B4| Monday, November 16, 2020 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech
Compared with Logitech’s StreamCam, left, a no-name webcam isn’t
as clear and casts a red hue on your face in some lighting conditions.ing or dangerous. Fox Business
anchor Maria Bartiromo an-
nounced she was quitting Twit-
ter for Parler, where she has
amassed more than 1 million
followers. Conservative talk
show host Dan Bongino—an in-
vestor in Parler—heralded its
growth as “a collective middle
finger to the tech tyrants.”
Both of them have continued
to post on Facebook and Twit-
ter, though, raising the ques-
tion of whether Parler will
eventually complement or re-
place larger platforms with
much bigger audiences.
In part, that answer will be
determined by the success of
Parler’s business model, which
eschews some of the founda-
tional tools of social media.
Twitter and Facebook gather
extensive data about the con-
tent users interact with—and
then customize what users see
based on what’s likely to appeal
to them. When the platforms
detect content that is popular
among a swath of users, they
promote that content in more
users’ feeds—creating the sort
of viral sensations social media
is known for.
Parler doesn’t do that. The
platform doesn’t use content-
recommendation algorithms,
collects almost no data about
its users and, for privacy rea-
sons, hasn’t provided the tools
to let users easily cross-post
from other platforms. Parler
simply shows users all the poststheir nude photos on the plat-
form, Mr. Matze said.
Parler has also been em-
braced by individuals who have
been banned by other platforms.
Far-right talk-show host Alex
Jones, the extremist group the
Proud Boys and the “Stop the
Steal” election protest organiz-
ers all have established sizable
followings on Parler after being
banned from Facebook.
In recent weeks the app has
teemed with claims about elec-
tion fraud without offering evi-
dence, white-supremacist con-
tent and posts from backers of
the QAnon conspiracy theory,
the Anti-Defamation League said.
Mr. Matze said allowing
those groups on the platform is
consistent with the company’s
commitment to free speech,
even if not all of it is to his taste.
“Those QAnon people, they
creep me out,” said Mr. Matze,
the 27-year-old CEO who
founded the Henderson, Nev.-
based company.
“I can see why there’s interest
in this,” said Antonio Garcia
Martinez, a former Facebook
product manager and Twitter
adviser, noting mainstream plat-
forms feel they must make con-
cessions on free speech to reach
the broadest possible audience.
Yet recent history suggests
that “at some point the world
revolts against this sort of
thing,” he said, noting the
struggles of alt-right platforms
such as Gab.Mercer, in a post on Parler after
a version of this article was pub-
lished, said her father had no in-
volvement or ownership of the
company. Mr. Mercer couldn’t be
reached for comment.
Ms. Mercer said in a separate
post that she and Mr. Matze
“started Parler to provide a neu-
tral platform for free speech, as
our founders intended.” She
said the effort is an answer to
what she called the “ever-in-
creasing tyranny and hubris of
our tech overlords.”
The company’s user base
more than doubled to 10 million
in under a week, making it diffi-
cult for its roughly 30-person
staff to keep up with the flood
of new sign-ups. “You’d fix one
thing, and another would blow
out,” Mr. Matze said. “We’re
now solid at this point.”
Other allies of President
Trump have joined Ms. Mercer
in framing Parler’s rapid
growth as a rebuke to major
tech platforms’ efforts to more
aggressively label content or
restrict the reach of posts that
the platforms deemed mislead-
Continued from page B1
Mercer Heir
Is Backing
App Parler
from everyone they follow, in
reverse chronological order.
While Parler’s terms of ser-
vice allow the app to tailor con-
tent for its users in the future,
executives said they were com-
mitted to their libertarian prin-
ciples. “We’re choosing to be a
neutral platform,” said Jeffrey
Wernick, the company’s chief
operating officer.
Parler’s hands-off philosophy
could test users.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter,
Parler leaves virtually all mod-
eration decisions up to individ-
uals, allowing them to choosewhether to apply filters that
hide content such as hate
speech and pornography. The
minimal enforcement that ex-
ists—primarily the removal of
spam, threats of violence, or il-
legal activity—is handled by
“community jurors,” all cur-
rently volunteers.
That policy leads to free-
wheeling political discussion. It
also allows some communities
to flourish that don’t fit as eas-
ily on other platforms, such as
a group of users who publishUsers have reached
10 million, including
some people banned
by other platforms.were pushed forward by the evi-
dence of higher demand.
