Kumu (stylized in

lowercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally '' minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing system ...

) is a Filipino

video sharing An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content vi ...

and

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

social networking service A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interest ...

owned and developed by Kumumedia Technologies, Inc. The social media platform is used to

livestream Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming media, streaming of video or Digital audio, audio in real-time communication, real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature ...

curated programs created by app users and partner brands and as an e-commerce platform for app users and partner brands who want to sell their merchandise online. It was founded in 2017 and launched on Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

devices in February 2018. Kumu caters mainly to the

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

market and the

Filipino diaspora An overseas Filipino () is a person of full or partial Filipino origin who trace their ancestry back to the Philippines but are living and working outside of the country. This term generally applies to both people of Filipino ancestry and cit ...

. In October 2020, the app topped the download charts of both the

Apple App Store The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be download ...

and

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

in the free apps category. The app aims to become a "super app" that combines the functionalities of other apps like

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

Shopee Shopee Pte. Ltd., trading as Shopee, is a Singaporean multinational technology company that specializes in e-commerce. It operates as a subsidiary of Sea Limited. Shopee was founded in 2015 in Singapore, and subsequently expanded its operatio ...

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

and

Facebook Messenger Messenger, formerly known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary instant messaging service developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the client application of Messenger is currently available o ...

into one. Kumu is considering adding offline events to its platform, such as fan meetings with popular livestreamers and a convention inspired by

Comic-Con A comic book convention or comic con is a fan convention emphasizing comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book Fan (person), fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events h ...

called Kumu-Con, and expand beyond livestreaming to e-commerce and payments.

History

Kumu was developed in 2017 then launched in February 2018 by Roland Ros, Rexy Dorado, Andrew Pineda, and Clare Ros, who are Filipino entrepreneurs that were based in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and have worked in technology and social enterprises. It was initially developed as a messaging app with a livestreaming feature targeted toward

millennial Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ...

and

Generation Z Generation Z (often shortened to Gen Z), also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2 ...

Filipino users. The app's name was derived from the Filipino word "''kamusta''" (or ''kumusta''), meaning "How are you?", which is a common greeting among Filipinos. Kumu's livestreaming feature proved to be more popular among its users and the developers eventually shifted their focus towards this functionality and introduced other features. Registered users can also earn through brand sponsorships in their livestreams, similar to revenues that YouTube users can earn from ads on their videos. Kumu content creators can earn at least ₱20,000 (or about US$400) through livestreaming. With over 25,000 livestream broadcasts each day, Kumu has 3 million registered users each clocking an hour of daily average usage. Aside from user created livestreams, Kumu also livestreams its own curated shows, mainly game shows such as '' Game Ka Na Ba?'' and ''Quiz Mo Ko''. It has also partnered with various celebrities and brands to promote products through livestreaming. These include former actor and

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Isko Moreno Francisco "Isko" Moreno Domagoso (; born October 24, 1974) is a Filipino politician, actor, host and entrepreneur who is the mayor-elect of Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, having been 2025 Manila local elections, elected in 202 ...

, journalist

Ces Drilon Cecilia "Ces" Victoria Oreña-Drilon (; born July 8, 1961) is a Filipino broadcast journalist. She anchored news and public affairs programs for the News and Current Affairs division of ABS-CBN Corporation from 1989 to 2020. From 2018 to 2020 ...

, TV host

Boy Abunda Eugenio "Boy" Romerica Abunda Jr. (; born October 29, 1961) is a Filipino television presenter, publicist, and talent manager. Known as the "King of Talk", Abunda has presented several talk shows centered on the Philippine entertainment indus ...

, TV executive and actress Charo Santos, Sydney Crespo, Ruby Ibarra,

Mica Javier Mica Cecille Javier-Sillona (born July 29, 1993) is a Filipino singer and actress. Early life Javier was born in Manila, Philippines, the daughter of businessman and politician Leonardo "Sandy" Javier Jr. Her paternal uncle is Danny Javier ...

, Apple Chiu, Brent Manalo, as well as Star Magic Philippines, Cornerstone Entertainment Group, and MOR Philippines. In December 2018, Kumu announced that it had secured around $1.2 million in seed funding, led by

Summit Media Summit Publishing Co., Inc., doing business as Summit Media, is a Philippine digital media and publishing company. Founded in 1995, the company owns several entertainment and lifestyle media websites in the Philippines. Summit Media began as ...

