We are truly living in the meme age. Warner Music Group, one of the biggest record labels in the world has just acquired a monster new business that has absolutely nothing to do with music. The industry giant announced its acquisition of IMGM Media, the company best known for Instagram memes and viral videos, along with the legendary Daquan profile. So, how much did Warner pay for control of the meme page? Try USD$85 million, according to Music Business Worldwide.
So, with zero music credibility and a history of basic memes in its arsenal, the question remains, why on earth would Warner drop such a ludicrous amount of cash on Daquan? Well, like most things, it’s all about the numbers. According to IMGN’s website, the firm’s channels share over 40 million subscribers/followers, and are viewed more than 3 billion times every month. Of those viewers, 85 per cent are Gen Z and young millennials, offering Warner a rare chance to target the lucrative market where they are.
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.
