Beme (company)

For the now-defunct application with the same name, see Beme (app).

Beme Inc.

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Technology Social media News
Founded	2014; 11 years ago (2014) in New York City, New York, U.S.
Founder	Casey Neistat Matt Hackett
Defunct	January 25, 2018; 6 years ago (2018-01-25)
Fate	Merged with CNN Digital Studios
Headquarters	CNN Center, Atlanta, Georgia , U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Casey Neistat (Co-founder & executive producer)
Products	Beme News Beme Panels Beme (app) Exit Poll Live
Parent	CNN (2017–present)
Website	beme.com ([1])

Beme Inc. (/ˈbiːm/), stylized as beme, was a multimedia company founded by Matt Hackett and Casey Neistat, a vlogger and short filmmaker on YouTube.[1][2] Beme Inc. was the creator of the mobile app Beme. On November 28, 2016, CNN announced that it would acquire Beme.[3] CNN intended to invest in the company and create a new brand focused on a young audience.[4] The Beme app was officially shut down on January 31, 2017.[5] Beme was merged into CNN Digital Studios on January 25, 2018. Despite this, the Beme News YouTube channel was still active for more than a year after the closure.

History

In 2014, Beme Inc. was founded by Matt Hackett and Casey Neistat. On July 17, 2015, Beme Inc. released a mobile app called Beme on the iOS App Store. The app enables users to produce unedited 2-to-8-second videos, which are immediately uploaded and shared with the user's subscribers, without the ability to preview the video.[6] On May 2, 2016, Beme was released for Android on the Google Play Store. At TechCrunch, in May 2016, Neistat informed that they had raised a total of US$6M and had 11 full-time employees (10 technical, 1 responsible for social media). He also reported that burn rate was around US $180k per month and that his salary was US$0.[7]

Acquisition by CNN

On November 28, 2016, CNN announced the acquisition of Beme Inc. for a reported US$25 million.[8] On November 29, 2016, Matt Hackett, co-founder of Beme Inc., announced via an email to its users that the Beme app would be shutting down on January 31, 2017.[9] Since the shutdown of the app, it was announced that CNN intended to use the current talent behind the Beme app to work on a separate start-up endeavor. Beme's current team will retain full creative control of the new project which is scheduled to release in the summer of 2017.[10] Beme has brought on the host of Vsauce 3, Jake Roper, as Head of Production.[11]

On January 25, 2018, Casey Neistat announced on his YouTube channel that he and Beme co-founder Matt Hackett were leaving Beme Inc. and that Beme would be folded into CNN Digital Studios. Neistat would still be credited as an Executive Producer for the show.[12][13] A YouTube channel titled Beme News made content until August 2019.[14]

References

1. "Casey Neistat's Video App Avoids the Artificial Self-Image - artnet News". artnet News. 24 August 2015. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
2. "Casey Neistat - Youtube". YouTube. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
3. Spangler, Todd (28 November 2016). "CNN Acquires Social-Video Startup Beme, Co-Founded by YouTube Star Casey Neistat". Variety.
4. Etherington, Darrell (28 November 2016). "CNN buys Casey Neistat's Beme app, brings the YouTuber in-house". Tech Crunch.
5. "beme". beme. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
6. "This New App Filters Out Phoniness and Sends 4-Second Videos You Can't Review First". Retrieved 23 November 2017.
7. TechCrunch (2016-05-10), Casey Neistat's YouTube Life, retrieved 2016-10-25
8. Perlberg, Steven (November 28, 2016). "CNN Buys Casey Neistat's Video App Beme". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
9. Hackett, Matt (November 28, 2016). "Beme is Shutting Down, But Our Work Is Just Starting". Medium. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
10. "i sold my company to CNN". YouTube. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
11. "CNN update". Youtube. Casey Neistat. 5 July 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
12. Neistat, Casey (25 January 2018). "Moving on from Beme". YouTube. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
13. Hackett, Matt. "When Your Startup Stops". Matt Hackett. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
14. "Beme News". YouTube. Retrieved 2018-03-25.