, Foxmont Capital Partners, and Two Culture Capital. With the sudden popularity of

podcasting A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Kumu added a podcasting feature in February 2020 to attract more users and content creators to use to app. The feature allows audio streamers to accommodate guests and co-hosts in ‘public’ and ‘friends only’ options; as well as ‘mute’, ‘kick’ or ‘block’ listeners. In April 2020, Kumu announced that it had secured around $5 million in Series A funding. Openspace Ventures, an early investor in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend ...

Gojek PT Gojek Indonesia (stylized in all lower case and stylized ''j'' as goȷek, formerly styled as GO-JEK) is an Indonesian on-demand multi-service platform and digital payment technology group based in Jakarta. Gojek was first established in Ind ...

, along with Kickstart Ventures,

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN is a leading Philippine media and content company. It serves as the flagship media brand of ABS-CBN Corporation, a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation. Once the country's largest free-to-air television network, ABS-CBN has since ...

, Gobi-Core Philippine Fund, and returning investors Summit Media and Foxmont Capital Partners all participated in the funding round. In October 2020, Kumu partnered with Philippine media conglomerate

to launch the ninth season of reality TV show '' Pinoy Big Brother: Connect'' amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The app hosted online auditions for the reality show, which attracted over 100,000 new users, and it also livestreamed activities inside the Big Brother House during the show's run. In June 2021, Kumu announced that it had secured an undisclosed amount in Series B funding. Gentree Fund, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, alongside returning investors Summit Media, Kickstart Ventures, Foxmont Capital Partners, and Gobi-Core Philippine Fund all participated in the funding round. In July 2021, Kumu announced a partnership with

Wattpad Wattpad is a website for reading and publishing originally written fiction and connecting with fellow writers and readers. Its most popular genres are romance, teen fiction, and fan fiction. As of November 2021, Wattpad had more than 90 mill ...

to bring their stories into the Kumu app via live streaming, audio streaming, and social commerce. In August 2021, Kumu partnered again with

to launch the tenth season of

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

show '' Pinoy Big Brother: Kumunity Season 10''. The tenth season will feature adult, teen, and celebrity editions. In October 2021, Kumu announced that it had secured an undisclosed amount in Series C funding, led by

General Atlantic General Atlantic, legal main entity General Atlantic Service Company, L.P., (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. T ...

with the participation of Openspace Ventures and SIG. This brought Kumu's total funding to over $100 million. In November 2021, Kumu partnered with

Eat Bulaga! ''Eat !'' (; stylized as ''Eat... Bulaga!'') is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine television variety show broadcast by Radio Philippines Network, ABS-CBN, GMA Network and TV5 (Philippine TV network), TV5. Originally hosted by Tito S ...

to launch ''Bida First: Isang Tawag Ka Lang!'', a segment within the Eat Bulaga! program where viewers can win cash prizes by calling a phone number, in the app. In March 2022, Kumu partnered with TV5 to launch ''Top Class'', a talent search reality TV show focused on looking for the next

Pinoy pop Pinoy pop (also known as Philippine pop; an abbreviated form of "Pinoy popular music" or "Philippine popular music"; or P-Pop) refers to popular music in the Philippines originating from the Original Pilipino music, OPM genre. With its beginni ...

idol. In the same month, Kumu partnered with the

Premier Volleyball League The Premier Volleyball League (PVL) is the top-level professional women's volleyball league in the Philippines organized by the Sports Vision Management Group, Inc. The PVL was established in 2004 as the inter-collegiate Shakey's V-League (SV ...

to stream their games on the Kumu app. In September 2023, Kumu announced a partnership with Ikon Solutions to provide job opportunities for

Overseas Filipino Worker Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) is a term often used to refer to Filipino migrant workers, people with Filipino citizenship who reside in another country for a limited period of employment. The number of these workers was roughly 1.77 million ...

Features

*Pinoy Tambayan – An online community powered by artists, educators, and everyday Filipinos, where people from around the world can share their stories through their own livestream channels. *Live Pinoy Games – Authentic, positive, inspirational, and fun live games that also give users a chance to win some cash and cool prizes. *Kumunity - An online community of Filipino users where they have the freedom to talk about anything under the sun by posting on their profile or using the messenger functions, as well as share posts and videos to Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and SMS. *Live Commerce - The app's e-commerce feature. Kumu has partnered with various brands and Filipino talents to show off products on livestreams. The app also offers weekly discount coupons and free delivery all throughout the Philippines. *Messenger - The app's messaging function. Users can chat with celebrities and users and create group chats.

References

External links

* {{Online social networking Philippine social networking websites Video on demand services Internet properties established in 2018

History

Features

See also

References

External links