This Week in Apps: Apple talks App Store fraud, responds to antitrust complaints; Facebook growth is slipping
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.
Massive Toronto startup is now hiring for dozens of new roles after being bought out
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Toronto startup Wattpad, a platform popular with tens of millions of writers who use it to publish their content and readers who use it to consume that content, was recently acquired by fellow tech company Naver, and is now expanding operations and hiring for dozens of new jobs in Canada.
The site was initially started by two U of T grads back in 2006, and grew to be valued at a staggering $754 million by the time of its sale to the South Korean corporation earlier this year, a deal that was just finalized this week.
TORONTO — Online storytelling company Wattpad and its writer-users will have more chances to expand their audience — and income — after the close of its sale to an Asian media conglomerate Monday, . . .
Toronto-based Wattpad is officially part of South Korean internet giant Naver as of today, with the official close of the $600 million cash and stock acquisition deal. Under the terms of the acquisition, Wattpad will continue to be headquartered in, and operate from Canada, with co-founder and Allen Lau remaining CEO of the social storytelling company and reporting to the CEO of Naver's Webtoon, Jun Koo Kim.
Korea's Kakao Buys Radish, Tapas Storytelling Apps for $950 Million
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UPDATED: Serialized fiction app Radish is being acquired by Kakao Entertainment, the entertainment arm of Korean internet giant Kakao, in a transaction valued at $440 million. In addition, Kakao Entertainment said it is buying Tapas Media, which says it has more than 3 million readers of its short-form online mobile content, for $510 million.
More from Variety
“Tapas and Radish are two amazingly powerful storytelling platforms, and we welcome them into the Kakao Entertainment family with open arms as we rapidly ramp up our global operations,” Jinsoo Lee, CEO of Kakao Entertainment, said Tuesday in a statement Tuesday announcing the deals. “The partnership with Tapas and our webtoon IPs has already borne fruit and given us even more confidence in the North American marketplace. Radish gives us the platform to publish our web novels for the first time there, and we see endless potential.”
Wattpad to hire nearly 100 as South Korea's Naver completes US$600M acquisition bnnbloomberg.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bnnbloomberg.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Winnipeg Free Press By: Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press Posted: Save to Read Later
TORONTO - Online storytelling company Wattpad and its writer-users will have more chances to expand their audience — and income — after the close of its sale to an Asian media conglomerate Monday, says Allen Lau.
TORONTO - Online storytelling company Wattpad and its writer-users will have more chances to expand their audience — and income — after the close of its sale to an Asian media conglomerate Monday, says Allen Lau.
The chief executive of Toronto-based Wattpad Corp. anticipates a flood of new revenue streams because South Korean owner Naver is deeply connected in areas where Wattpad has little presence.
Wattpad plots expansion, additional revenue streams under new ownership
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The Wattpad logo is seen in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Wattpad *MANDATORY CREDIT*
TORONTO – Online storytelling company Wattpad and its writer-users will have more chances to expand their audience – and income – after the close of its sale to an Asian media conglomerate Monday, says Allen Lau.
The chief executive of Toronto-based Wattpad Corp. anticipates a flood of new revenue streams because South Korean owner Naver is deeply connected in areas where Wattpad has little presence.
“Not only will the size of the audience increase, the number of IPs will increase, and the number of ways that we are able to monetize the content will also increase,” Lau said in an interview.
As Naver closes $754 million CAD acquisition of Wattpad, Allen Lau is looking to scale
South Korean internet company Naver Corp. has officially acquired Wattpad for more than $754 million CAD ($600 million USD).
With the deal now closed, Toronto-based Wattpad has become a Naver brand alongside WEBTOON, a global leader in webcomics that Wattpad will work closely with moving forward. Wattpad’s core app will continue to operate independently while both content companies explore new ways to collaborate. Wattpad CEO and co-founder Allen Lau will report to WEBTOON CEO Jun Koo Kim.
Sources familiar with the deal told BetaKit the final amount of the acquisition may be more than $800 million CAD.