Hulu
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Screenshot
Hulu website screenshot taken on 26 July 2009.
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| Type of business | Joint venture |
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Type of site
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Entertainment |
| Available in | English, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, US |
| Area served | US, Japan |
| Owner |
Hulu, LLC
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| Key people | Mike Hopkins (CEO) |
| Products | |
| Services | |
| Revenue |
 $1 billion (2013)
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| Website | www |
| Alexa rank |
 530 (December 2016)
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| Advertising |
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| Registration | Hulu Plus membership is required. |
| Users | 12 million (May 2016) |
| Launched | October 29, 2007 (Hulu Syndication Network) February 12, 2008 (Hulu.com destination site) |
| Current status | Active |
Hulu, LLC
Hulu (stylized as hulu) is an American subscription video on demand service owned by Hulu LLC, a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company (through Disney-ABC Television Group) (30%),21st Century Fox (through Fox Entertainment Group) (30%), Comcast (through NBCUniversal) (30%), and as of August 10, 2016, Time Warner (through Turner Broadcasting System) (10%, minority stake).
It is primarily oriented towards television series, carrying current and past episodes of series from its owners' respective television networks and other content partners. It was previously divided into free and paid tiers, with the free service limited in the amount of content accessible by users and is accessible via PC only, and a paid service with a larger library of content and access via Hulu applications for various mobile and connected devices. The subscription service is, in turn, divided into advertising-supported and mostly ad-free tiers. In 2016, Hulu spun out its free content into a joint venture with Yahoo! called Yahoo! View and also announced that it intends to launch a live television streaming service some time in 2017.
The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese words, húlú (/), "calabash; bottle gourd", and hùlù (/), "interactive recording". The company blog explains:
In Mandarin, Hulu has two interesting meanings, each highly relevant to our mission. The primary meaning interested us because it is used in an ancient Chinese proverb that describes the Hulu as the holder of precious things. It literally translates to "gourd", and in ancient times, the Hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things. The secondary meaning is "interactive recording". We saw both definitions as appropriate bookends and highly relevant to the mission of Hulu.
Key executives instrumental in the founding of Hulu include Bruce Campbell, Peter Chernin, JB Perrette, Michael Lang, and Jason Kilar. The venture was announced in March 2006 with AOL, Comcast, Facebook, MSN, Myspace, and Yahoo! planned as "initial distribution partners". Kilar was named the CEO in June 2006. The name Hulu was chosen in late August 2007, when the website went live, with an announcement only and no content. It invited users to leave their email addresses for the upcoming beta test. In October, Hulu began the private beta testing by invitation, and later allowed users to invite friends. Hulu launched for public access in the United States on March 12, 2008. The first product to launch was the HULU Syndication network, which was designed and developed by the NBC Universal team from New York, on October 29, 2007, followed by the Hulu.com destinations site.
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