, 2017, Roku held an initial public offering of stock and began trading on the Nasdaq exchange. Vox said in the same year that the company was transitioning into "taking a cut of advertising and subscription fees" generated by "video programmers" using Roku's devices, while stating that Netflix and YouTube didn't give Roku such a cut. Roku stated in September 2017 that it received a "revenue share" whenever it signed up a new customer for subscription content including Netflix. In 2017 Roku also launched its self-serving advertising product to allow advertisers to serve ads to Roku's users. These include video ads, interactive video ads, audience development promotions and brand sponsorships. This was made possible through Roku allowing advertisers to transition from standard cable TV advertising to Roku's streaming platform. In the same year, Roku was also reported as expanding its international reach by launching its streaming players in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru. 2019–2022: Growth In July 2019 Roku started moving to a new headquarters in San Jose, with plans to vacate offices subleased from Netflix. In the same month, The Verge cited a "Strategy Analytics" report which showed that Roku was the most popular streaming platform in the United States in 2019, with over 30% share. In November 2019, Roku announced its acquisition of dataxu video advertising platform, for $150 million in cash and stocks. Roku shares rose more than two percent subsequent to the announcement. By January 2020, Roku had launched in Brazil and had a limited footprint in Ireland, according to Variety. On January 8, 2021, Roku announced it would acquire rights to Quibi's content, for an amount less than $100 million, and that all of Quibi's 75 programs would be available on their streaming platform, The Roku Channel. On March 19, 2021, TZP Growth Partners completed the sale of This Old House Ventures to Roku. All 1,500 episodes of Ask This Old House and This Old House will be made available to owners of Roku streaming products free with ads and through their dedicated 24/7 Streaming TV channel. PBS will still have rights to air episodes on their platforms. In June 2021, CNBC cited Parks Associates data, which indicated that Roku had consistently been the leader among all streaming platforms in the U.S., with Amazon catching up. In August 2021, Roku's streaming players were reported to be available in India. In September 2021, Reuters reported Roku as launching its products in Germany. In October 2021, Mashable cited Roku as the most popular brand in the streaming devices market. In January 2022, Los Angeles Times called Roku's software the "most popular television operating system in the U.S.", while reporting on Roku's focus on growing its own streaming channel. In April 2022, Roku was said to be launching a new ad program to allow advertisers to serve "targeted ads in real time". In May 2022, CNBC stated that research firm Conviva found Roku to be the market leader in U.S. TV streaming devices, while also reporting a new joint venture between Comcast and Charter. In January 2023, Variety reported Roku's claim of having more than 70 million customer accounts globally. Another Variety article in the same month cited "TVision data" showing the Roku OS as leading the U.S. smart TV sector with a 36% share. January 2023 also saw Roku's launch of its own smart TVs. 2023–present: Advertising focus Online publisher "The Drum" reported in April 2023 that Roku was partnering with grocery delivery service Instacart to build tools to measure the effectiveness of brand advertising on the Roku platform. In .... Discover the Roku Inc popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Roku Inc books.