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Rus Yusupov

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Rus Yusupov
Born
Ruslan Yusupov

(1984-05-04) May 4, 1984 (age 40)
Dushanbe, Tajik SSR, USSR
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSchool of Visual Arts
Occupation(s)Internet entrepreneur, Graphic and visual designer
Years active2007–2016
Known forFounding HQ Trivia, Intermedia Labs, Vine and Big Human
TitleCo-founder and CEO at HQ Trivia, and founder at Big Human
AwardsTribeca Disruptive Innovation Award (2013), Variety Magazine Breakthrough of the Year (2014), PGA Digital VIP Award (2014), UJA Lydia Vareljan Leadership Award (2015), Webby Award's Webby 50 (2015)

Rus Yusupov (born May 4, 1984), is a Bukharan-American designer and tech entrepreneur. He is the former CEO[1] now the CCO[2] of HQ Trivia, a daily, appointment-based trivia game that broadcasts live to mobile phones.

Early life and education

Yusupov was born in Dushanbe, Tajik SSR, Soviet Union (present-day Dushanbe, Tajikistan) in 1984 to a Bukharan Jewish family. After the Revolutions of 1989 the family moved to New York, Yusupov grew up in New York and graduated from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) with a BFA in Graphic Design.

Career

Early career

Yusupov began his career as a digital product designer at firms including Razorfish and R/GA, where he worked on projects including as the lead designer on the first version of Hulu.com in 2007.[3] In 2008, he founded Big Human,[1] a design and engineering studio based in New York City. Big Human's clients include Time.com, Urban Dictionary, Jetsetter, Time Warner and Fortune, among others.[4]

Vine

See also: Vine (service)

In June 2012, Yusupov co-founded Vine, a looping, short-form video service.[5] Vine was sold to Twitter in October 2012 for a reported $30 million,[6] shortly before the service's official launch. In 2013, Vine hit number one on the App store for free downloads and become the most used video sharing application in the market at the time.[7] Yusupov left Twitter in late 2015 after Vine was deprioritized by Twitter. Yusupov later tweeted, "Don't sell your company!"[8][9]

Intermedia Labs

After leaving Twitter, Yusupov co-founded Intermedia Labs, an app studio, in 2015.[10]

The first app developed by Intermedia Labs was Hype, a platform wherein users had the ability to share a variety of multimedia content into a live broadcast.[10]

Subsequent apps developed by Intermedia Labs include Bounce,[10] an app that allows users to "remix" videos, and HQ Trivia, an appointment-based trivia game that broadcasts live to mobile phones.[10]

HQ Trivia

Main article: HQ Trivia

HQ Trivia, Intermedia's most successful app to-date, was released in August 2017.[10] The game averages 700,000-1,000,000 viewers for each broadcast.[11] HQ is available worldwide on the iOS App Store and Google Play, with live shows targeted to North American, Australian, and UK audiences.[12]

The app takes the form of a live game show, played at 9 PM Eastern Time every day, and 3 PM Eastern Time on weekdays. The host of the show asks a series of (usually) twelve multiple choice questions, each with three possible answers. Those players who get the questions correct within the 10 second limit move on, the rest are eliminated. The players that correctly answer the final question split the prize money. This prize is currently $5,000 for most games, but it has been as high as $400,000 on one occasion.[13]

According to a 2017 article from The Daily Beast, Yusupov threatened to fire HQ host Scott Rogowsky if the website chose to run a profile on Rogowsky's rise to fame via HQ. Yusupov later claimed the accusations were false.

Industry awards and recognition

Yusupov has received industry recognitions including a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award (2013),[14] Variety Magazine Breakthrough of the Year Award (2014),[15] PGA Digital VIP Award (2014),[16] UJA Lydia Vareljan Leadership Award (2015)[17] and the Webby Award's Webby 50 (2015).[18]

HQ Trivia won the A-Train Award for Best Mobile Game at the New York Game Awards 2018.

Intermedia Labs is one of Fast Company's World Most Innovative Companies in 2018.[19] HQ Trivia became a finalist in the Apps and Games category for Fast Company’s 2018 Innovation By Design Award.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b "Rus Yusupov - Co-founder @ Hype | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  2. ^ Clark, Kate. "HQ Trivia names new CEO and teases upcoming Wheel of Fortune-style game". TechCrunch.
  3. ^ Kino, Carol (2009-11-11). "Paul H-O, Gallery Gadfly, Revives His Act". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  4. ^ "Work - Big Human". bighuman.com. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  5. ^ "Twitter Buys Vine, a Video Clip Company That Never Launched". AllThingsD. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  6. ^ Dave, Paresh (2013-06-20). "Video app Vine's popularity is spreading, six seconds at a time". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  7. ^ Contributor. "Vine Takes Early Command In The Mobile Video Market Over Viddy, Socialcam And Others Despite Low Adoption". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-02-27. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  8. ^ Rus (2016-10-27). "Don't sell your company!". @rus. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  9. ^ Constine, Josh. "Vine's founders are back with HQ, a live trivia game show app". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  10. ^ a b c d e Constine, Josh. "Vine's founders are back with HQ, a live trivia game show app". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  11. ^ "Inside the latest millennial obsession: HQ Trivia". New York Post. 2018-01-11. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  12. ^ "HQ trivia app launches in the UK". The Verge. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  13. ^ Castillo, Michelle (2017-11-20). "Vine's creators want you to win free money with their new trivia app". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  14. ^ Tribeca Film (2013-05-09), Rus Yusupov - Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards 2013, retrieved 2018-01-30
  15. ^ Staff, Variety (2014-01-10). "Variety's Breakthrough of the Year Awards – Red Carpet". Variety. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  16. ^ "2014 Digital VIP - Producers Guild of America". www.producersguild.org. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  17. ^ "Russian and Tech Divisions Event Honors Rus Yusupov". UJA-Federation of New York. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  18. ^ "The 19th Annual Webby Awards Honor The Internet's Greatest Trailblazers | The Webby Awards". Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  19. ^ "These are the 397 most inspiring, innovative designs of 2018 | Fast Company". Fast Company. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  20. ^ "These are the 397 most inspiring, innovative designs of 2018 | Fast Company". Fast Company. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
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