Watchmojo

WatchMojo is a Canadian company and website which produces and distributes internet videos. Based in Montreal, WatchMojo has over a hundred employees globally, some of whom are part-timers or freelancers. They create a very high volume of short videos with low production costs, particularly enticing Top 10 listicles, which WatchMojo uploads to social media platforms such as YouTube, where its programming has been viewed over 100 billion minutes.

WatchMojo was founded in 2006 by CEO Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, Christine Voulieris, Raphael Daigneault, Kevin Havill and Derek Allen. Its first six years were not financially successful. It made a variety of factual brand-friendly content and made money from commissions or licensing their videos to brands such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola. In 2012, Karbasfrooshan pivoted WatchMojo's focus to YouTube and Top 10 videos. They became popular on the platform, where they have over 20,000 videos and 25 million subscribers. At one point, they were the most-subscribed Canadian channel.

Business

WatchMojo is a company and website that produces and distributes internet videos. Each month, it produces hundreds of short videos with minimal production value and, under fair use, heavy use of unlicensed copyrighted footage. The videos are then published on their social media platforms. WatchMojo owns over 35 YouTube channels, and also has smaller followings on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. The former include the primary YouTube channel, WatchMojo.com; the identical but female-oriented MsMojo, launched in early 2016; and MojoPlays, a gaming channel created in 2017.

WatchMojo's headquarters were located at the corners of and Saint Laurent Boulevard, in Montreal, Quebec. Currently it's based out of Zu, at Maison Alcan, in downtown Montreal As of 2019, its CEO is co-founder Ashkan Karbasfrooshan. In 2016, WatchMojo had 45 full-time employees, all in Montreal. In mid-2019, WatchMojo had 70 full-time employees across Montreal, New York City, Los Angeles, and London, along with dozens of part-timers or freelancers who research, write and edit the videos. In February 2020, they had "100 full-time and part-time employees globally."

In 2006, WatchMojo reportedly signed with talent agency William Morris Endeavor. In 2018, WatchMojo signed with ICM Partners, which was acquired by Creative Artists Agency in 2022. The company's board of directors include Peter Horan and Janet Scardino. Previous and current members of its advisory board include former AOL executive and NatGeo president Ted Prince as well as former DMG Entertainment exec Chris Fenton.

History

Iranian-born Ashkan Karbasfrooshan was partially raised in Spain and moved to Montreal with his family. While studying at the John Molson School of Business, he decided to work in the online industry. He worked at Mamma.com, a search engine based in the city, before joining the website AskMen and spending time at Montreal's sports radio station TSN 690. After leaving AskMen, Karbasfrooshan had the idea of starting a website for videos.

Karbasfrooshan, his wife Christine Voulieris, and Raphael Daigneault founded WatchMojo in 2006. Montreal was far removed from the major entertainment and internet businesses in the U.S., which made it difficult to see the dynamics of the industry. Karbasfrooshan started out with around $250,000 sizeable, but small compared to their competitors and funded WatchMojo from his commissions as a salesperson and his minority stake in AskMen. The business was met with intense skepticism from Karbafrooshan's accountants and advisors. Karbasfrooshan told ''Global News'' in 2016 that, for the first six years, WatchMojo made no revenue. He and Voulieris did not pay themselves and took out a second mortgage so that they could pay their employees. In vain, he reached out to hundreds of venture capitalists, but they eventually reached one million dollars in debt.

Nevertheless, WatchMojo continuing producing content, even if there was nobody paying for it. WatchMojo's YouTube channel was created on 25 January 2007, and its reach grew rapidly. Its videos were viewed over 13 million times that year and over 28 million the next. In 2012, Karbasfrooshan decided WatchMojo should focus on YouTube and Top 10 videos, where he believed there was a bigger audience. That year, they became profitable. From 2013 to 2015, the YouTube channel grew from one million to ten million subscribers. In 2016, Karbasfrooshan was one of the 36 finalists for the title of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Quebec.

On December 31, 2020, WatchMojo sold a 25% stake in the company to NY-based private equity firm Star Mountain Capital.

, the WatchMojo.com YouTube channel has over 25 million subscribers and has posted over 26,000 videos. In 2016, it was the most subscribed Canadian YouTube channel. When it had 14 million subscribers in 2017, it was the 35th most subscribed worldwide. According to Social Blade statistics in April 2024, WatchMojo.com is the fifth most subscribed Canadian YouTube channel.

Content

Short videos

WatchMojo's videos are typically around 10 minutes long. According to ''Digiday'', viewers typically watch the videos for 57 minutes. They are tailored to YouTube's recommendations system, which favours longer watch times. They require little production value and feature, under fair use, heavy use of unlicensed copyrighted footage, alongside voice-over narration. For its first six years in business, WatchMojo made no revenue. Early on, WatchMojo stayed away from amateur YouTube culture and followed a trend in informative non-fiction videos, producing thousands of these more corporate-friendly clips. Their content varied from celebrity profiles to travel videos, with titles such as "Freestyle Motocross Jumps", "Wolverine: Origins and History", and "Cover Girl Tips For Faking It: An Eyelid Crease".

