The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) was recently announced as a major investor in a $15 million funding round for Playbuzz, an online platform for game-based online content including quizzes, games, and videos. The move comes after years of Disney expanding into the competitive online media space when it closed an acquisition of YouTube powerhouse, Maker Studios, in December 2015.
After testing the waters with Maker Studios, Disney's comparatively minute $15 million investment in Playbuzz may play into the company's recent strategy of monetizing its intellectual property across all of its segments. The Walt Disney Company is comprised of many holdings, including The Walt Disney Studios, Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Media Networks, and Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. For example, Disney's retail sales exceeded $1 billion in the last two years, bolstered by its in-house consumer products team that creates products across all other divisions. It is easy to see that Playbuzz may function similarly, providing Disney with another platform to tout its diverse products-from theme park experiences to blockbuster films.
Currently, Playbuzz's content appears on a wide variety of websites including Viacom's (NASDAQ: VIAB) MTV.com and USAToday.com. The company also specializes in creating content intended to go "viral" and succeeded with this endeavor as it is consistently the company with the most shared content on Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) at over 10 million shares per month. While other brands can utilize Playbuzz's game-based structure, the company also focuses on allowing users to build their own content to share via social media, with templates for fan-made quizzes, polls, and flashcards.
Saban Ventures closed the deal alongside The Walt Disney Company, though it is unclear what the companies' endgame will be, especially in regards to selling or fully acquiring Playbuzz in the future. Disney's experience investing in online media is limited to more traditional forms like Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube, so investing in a company where fans create a majority of the content is bold. In the past, Disney has often invested in online gaming experiences like the popular Club Penguin and Virtual Magic Kingdom, but this move expands Disney's reach further into non-Disney developed brands, though it seems likely that Playbuzz will soon be infused with aspects of Disney's brand in the coming months following the investment.