Netflix, which hired a cre-
ative team dedicated to anime
production in Tokyo four years
ago, said more than 100 million
households around the world
watched at least one anime title
on the streaming site in the year
to September, growing by 50%
from a year earlier. Anime titles
have appeared in the top-10 list
in nearly 100 countries this year,
it said. Amazon Prime also fea-
tures a wealth of anime titles.
The financial reports of To-
kyo-based Toei Animation
Co., the studio responsible for
anime such as the “Dragon
Ball” and “Sailor Moon” fran-
chises, give a glimpse into
how the industry is changing.Four years ago, revenue re-
ceived from outside Japan ac-
counted for one-third of Toei
Animation’s overall revenue.
The overseas portion rose to
half of the total in the year
ended this past March, and
overseas revenue more than
doubled to the equivalent of
$243 million, with “Dragon Ball”
programs available on stream-
ing services such as Hulu in the
U.S. In the most recent six
months, overseas sales rose to
nearly three-fifths of the total.
Animated content “isn’t just
about Disney anymore,” said
Kozo Morishita, who stepped
down as Toei Animation’s chair-
man in June and remains an ad-
viser to the company.
Overseas sales by Japanesecompanies involved in anima-
tion content, including those li-
censing characters for goods,
grew to about $10 billion in
2018 from some $2.3 billion six
years earlier and accounted for
nearly half of total industry rev-
enue, according to the Associa-
tion of Japanese Animations.
Bringing anime to the world
isn’t easy. Anime programs in
Japan are typically made by a
group of investors who form an
ad hoc production committee
for each project. It is often im-
possible to find out who the
members of a committee are,
said Tomohito Mure, CEO of
Paradigm Shift Co., which nego-
tiates international anime deals.
“It’s a system peculiar to
Japan,” he said.TOKYO—The pandemic is
helping Japan’s demon slayers,
monsters and robots make the
leap to the global market.
Animated video in the Japa-
nese style—aka anime—has long
been a niche taste for fans in
the U.S. and elsewhere, and
some anime films such as those
by Hayao Miyazaki have become
mainstream hits.
Now, with the pandemic put-
ting a premium on escapist
video content, the business is
getting hotter. Streaming ser-
vices such asNetflixInc. and
Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon
Prime are scouring the globe for
fresh content, and anime has an
advantage over live-action con-
tent because it doesn’t require
actors and crew to expose them-
selves to virus contagion.
With the latest anime hit
bringing in hundreds of millions
of dollars in Japan, industry
players say the next year is
likely to bring more deals and
more content for the U.S.
“I used to have the sense
that the anime category was
spreading widely around the
world, but what we’re seeing
these days is a big leap be-
yond that,” said Taiki Sakurai,
Netflix’s chief anime producer.
In October, Netflix said it had
16 projects in the works at its
Tokyo anime production hub, in-
cluding “Godzilla” and “Trans-
formers” titles, with plans for
global distribution that it said
BYCHIEKOTSUNEOKA
Streamers Come Calling for Anime
Netflix hired a creative team dedicated to anime production. A scene from ‘Pacific Rim: The Black.’NETFLIXparty without your knowl-
edge, says Lamar Bailey, di-
rector of research at Trip-
wire, a cybersecurity firm.
Meanwhile, most manufac-
turers of brand-name web-
cams regularly release firm-
ware updates for their
products. So if you can find
one in stock, jump on it
quickly.Use a phone or digital
camera
Warning: These final op-
tions require some added
software and a bit of setup
time, but the result is your
mug looking better than ev-
eryone else’s on the call.
Your first option? Use your
smartphone as your laptop’s
webcam. It may sound crazy,
but your smartphone has far
better cameras than your lap-
top, while your laptop has a
way bigger screen than your
smartphone.
Reincubate Camo software,
available for $40 a year or $5
a month, makes this all easy.
Install it on your Mac or Win-
dows PC, download the app
on your iDevice, connect the
two with a standard Light-
ning-to-USB cable and, boom,
you’ve now got a high-quality
webcam—or, webcams, plural.
If you’ve got an iPhone with
multiple cameras, the soft-
ware lets you choose. You can
even use the flash on the back
as a pseudo ring light. Be-
ware, it can be a bit blinding.
