Gaming Goes Mainstream: Welcome John Robinson as Bessemer EIR

Would you believe that…

• More people watched gaming video content — videos of other people playing games — than watched Netflix and ESPN combined last year?
• Discord — an all-in-one voice and text chat for gamers — has twice as many daily active users as Slack?
• Millennials are almost evenly split on their preference for eSports versus traditional pro sports?

This tells us that the scale of gaming is staggering. Things have never been better in games: There are two billion gamers globally, generating a record $100 billion of annual revenue — growing at 10% annually. Console, PC, and mobile games are each $25B+ segments, each of which continues to grow.

At Bessemer, we’ve been fortunate to have had a front-row seat in this evolution. On the content side, we invested early in Playdom (acquired by Disney in 2010) as well as OMGPop (acquired by Zynga). And, we were excited enough by the potential of competitive gaming and gaming as a viewing experience to become an early supporter of Twitch (acquired by Amazon).

Today, pioneers are tackling new gaming concepts at an ever increasing pace, and we’re excited to continue to participate in the evolution of the gaming world. That’s why we are thrilled to announce that game industry veteran John Robinson has joined BVP as an EIR. John has been an entrepreneur and an innovator in gaming, while launching his own startup as well as in leadership positions for some of the world’s largest game publishers. We think he’ll be instrumental in helping us identify the new standout concepts and leading entrepreneurs that will chart the course for the future of gaming.

John is already hard at work. Read more on his POV here. Welcome John!

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