(NewsGlobal.com)- Rumble, an online video service that is seeking to become a major competitor to Google-owned YouTube, said earlier this week that they will seek to become a publicly-traded company.
Billionaire Peter Thiel is backing Rumble, which is a conservative-leaning video media online platform. Bloomberg reported this week that, after the company goes public, it will trade under the RUM ticker symbol. The deal has the company valued at a very impressive $2 billion.
Bloomberg reported that Rumble will be able to go public thanks to a merger with CF Acquisition Corp. VI, a blank-check firm that was also descried as a special purpose acquisition company. It also has backing from Cantor Fitzgerald, another Wall Street firm.
The merger is expected to give Rumble $400 million in proceeds, which will help it go public and boost its value considerably.
The platform has been online since back in 2013, but really only soared in popularity during the last presidential election in 2000. Because of the extreme content moderation principles of liberal-leaning social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook, conservatives sought out other platforms that would allow them to express their First Amendment rights to free speech.
Many found Rumble as one of the best outlets on which they could do just that. Other popular social media alternatives have included Truth Social — the social media company launched by former President Donald Trump — Gettr and Parler. All of those have been downloaded and installed by millions of users around the world.
According to Bloomberg, the number of app installations on a monthly basis increased 250% in August of this year, all the way up to 7 million total app installs.
Rumble has plans to create what they’re calling a unique cloud-based service that would ensure their operations never go down, despite whatever happens with their providers. In addition, they will feature an ad network that will host Trump Media and Technology Group as their first publisher.
In a filing Rumble made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, officials wrote:
“We create technologies that are designed to be immune to cancel culture, because everyone benefits when people have access to more ideas, diverse opinions and dialogue. We are on a mission to protect a free and open internet.”
The CEO of the company, Chris Pavlovski, said this week that he is very excited for what the future holds for his company, amidst a very rapid expansion. As he told FOX Business earlier this week:
“I think we were one of the most successful SPACs for 2022. We raised approximately $400 million, and one of the main things that we’re going to be doing with the proceeds is going and really acquiring a lot of content into the platform.”
In addition, Pavlovski noted that content creators are actually already contacting him so that their content can be posted on the Rumble site. It appears as if many people are excited about the public move for Rumble, as it seeks to become more than just an alternative to YouTube.