Understandably, you may
not want your main smart-
phone doing double duty as
your webcam. Older phones
work great, too. The best
thing you can do with this
setup? Buy a tripod and a
phone mount. Position it be-
hind your laptop so the
phone sits in line with the
laptop webcam.
If you want to look like the
Martin Scorsese of Zoom, you
can use your DSLR or digital
camera as a webcam, too.
Over the past few months,
Sony, Nikon and Canon have
released new Mac and Win-
dows software so your com-
puter can recognize your
fancy camera as a webcam.
That setup can sometimes
require accessories like this
HDMI capture card, but don’t
let that bother you. It’s not
as scary as it might sound.
Once you’re up and running
with either a phone or cam-
era, you’ll see them as
source options in your video-
chat app of choice.
Now go and enjoy being
the clearest, gosh-darnit best-
looking person on the call.but also BlueJeans, Go-
ToMeeting and Webex. (Pos-
sible deal breaker: Google
Meet is available only on
Google’s display.)
It’s still early days for
work calls on smart displays.
Many features, such as virtual
backgrounds and in-meeting
chat, aren’t available yet. And
you generally can’t use head-
phones with them.
Another option is to turn a
tablet into a video-chat box.
All you need is an iPad, Ama-
zon Fire or Android tablet
with a front-facing camera,
plus the latest version of your
preferred teleconferencing
app and something to prop
the device on. Fashioning
yourself a homemade stand is
as easy as flipping over an
egg carton. You can find ad-
justable tablet holders on
Amazon under $20.
Some advice to iPad users:
Stick with the portrait orien-
tation, which keeps the cam-
era centered.
Also, prop up the camera
to at least eye level, unless
you want to impress people
with your multiple chins.
And be sure the iPad is in Do
Not Disturb mode, or at least
has distracting notifications
turned off.Use a webcam
Therearedozens of
cheap, no-name cams in
stock on Amazon. Is it too
good to be true? We decided
to take the plunge on a $35
1080p setup from a brand
we never heard of. It looks—
and you look—like it cost
$35. The camera cast a rosy-
red hue in some lighting
conditions. Some people
asked us if we had a face
peel, others if we were sun-
burned. The lens also has a
pronounced fisheye look.
For the price, the camera
isn’t terrible, but compared
with webcam-king Logitech’s
premium StreamCam ($170),
the image isn’t nearly as clear
or properly exposed.
There is also some security
concern. Buying equipment
from unknown brands is a
risk because, while rare, it’s
possible for webcams to send
audio or video to a thirdContinued from page B1Look Your
Best on
Video Calls
For nearly two years, allies
of President Trump have been
exploring ways to build up a
formidable competitor to Fox
News. One target they recently
zeroed in on: the fledgling
pro-Trump cable channel
Newsmax TV.
Hicks Equity Partners,a
private-equity firm with ties to
a co-chair of the Republican Na-
tional Committee, has held talks
in recent months about acquir-
ing and investing in Newsmax,
according to people familiar
with the matter, part of a larger
effort that could also include a
streaming-video service.
Newsmax’s viewership has
risen sharply since Election
Day, as it wins over viewers
loyal to Mr. Trump who are
frustrated that Fox News and
other networks have declared
Democrat Joe Biden the presi-
dent-elect. Newsmax hosts
have promoted Mr. Trump’s
claims that the election was
stolen. No evidence of signifi-
cant fraud has emerged or
been presented.
It is unclear whether Hicks
Equity’s talks with Newsmax
will move forward. The discus-
sions show the belief among
some investors and allies of
Mr. Trump that there is room
to mount a real challenge to
Fox News, which has domi-
nated the conservative media
landscape for two decades.
Mr. Trump and Fox News
have had a complicated rela-
tionship. The network’s opin-
ion hosts are highly supportive
of the president. He devours
Fox content, tweets about it
and is influenced by it in pol-
icy and personnel decisions,
aides say. Yet he spars with the
network when he feels it is
criticizing or undermining him.
The election’s aftermath has
stoked those tensions: Mr.
Trump has criticized Fox News
on Twitter while promoting
segments on the network fa-
vorable to him and heaping
praise on Newsmax and One
America News Network, an-
other small right-wing channel.
