Comcast Ventures invests in celebrity social media tool, WhoSay

By Natan Edelsburg 

Back in February 2011, the highly anticipated (and soon to be disappointing) Oscar co-host James Franco joined Twitter in time for the big broadcast. After the show, Tom Hanks went on Jimmy Kimmel and talked about tweeting. Both stars didn’t mention this, but they were using then in stealth-mode WhoSay, the social media management app that has given a celebrities a place to thrive in exclusivity like they do in real life. Comcast Ventures, Comcast Cable’s investment arm has just led a $12 million series C investment in the company that’s also backed by Amazon and CAA.

Less than a month after the 2011 Oscars, the company finally launched publicly and now boasts many of the big talent you see prolifically sharing content on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. Charlie Sheen uses (or used to use), Andy Cohen, Matthew McConaughey, Sofia Vergara and many more film and television actors all use their exclusive platform that gives them the ability to copyright and own all the content they share in one social destination.

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Their new consumer-facing interface allows you to auth in with your Twitter or Facebook login and then create a curated “network” of celebs you want to follow. They suggested the following 12 TV people when I created my account.

With this new round of funding from Comcast Ventures, WhoSay will continue to grow their TV footprint with the group’s network that “provides a gateway to Comcast Corporation, including NBCUniversal and an extensive network of 25 million cable and 17 million high-speed Internet customers, 1 million small- to medium-sized business Internet subscribers, and 110 million households that view our content,” according to the company’s website. The site adds that, “our relationship with Comcast and NBCUniversal gives us access to data available nowhere else – in turn, we share that access with our portfolio companies.”

While watching TV many fans often only care about what the celebrities or actors are saying. As WhoSay grows across TV they’re very well positioned to encourage network talent to use their platform for live-tweeting shows and more. As they improve their consumer-facing experience and launch apps, they’ll be a threat to any second screen company trying to tap into the celeb space.

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