2020-03-01_Forbes_Asia

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FORBES ASIA MARCH 2020

TECHNOLOGY

Roku Redo

Photograph by Timothy Archibald for Forbes

ANTHONY WOOD is betting Roku’s future on what viewers hate: advertising.

thing consumers are said to loathe: advertising.

It’s a necessary pivot. Roku’s original business,

selling inexpensive dongles that let TV viewers

tap into the internet to stream 500,000 movies

and TV episodes from Netflix, Disney and many

more, is a low-margin one that has never turned a

profit. Even worse, streaming has become a com-

modity, with streaming apps integrated into any-

thing that can get online, from PlayStation con-

soles to tablets to smart TVs. Wood, 54, is now

betting that Roku can move beyond its hardware

business into a more lucrative software business:

measuring the reach and effectiveness of ads on

streaming apps.

DVRs and Netflix have

taught a generation to hate commercials. An-

thony Wood should know—he created one of

the first DVRs that allowed viewers to skip com-

mercials, and he also worked briefly at Netflix,

directly under its cofounder Reed Hastings. But

Wood’s latest pivot, in the midst of the streaming

media revolution, has been to bet the future of

his streaming device company, Roku, on the very

By Angel Au-Yeung

D

Serial entrepreneur

Anthony Wood at the

Los Gatos, California,

headquarters of Roku.

The name means

“six” in Japanese, a

nod to his half-dozen

business ventures.