M17 Entertainment, has successfully launched their IPO today on the NYSE under the symbol YQ. The company raised $60 million by offering 7.51 million ADSs at a price of $8. M17 Entertainment is a Taiwan-based company that has developed a live streaming platform known as 17 Media. The platform also provides live music streaming and has a built-in dating app.

M17 Entertainment at NYSE

17 Media is a huge hit in the developed Asia region that includes Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It is ranked number one in both Taiwan and Hong Kong, and is ranked second among live streaming platforms in Japan. 17 Media boasts 33.3 million registered users as of March 31, 2018 — with 1.0 million average monthly active users. Their revenue for Q1 2018 was $37.9 million, which is up 3.2 times from a year ago.

What This Means for Mithril

With the issues plaguing Facebook recently coming to light, more and more users like me are actively seeking another option to turn to for their social media. Crypto has always been about the community. Facebook, on the other hand, exploits its users data and doesn’t reward them for their content. There is a huge market and opportunity here for someone with social media app building experience to lead the revolution. Jeffrey Huang, co-founder of M17 Entertainment, has proven himself capable by building the largest streaming service in developed Asia and having a successful IPO.

Jeffrey Huang at the M17 IPO bell ringing

Jeffrey Huang, as well as being co-founder, has served as director and non-executive chairman since February 2017. Huang is a serial entrepreneur and an A-List celebrity in Taiwan. He was a member of the music groups LA Boyz and Machi, and has released more than 15 albums throughout his career. He also has experience in acting, directing and producing several TV series, movies and music videos. In recognition of his achievements, Huang has received several awards from the entertainment industries in Taiwan and Hong Kong and has taught courses on digital music design at Shih Chien University in Taipei. He also serves as a member of management at Machi Entertainment Group and Machi E-Sports.

Mithril — a decentralized social media platform

With his success and experience in the live streaming space, Jeff Huang, created Mithril. Mithril is a decentralized social media platform that rewards all content creators for simply posting photos or videos. This concept, called “Social Mining”, allows users to earn Mith tokens for their own generated content on the network. The Lit app will combine the advantages of crypto with all the features expected by the current generation of social media users. Instant messaging, story feeds, and discovery of new friends are all built into Lit for launch and the app will also be able to integrate into new and existing social media networks.

Mithril is already trading on a plethora of exchanges such as OKEx and Bithumb to name a few. The ICO was completed in February during the pre-sale round due to massive support and oversubscription from early supporters.

The Future of Social Media

The benefits of blockchain technology is well documented. The advantages and features should revolutionize many fields and social media is no exception. By incorporating Mithril tokens into their Lit app, the team hopes to be at the forefront of the social media revolution. Just like how Facebook made MySpace obsolete, crypto and Lit should make Facebook a thing of the past. This is definitely something that I will try out in the coming months.