Unlike YouTuber culture, WatchMojo made no claim to artistry or independence. Karbasfrooshan disowned both, saying user-generated creativity and web series were suited to traditional television, but volume-based content would bring scalable financial success on YouTube. Theirs was content either commissioned by or sold to brands.They earned money by licensing their videos to companies such as Bell Sympatico, AOL, MSN, Hulu, TV.com, Yahoo, and the websites of newspapers. Brands such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola used WatchMojo videos on promotional websites. In 2012, 80% of the company's revenue came from licensing and syndication. The rest came from advertising. That year, academic A.J. Christian wrote that WatchMojo's business model suggested that lifestyle new media content was the easiest to market to both consumers and corporations.

In 2012, Karbasfrooshan decided to shift WatchMojo's focus to YouTube, where he believed most potential viewers were, and Top 10 videos. Their content now almost exclusively consists of Top 10 videos which cover a wide variety of subjects. These videos have titles such as "Top 10 Unexpected Movie Deaths", "Top 10 Foods That Kill You", "Top 10 Controversial Symbols", and "Top 10 Christina Aguilera Videos" (MsMojo). WatchMojo video narrators include Rebecca Brayton widely known as the "WatchMojo Lady" Young Deuces, Tanner Zipchen, Phoebe De Jeu, Jess Adel, Ricky Tucci, and Noah Baum. WatchMojo's website does not host user-generated content, but it has a "Suggestions" section where users can recommend, upvote or downvote ideas for future videos.

In 2019, Karbasfrooshan said that 8090% of revenue comes from advertising and the licensing business still exists. The company's sponsors include the U.S. Army, Netflix, and Universal Pictures. They have interviewed celebrities such as Ed Sheeran and Ellie Goulding. During the press tour for '' Spider-Man: Far From Home'' (2019), Brayton interviewed cast members Tom Holland, Jacob Batalon, and Zendaya, and the former two said they were fans of WatchMojo.

In February 2016, WatchMojo posted the controversial "5 Facts About Veganism". In a 2016 article titled "Top 10 'Top 10' lists that make no f**king sense whatsoever", ''The Daily Dot'''s Luke Winkie lamented the "algorithmic click-miners" of WatchMojo who occasionally produced "baffling" titles and noted that, by then, most people on YouTube had been recommended WatchMojo videos. In the student-edited ''Cinephile: The University of British Columbia's Film Journal'', Joceline Andersen argues that WatchMojo has corporatized fan culture on YouTube by turning Top 10 rankings and the use of copyrighted footage, formerly an outlet for fans which were nevertheless an irritation for corporations, into a commercial enterprise explicitly for brands' benefit.

WatchMojo videos' strong use of copyrighted content has led to many Content ID copyright strikes to them over their history. In all cases, WatchMojo has argued against them, citing fair use. It was briefly terminated in 2013 because of multiple strikes. On the channel, Karbasfrooshan published several videos in 2019 to highlight instances of alleged Content ID abuse from copyright holders. His company estimated that holders unlawfully claimed over $2 billion from 2014 to 2019. He tentatively suggested that YouTubers file a class action lawsuit to obtain a monetary settlement, which led to much discussion among YouTubers, but said he hoped it would not be necessary.

Longform content and other ventures

In the late 2010s, WatchMojo started experimenting with longer content, especially after a rise in their channel's TV viewers. Karbasfrooshan said that he had wanted to establish a successful business first before making an attempt at long-form programming.

For example, in 2017, WatchMojo produced both the hockey quiz show ''The Lineup'' and ''The WORST Travel Show'', a Facebook Watch comedy series hosted by actor Kyle Gatehouse. In a February 2019 appearance on BNN Bloomberg's ''The Open'', Karbasfrooshan announced the launch of a entrepreneurship-focused spin-off brand called Context (later ContextTV). Prior to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, they released their first documentary, ''Fox in the Henhouse'', about the rise of socialism and the limitations of capitalism in the nation.

By 2019, WatchMojo launched a trivia app. In May 2019, to promote ''Doom Patrol'''s first season streaming on DC Universe, Warner Bros. distributed the first episode to the YouTube channels of DC, IGN, Rotten Tomatoes, and WatchMojo, where they could be viewed free-of-charge for a limited time. In September 2019, the 45th Saturn Awards were livestreamed on social media platforms, including WatchMojo's YouTube channel, for wider reach. WatchMojo also invested in the Buffer Festival, which showcases digital creators.

Notes

References

Primary sources

Further reading

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External links

WatchMojo.com

WatchMojo
on YouTube
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Companies based in Montreal
Internet properties established in 2006
2006 establishments in Quebec
Internet television channels
Online mass media companies of Canada
YouTube channels
YouTube channels launched in 2007
2000s YouTube series
2010s YouTube series
2020s YouTube series
Canadian companies established in 2006