Within the next three to five years, 17LIVE's CEO Joseph Phua is confident that the entertainment company will become the leading live streaming player globally. It took him slightly over a decade to build a billion-dollar content business, with the strategy of acquiring successful businesses to leapfrog its growth. Today, 17LIVE is the leading live streaming player within Northeast Asia, says Phua.

Building a billion dollar content business

Phua is no stranger to taking up a challenge. In 2013, Phua founded Paktor, a pioneering dating app that was later merged with 17LIVE. After he made his first acquisition of podcast company SoundOn in Taiwan, he started to build a team around investing and acquiring. In 2016, Phua began to build 17LIVE, introducing live-streaming technology to empower content creators around the world. Back then, live streaming and virtual gifting were not synonymous with each other. Inspired by China’s success in this...