Kiswe Mobile, Inc., trading as Kiswe, is an

internet video Internet video (also known as online video) is digital video that is distributed over the internet. Internet video exists in several formats, the most notable being MPEG-4i AVC, AVCHD, FLV, and MP4. There are several online video hosting s ...

company based in

Murray Hill, New Jersey Murray Hill is an unincorporated community located within portions of both Berkeley Heights and New Providence, located in Union County, in the northern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the longtime central location of Bell ...

. The company develops

live streaming 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 ...

and

interactive video The term interactive video usually refers to a technique used to blend interaction and linear film or video. History In 1962, Steve Russell, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created Spacewar!, the world's first inte ...

platforms, particularly for sporting events and concerts.

History

The company was started in autumn 2013. Its three founders are Jeong Kim, an engineer and former president of

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

; Wim Sweldens, a scientist and innovator in communications and signal processing who had been at

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...

; and Jimmy Lynn, former sports executive with

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

and professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. During its

stealth mode In business, stealth mode is a company's temporary state of secretiveness, either in total stealth mode when everything about the company is kept secret, or in-company stealth mode which is usually undertaken to avoid alerting competitors to a pen ...

period, Kim said the new venture was at the juncture of next-generation Web technology and sports and said that their " secret sauce" was the technology to allow

to be applied to sports. Kim's initial goals were for $1 million in funding.

Clients

Kiswe's first major client was the

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference. The team was ...

of the WNBA, which launched a "Mystics Live"

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

in May 2014 that offered free, in-market streaming of Mystics games, with a choice of multiple camera angles, on-demand

instant replay Instant replay or action replay is a video reproduction of something that recently occurred, both shot and broadcast live TV, live. After being shown live, the video is replayed so viewers can see it again and analyze what just happened. Spo ...

, and in-game statistics. Kim is a partner of the team's parent company

Monumental Sports & Entertainment Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) is an American sports management, sports and venue management company founded by Ted Leonsis in June 2010. Monumental owns and operates the NHL team Washington Capitals, the NBA team Washington Wizards, t ...

. Sweldens described the app as a combination of a "first screen" experience of video with a

second screen A second screen involves the use of a secondary computing device to provide a different viewing experience for content on another device. The term commonly refers to the use of such devices to provide interactive features, like posts on social me ...

experience. The Mystics and WNBA were an effective vehicle for the application because the league is more open to new business ventures, and because the team's television broadcaster

CSN Mid-Atlantic Monumental Sports Network, formerly NBC Sports Washington, is an American regional sports network owned by Ted Leonsis through Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports ...

did not pay a rights fee to carry Mystics games. Kiswe launched an app for the

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

promotion

Professional Fighters League The Professional Fighters League (PFL) is an American mixed martial arts league founded by venture capitalist Donn Davis in 2017 and launched in 2018, following the acquisition and restructuring of the former World Series of Fighting (WSOF) promot ...

(PFL) in 2019, similarly integrating streams of events with real-time statistics, interactive polls, trivia, and prediction games, and the ability to create public and private lobbies with

chat room The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

s. PFL CEO Pete Murray stated that the app was designed to also facilitate

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...

features in the future. In July 2019, Kiswe announced a partnership with

Vidgo Vidgo was an American streaming television service that offered over 100 channels of English- and Spanish-language sports, news and general entertainment content. In addition to its live television packages, Vidgo offered a cloud-based digital v ...

to integrate

social television Social television is the union of television and social media. Millions of people now share their TV experience with other viewers on social media such as Twitter and Facebook using smartphones and tablets. TV networks and rights holders are increa ...

features into its streaming television service. Vidgo also made an investment into Kiswe. Kiswe also partnered with the

CrossFit Games The CrossFit Games is an annual athletic competition owned and operated by CrossFit, LLC. Athletes compete in a series of events at the Games, which may be various standard CrossFit workouts consisting of metabolic conditioning exercises, weight ...

to use its

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

-based production platform to allow for community-produced broadcasts of the

2019 CrossFit Games The 2019 CrossFit Games was the 13th iteration of the annual competition in the sport CrossFit Games, CrossFit held from August 1–4, 2019, at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. The men's competition was won by Mat Fr ...

, which could be localized and tailored for different audiences and languages. 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 ...

, Kiswe branched out into

virtual concert A virtual concert, also called V-concert or virtual live, refers to a performance in which the performers are represented by virtual avatars. Virtual concerts can take place in real life, where digital representations of the performers are projec ...

s in 2020; on June 8, 2020, Kiswe announced a strategic "global partnership" with

K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

record label

Big Hit Entertainment Big Hit Music (, stylized in all caps), formerly Big Hit Entertainment (), is a South Korean record label established in 2005 by Bang Si-hyuk. It was re-branded and re-structured into an independent label under Hybe Corporation (formerly Big Hit ...

, with its first event being the

BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. The band consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, who co-write or co-produce much of their material. Originally a hip hop group, they ...

virtual concert ''Bang Bang Con: The Live''. The event took in US$18.1 million in revenue, with Kiswe and Big Hit reporting a peak of over 756,000 concurrent viewers in 107 territories. The two companies launched a virtual concert platform, VenewLive, in September 2020: in March 2021,

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

and

YG Entertainment YG Entertainment () is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment agency established in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and conce ...

made investments into VenewLive. In April 2023, the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

announced that

Gray Television Gray Media, Inc., doing business as Gray Television, is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 statio ...

and Kiswe had acquired the regional rights to the team and WNBA

Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Mercury compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. One of eight original franchises, it wa ...

, replacing Bally Sports Arizona the 2023–24 season; Kiswe developed an over-the-top subscription service for the Suns called "Suns Live". Kiswe also partnered with the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...

on its "Jazz+" platform.

References

{{reflist, 30em American companies established in 2013 Software companies based in New Jersey Privately held companies based in New Jersey Mobile software Software companies of the United States