Creating a television net-
work to rival Fox News, which
has led the cable-news ratings
for years, is a long shot. News-
max’s average prime-time au-
dience jumped 156% to
223,000 viewers during the
week of the election, accord-
ing to Nielsen data, and last
Thursday crossed one million
from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., about
half of Fox’s audience during
the time period. Sustaining
those gains when interest in
the election subsides won’t be
easy. Fox averaged nearly six
million prime-time viewers
during the week of the elec-
tion, about 22% higher than
the previous four weeks.
The cable-TV business as a
whole is under pressure as
consumers increasingly “cutthe cord.” Big media conglom-
erates are generally in a better
position to weather that storm
than smaller or independent
competitors, because they have
more leverage to extract
monthly fees from distributors.
Wall Street Journal parent
News Corpand Fox News par-
entFoxCorp. share common
ownership.
In an interview, Newsmax
Media Chief Executive Chris
Ruddy said he has had many
discussions with interested
parties over the years looking
to buy or invest in Newsmax.
“Newsmax never had any deal
with the Hicks group, and if
it’s true they were using our
name for the purposes of capi-
tal fundraising, that is wholly
inappropriate,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Fox
Corp. had no comment. The
company’s chief executive,
Lachlan Murdoch, said on a re-cent earnings call that the
company “loves competition.”
The Trump campaign de-
clined to comment. The White
House didn’t respond to a re-
quest for comment.
People close to Mr. Trump
say he is focused on the re-
sults of the election, and his
pending litigation about it,
and there are no signs he is
taking any steps of his own to
launch a network.
If Mr. Trump wanted to cre-
ate his own media business
from scratch, the most likely
avenue would be a subscrip-
tion streaming service, some
industry executives said, and
he could likely create a viable
business, though perhaps not
one with the scale of a TV net-
work. “I think for someone
like Trump it’s an easy mil-
lion,” said Chris Balfe, a part-
ner at the digital-media con-
sulting firm Red SeatVentures, referring to the
number of subscribers with
which Mr. Trump could
launch. Typical industry prices
for such services can run from
roughly $6 to $10 a month.
Fox News already has a
streaming-video service, Fox
Nation, that offers a combina-
tion of opinion programming
and entertainment. The net-
work declined to say how
many subscribers Fox Nation
has, but has said 80% of peo-
ple who sample the service
convert to paying customers.
Trump supporters’ dissatis-
faction with their media
choices after the election have
created opportunities on digi-
tal platforms as well. Libertar-
ian-leaning social-media plat-
form Parler became the most
downloaded app on both An-
droid and Apple devices for
most of last week thanks to
conservatives’ anger at Face-
book and Twitter.
The Newsmax pursuit is be-
ing led by private-equity deal-
making pioneer and Trump
supporter Thomas Hicks. The
family’s private-equity outfit,
Hicks Equity Partners, is look-
ing to raise at least $200 mil-
lion for its efforts in right-
leaning media and has spoken
with wealthy conservative
families about the deal, people
familiar with the matter say.
One of Mr. Hicks’s sons,
Thomas Hicks Jr., co-chairs
the Republican National Com-
mittee. He is unlikely to par-
ticipate in any deal while heholds an RNC post, a person
close to the Hicks family said.
The Hicks family’s wealth
stems from private-equity firm
Hicks Muse Tate & FurstInc.,
a leading media investor of
the 1990s and 2000s. The Wall
Street Journal reported early
this year that Hicks Equity
Partners was seeking a buyout
of San Diego-based One Amer-
ica News Network, also known
as OANN. Those talks have
cooled in recent months, some
of the people familiar with the
matter said, though Hicks Eq-
uity still considers it a com-
pelling target.
An acquisition of Newsmax,
which is based in West Palm
Beach, Fla., would be part of a
larger plan to assemble a net-
work of channels aimed at
conservatives, according to a
pitch that was made to inves-
tors. Another channel would
provide family-friendly enter-
tainment programming. The
Hicks group has identified a
team of executives who would
help manage the network if
the deal were completed, the
people familiar with the mat-
ter said.
The Hicks group has been
courting former Fox News
stars, the people said.
Hicks Equity has also
reached out to conservative
donors and media competitors
in recent months about put-
ting together a streaming ser-
vice that would challenge Fox
from the right, people familiar
with the situation said.Trump Allies Court Newsmax as Fox Rival
Chief Executive Chris Ruddy says Newsmax has had lots of suitors.CAROLYN KASTER/ASSOCIATED PRESSByBenjamin Mullin,
Juliet Chung,Keach
HageyandRebecca
Ballhaus