Roku is an American media-based company based in California and helps customers stream video and audio files from various channels all over the internet. Roku has been a revolutionary player in the field of media and has changed the way people consume media in the US. The company manufactures small devices that allow televisions to capture and play live-streamed audio and video files, thereby helping viewers use their television the way they would use the laptop or desktop. Since launching in 2002, the company has expanded its horizons and now also owns an advertisement business, and is even involved in licensing its players to external companies. Read on to find out how one entrepreneur with a vision was able to change the way people watch shows.
About the Founder
Anthony J. Wood was born in 1965 in Manchester, and lived his early years in England before moving to Georgia and then to Texas. As a child, he was always busy tinkering with stuff building transistor radios and telegraphs at a young age. He went to the Netherlands for his eighth-grade, and over there, he taught himself to code. When he got back home to Texas, he got himself TRS-80 and began programming. He was schooled in America and obtained a degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas University. It was A&M University that Wood met and fell in love with his future wife Susan, who was a student of Environmental Design at the University.
While in junior year at University, Wood founded SunRize, a company that made products for the Commodore Amiga. He had an entrepreneurial streak even back then and soon had over 14 employees, making more than $100,000. But soon enough, the company got so large that his grades started to suffer as a result. When it came to a point where Wood had to make a choice, he chose his education and hence shut the company down to finish his degree.
Fresh out of college, he launched iBand, which was a company which focused on building webpage editors. A year later, he sold the company to Macromedia $36 million and stayed on at the company as Vice President. This was the first and one of the only times Wood ever worked under someone else, and he was already 30 years old! After two years there, he left to found ReplayTV, financing the project himself before turning to angel investors.
British-born American entrepreneur and businessman is a billionaire popularly known for being the founder, and CEO of Roku, Inc. Wood worked as the CEO of ReplayTV between 1997 and 2001 and then sold that enterprise SONICblue in 2002 for over a $110 million. Later that same year, Wood founded Roku and served as the Chairman of the Board from 2008. He currently owns over 27% of Roku.
Founding Roku
Soon after selling ReplayTV, Wood focused on his new venture and founded Roku, which translates to the number six in Japanese. This was to symbolize how Roku is the sixth company founded by serial entrepreneur and investor Anthony Wood. A few years later, in 2007, Wood was given the position of VP at Netflix, with plans to build their device. When this plan fell through, a new Roku company was set-up to build the player, in Palo Alto and Netflix served as the chief investor, shelling out over $6 million for the company. The company moved their headquarters to Saratoga, later that year and announced a venture capital funding round adding another $8.4 million to their capital. By 2011, Roku’s players had streamed and downloaded more than 15 million clips and the device had over a million active users.
Media Mogul
By 2017, the company had grown to such an extent that it went public, offering the public an initial stock offering on NASDAQ. The same year, Roku acquired Dynastrom, a Danish company which makes smart speakers. 2017 also witnessed the company launch its advertising product, which allowed customers to buy ad slots for themselves on the Roku channel. This brought with it a huge shift from cable TV advertising to advertising on online streaming platforms. In 2016, Roku sought help from a media firm that focuses on targeted advertising called Magna, to extend their streaming platform to incorporate advertisements. The same year, they partnered with Nielsen which helps companies gauge their advertising effectiveness, as a means to measure the partnership’s success. Media for the Masses By 2017, the company had grown to such an extent that it went public, offering the public an initial stock offering on NASDAQ. The same year, Roku acquired Dynastrom, a Danish company which makes smart speakers. 2017 also witnessed the company launch its advertising product, which allowed customers to buy ad slots for themselves on the Roku channel. This brought with it a huge shift from cable TV advertising to advertising on online streaming platforms. In 2016, Roku sought help from a media firm that focuses on targeted advertising called Magna, to extend their streaming platform to incorporate advertisements. The same year, they partnered with Nielsen which helps companies gauge their advertising effectiveness, as a means to measure the partnership’s success.
Since debuting on the NASDAQ in 2017, the company’s shares have gone up by about 145%, meaning Wood’s stake is now worth over $1.2 billion. Their active accounts have gone up by about 46% and Roku now serves more than 22 million users, with hours of streamed content hitting rising by 58% to hit the 5.5-billion-mark last year. Helping drive this growth is their pricing, as Roku offers their device for a relatively cheap price of $30. This has helped them grow their customer-base and amass a loyal following. An easy set-up routine and intuitive user interface have been other factors that have led to their impressive growth. So much so that one in every four TVs purchased in the US came with an inbuilt Roku player.
Though Roku began its business journey as a company that manufactures devices, it now ears millions through the sale of Roku players, with the help of its partnering brands, revenue-sharing deals with over 3000 content creators and through advertisements. With even Morgan Stanley predicting that Roku will go over 40 million active users by 2020, it is safe to say that the company’s future is brighter than ever before.
Being a cinephile with a love for all things outdoorsy, Athulya never misses a chance to chase inspiring stories or poke fun at things, even when the subject is herself. Currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, she is someone innately interested in technical and scientific research. Music reviews and op-eds define her as they allow her to explore different perspectives. Though sometimes she thinks she makes more sense playing the guitar than she does while writing.