The name Viki is a portmanteau of the words video and wiki, drawing on the latter company's use of volunteers for content management.[3] The company won the Crunchie award for best international start-up company in January 2011.[4]
The company moved to Singapore in 2008 to take advantage of government backing and the city-state's role as a pan-Asian hub.[7] In December 2010, Viki exited the beta phase of its software and made its services available to the general public.[5] It was purchased by Rakuten in 2013.[3]
In September 2011, Viki debuted a new iPhoneapp called Viki On-The-Go, allowing users to watch content on their smartphones. The company also partnered with Samsung Southeast Asia that year to develop an Android app.[8][9] Viki.com drew 14 million unique views in August 2011. Viki raised $20 million from Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and BBC Worldwide in October of that year.[6][7][9]
In May 2012, Viki announced deals with Warner Music Group, SEED Music Group of Taiwan, and LOEN Entertainment of South Korea, bringing thousands of music videos to the site.[10] In that same month, BBC Worldwide announced an extension of its relationship with Viki, including a deal to work with the company on advertising.[8]
In July 2012, Viki signed a non-exclusive deal with the Chinese social network Renren, in which Viki would provide a video site for the social network called VikiZone.[9] The deal includes only a portion of the Viki catalog and is offered for free.[11]
In the year following its acquisition by Rakuten,[12] Viki went from about 22 million monthly active users with 10 million on mobile to 35 million monthly active users and 25 million mobile users.[13]
The company has a list of partners for sourcing original content, including BBC Worldwide. The company has also signed distribution deals for its original content with Hulu, Netflix, Yahoo!, MSN, NBC, and A&E, as well as TVBinHong Kong, SBS in South Korea, Fuji TV in Japan and Amedia in Russia.[8]
Viki streams premium licensed content in a similar way that Hulu does in U.S. markets.[1] The site then puts the content on one of its channels, and the content can be subtitled by community volunteers.[14] Community members can subtitle their favorite videos in their preferred languages, under a Creative Commons license using Viki's subtitling technology, enabling individuals to collaborate globally, in dozens of languages at once.[15] The subtitling software developed for the company allows many volunteers to translate a video concurrently in up to 160 languages.[1] Viki also syndicates its shows with fan-generated subtitles to partners such as Hulu, Netflix, and Yahoo!, and receives fees and revenue from those distributors.[16] Of the approximately 200 language subtitles available on the site, roughly 50 of these are vulnerable or endangered languages.[17]
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