Free Speech Video Platform Rumble Makes Its Move Into Audio With … – Inside Radio

The video-sharing platform Rumble is expanding into podcasting with a deal to buy Callin, the San Francisco-based podcasting and live streaming platform. We believe the addition of Callins user-friendly app and post-production tools coupled with Rumbles substantial creator and user communities will create beneficial synergies, improving the experience of Rumbles creators and their fans, Rumble said in the announcement. It says the Callin team will continue to develop live streaming capabilities as a part of Rumble.

The addition of Callins talented team and the capabilities of its product signifies a major step in our journey to deliver greater value and tools to our creators, which will further enhance our user engagement, Rumbles Chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski said in the joint announcement.

How much it is paying for Callin remains a work in progress, however, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rumble told shareholders that it is an all-stock deal yet the company is still in the process of evaluating and determining the fair value of Callin.

Launched in 2021 by technology entrepreneur and investor David Sacks and Axel Ericsson, Callin bills itself as a social podcasting platform that is a mashup of live audio and podcasting. Callin offers listeners a live-stream audio listening experience to call in and ask questions similar to what they have done for decades on talk radio. Once the show is over, it becomes an on-demand podcast.

I am excited to expand Callins capabilities by joining forces with Rumble, a platform with significant size, influence, and reach. As an avid proponent of the creator economy and the free flow of ideas, said Sacks. It was my own experience with the All-In Podcast that gave me the idea for Callin: I discovered how much work goes into producing a show and wanted to radically simplify the experience. I teamed up with Axel to launch the first social podcasting platform, where users can easily stream, take questions, record, edit, publish, and share content with their audience.

Sacks is a former COO at PayPal and is also a co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures, which was one of the early investors in Callin alongside Sequoia Capital and Goldcrest Capital. Under the terms of the deal, Sacks is slated to join Rumbles board of directors in the second half of June.

We remain in the position to empower and welcome independent creators offering a world class experience and the best economic toolkit on the internet, Pavlovski said in a statement. This commitment is exemplified by the acquisition of Callin where an opportunity presented itself to greatly accelerate our product roadmap and enable us to build a world class live streaming experience.

Rumble has grown popular with conservative content producers, including Dan Bongino, during the past several years for its light touch approach to content moderation. Its expansion into audio comes as the number of conservative-targeted podcasts continues to grow.

Rumble had $17.6 million in revenue during the first quarter, a 336% increase compared to a year ago which it says was driven by more ad dollars and the addition of new content. Rumble says it had an estimated 10.8 billion minutes of video watched per month during the first quarter, and its hours of uploaded video on a year over year basis increased 82% to 11,181.

We continue to capture market share from traditional streaming service providers, and most importantly Rumble is becoming home for not only our creators, but also our audiences, best evident by the increase in consumption, Pavlovski said.

The rest is here:
Free Speech Video Platform Rumble Makes Its Move Into Audio With ... - Inside Radio