In the era of viral content, Warner Music Group, a global record label titan, took an unexpected leap by acquiring IMGN Media, renowned for its Instagram memes and the iconic Daquan profile, a seemingly unrelated venture to its musical roots. This acquisition left many startled when the price tag for just the Daquan page was unveiled: a staggering $85 million, as reported by Music Business Worldwide. But, why would Warner make such a hefty investment in a meme platform? Peeling back the layers, IMGM’s statistics reveal the allure: boasting over 40 million subscribers across their channels with a whopping 3 billion monthly views. Remarkably, 85% of this audience comprises the sought-after Gen Z and young millennials, presenting Warner with a golden opportunity to tap into this lucrative demographic right where they’re most active.
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Who is @Daquan on Instagram?
Let’s face it, memes are a daily occurrence now. They remain an integral part of our everyday lives and apparently offer an enormous revenue stream for those who get them right, but who exactly is the elusive Daquan? The identity of the man behind the memes remains shrouded in mystery, but we can tell you, thanks to a 2017 interview with Forbes is that the editorial side is run by a 23-year-old Calgary native, backed by IMGM Media and Comedy.com co-founders Barak Shragai and Dor Mizrahi.
In our research, we found very little that unearthed the true identity of the character, further proving the question, just who is Daquan is not easy to answer. According to the Forbes interview, Daquan is a fictional character that grew into an internet culture icon. “The goal was to create a social media content brand that is synonymous with internet pop culture, not a personality brand,” Daquan told Forbes. “This is substantially different from influencers who rely on their appearance and/or personal style.”
In fact, it’s not even the real Daquan in the profile picture. Instead, it’s simply an image that summarises the inventive role the page has played in popular culture. Like all good editorial teams, Daquan is run like a daily show, curated and collated by a team of individuals, working across a world of content. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill meme page, this is big business. “I’ve always been a fan of memes and followed a lot of meme pages on Facebook/Instagram, and just one day I thought about making one of my own,” Daquan said. “I started posting memes on Instagram and the account grew quickly to 150,000 followers. Back then it was impossible to predict that this would become a full-fledged business.”
In a world where identity is everything, Daquan is an enigma, hidden under layers of meme-folklore myth. An enigma that just found itself USD$85 million richer.
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General FAQs
Despite being founded by one person, Daquan is not a real human being, rather an internet persona. The original founder remains a mystery, however, a Forbes interview revealed that he is a 23-year-old content producer from Calgary, Canada.
The Instagram page Daquan is owned by IMGM Media, an organisation that also operates brands such as So Satisfying, Sarcasm Therapy, Bodyful and Tryhard. In August 2020, IMGM Media was acquired by Warner Music Group from an estimated USD$85 million.
In July 2014, the founder of Daquan started an Instagram account called “yahboydaquan” dedicated to only posting “Daquan” memes. From there, the page snowballed and he partnered with Comedy.com founders Barak Shragai and Dor Mizrahi.