Sport engagement startup WTF Media: ‘we want to become the YouTube of fan engagement’

Manith Parikh is the CEO and founder of WTF Media. This startup is one of the fastest-growing sports companies in Southeast Asia and a non-Dutch portfolio company of the Dutch Sport Tech Fund. In this interview, Parikh explains how he wants to make the sports engagement startup more successful than YouTube.

The potential of the application is unprecedented, as the company is targeting large Asian markets such as India (1.6 billion inhabitants) and China (1.7 billion inhabitants). WTF Media has an edge over the competition, as it is a so-called “first mover” in this region. The more mature American market also offers many opportunities. In addition, WTF Media cleverly leverages platforms like Twitch, allowing it to benefit from a network effect. 

“Fans can consume content on WTF Media, follow fantasy sports, share user-generated content, earn loyalty points, and use those loyalty points to bet on sports matches. Everything happens without cash or cryptocurrencies on the platform, which also uses gamification.”

“As WTF Media, we want to develop an integrated ecosystem for everything related to sports. I came up with the idea for WTF in 2010. At the time, I was studying in the US, where there is already a mature market for fan engagement. However, people there still use different apps for different sports. Not only is that inconvenient, but it also means you miss out on opportunities for engagement and connection with fans and content consumption. The real added value lies in that cross-pollination, because people are often fans of multiple sports.”

“When I noticed the lack of such an integrated platform, I decided to fill this gap in the market myself. Initially, we wanted to aggregate other services on one platform, but we soon realized that every fan is different and deserves a unique approach. Only an integrated platform can optimally serve every sports fan.”

“We’re doing well, in fact, we’re growing very fast. We launched about fourteen months ago and in that time we have activated one million users and generated half a million dollars in revenue. Users are also very active on the platform, which shows that they are truly engaged. Our valuation also increased significantly. At the seed round, in which Dutch Sport Tech Fund also participated, our company was valued at 4.1 million dollars. At this moment, we are raising a new round of growth funding at a valuation of 17.5 million dollars.”

“Our goal is to have three to four million users connected at the beginning of 2022 and to make one million dollars in profit. This would be a great start on our way to our dreamed unicorn status, a technology company with a valuation of more than a billion dollars. We are growing so fast because our CAC (customer acquisition cost, cost per new user) is only 29 cents. That is unprecedentedly low. Our ARPU, the average profit per user, is much higher and this ratio will only become more favorable as the user base continues to grow.”

“We have several important focus points for the coming years. First of all, we want to make it more difficult for new players to enter the market, so we are aiming for a so-called higher ‘entry value’. We achieve this by adding more value for our users. We also do this by enabling APIs, as successful tech companies like Slack and Asana already do. APIs are software that make it possible for two applications to communicate with each other. Making strategic acquisitions is another way to maintain this lead.”

“Since we have built a rapidly growing community of now a million users, we are developing revenue models for this community. We are on our way to becoming the largest channel for sports in the region, which offers opportunities for a direct-to-consumer revenue model. That is why the rapid growth of our membership is so important. We also partner with ambassadors such as well-known athletes and trainers, who share their tips and guidance on our platform. In this way, we leverage their knowledge and network for our growth.”

“We work with leading teams in our region such as Muong Thong United and PTT Chonburi. These teams, for example, are active in football, futsal (indoor football), and sepaktakraw (‘foot-volleyball on a badminton court’), sports that are popular here. The national teams of Thailand in badminton, cricket, football, futsal, and darts are affiliated with WTF. For these teams, we essentially act as a publisher: we monetize their content by selling broadcasting rights or finding advertisers. As a result, these sports gain more resources and viewers, creating a win-win situation.”

“In addition, we actively look for other teams that are valuable to our fan community. Many clubs have fans all over the world, but those fans are sometimes scattered. By allowing fans to connect with other like-minded fans, a network effect is created on our platform. That’s why we strive to connect more national teams from countries in Southeast Asia.”

“We see the West as a source of inspiration. The United States has a mature market for fan engagement; a lot of innovation has already taken place there. This offers us a few advantages. First of all, we can see what does and does not work in the field of fan engagement and discover what drives that success. That, in turn, creates opportunities for our home markets.”

“At the same time, we can test new innovations in our home markets in Southeast Asia. If these prove successful, we can roll them out in the United States and thus gain an edge over the competition. Many other companies ignore Southeast Asia because not many people speak English yet and there are various local languages. We see this as an opportunity and use it to our advantage.”

“We want to become the ‘YouTube’ of fan engagement. Right now, YouTube is the most used app for video content; people use the platform for an average of 27 minutes. How cool would it be if WTF Media was used just as often – or even more? Engagement is the magic word in this sector: the time spent on the platform determines success, as users’ attention is worth its weight in gold.”

“We also want to give scouts access to local talents. If you think you’re a good football player, soon you’ll be able to send a video to a coach in Thailand or Indonesia. If you turn out to be really good, you could earn a scholarship. These success stories are important for our growth and offer an opportunity to give back to the community.”