ooooo
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
OOOOO Entertainment Commerce Ltd. (TSX-V: OOOO), founded in 2020 by Sam Jones (formerly of Wish.com) and Eric Zhang (founding member of the musical.ly team), built a live-streaming entertainment commerce platform dubbed the 'Taobao Live of the West'. Its mobile app ran QVC-style channels with shoppable live shows - Toys.tv, Cosmetics.tv and others - filmed from a 20,000-square-foot studio in Manchester, with retailers including Boohoo, Missguided and JD Sports selling through livestreamed events. OOOOO took a cut of sales.
02 / ooooo FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
OOOOO never cracked live commerce in the West: the model that generated hundreds of billions in China failed to scale with UK and US shoppers. The company fell behind on its financial reporting, receiving a management cease trade order in March 2023 after delaying its 2022 annual filings, and its Fanz subsidiary went temporarily inactive in October 2022. Its CFO resigned in December 2023, and in March 2024 trading in its shares was halted by a cease trade order, leaving the listed shell effectively dead with a market capitalization of about C$650,000.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded and launched
OOOOO was founded by Sam Jones and Eric Zhang and launched its live-streaming entertainment commerce app in the UK in November 2020.
- Cease trade order
On March 1, 2023 the British Columbia Securities Commission granted a management cease trade order after OOOOO delayed its 2022 annual filings; its Fanz subsidiary had been temporarily inactive since October 2022.
- Trading halted
In December 2023 CFO Mary Ma resigned; on March 6, 2024 trading in OOOOO's shares was halted by a cease trade order, with the shares suspended at C$0.01 and a market capitalization of about C$650,000.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
On March 6, 2024 OOOOO's shares were halted by a cease trade order; the shares were suspended at C$0.01 with about C$650,000 in market capitalization.
- 02
The company had failed to file its 2022 annual statements on time, triggering a management cease trade order in March 2023, and lost its CFO in December 2023.
- 03
No public loss figure was disclosed for the collapse.