CEO, Guy Yeshua & COO, Stacy Abraham
Working in what he calls "the new age of publishing," Guy Yeshua, the CEO of Hive Media Group, traces his professional roots to his father, who was president of the Encyclopedia Britannica, once found on the bookshelves of seemingly every American home.
Born in Israel, Guy and his family moved to Chicago when he was in high school and, after serving in the Israeli military and earning a Harvard MBA, he felt comfortable following his father's example and pursuing a career in content creation, but this time "with 21st-century technology and data injected in every step of the value chain," he says.
As a budding entrepreneur, Guy started out in traditional publishing but was soon drawn to the excitement of launching several digital media companies, one of which was Hive Media, now based in Carlsbad, California, which he now leads as CEO
"So many publishing businesses got caught up in traditional approaches and could not make the transition to digital," he says, "but everything we do is based on data, so we have a deep understanding of our audiences and can customize their online experiences to meet their needs. It's kind of like the fashion business, which enables customers to choose the styles that work for them."
For example, Hive can change the form of an online article depending on the time of day to suit the need of the reader at that particular moment. As Guy says, "Everything today is testable with data analytics."
"IDB understands that we live in a dynamic
market that requires alot of flexibility, so the level of trust is huge."
Hive, which launched in 2016, has developed industry-leading technologies capable of collecting and extracting real-time user and advertising information from big data sets. Its platform advances campaigns across dozens of native, social and programmatic ad networks, all optimized by artificial intelligence.
Through specialized publishing platforms that Hive operates, the group delivers focused content along with creative ad experiences to users anywhere in the world. By leveraging big data, Hive generates articles for highly targeted populations searching for specific content topics and types.
"We leverage our proprietary software to understand user demographics and interests," Guy explains. "Managing 800+ million page views every month, we dynamically adapt articles and ad layouts to provide an engaging user experience. With our technology, we can understand each unique reader's behavior and engagement levels."
"It's not always glamorous, but we use efficiency models to help us focus on things that work and are sustainable," Guy continues. "We don't get too excited unless it works," he adds, speaking about and for the 60 people working at Hive. "We're merit based in every part of our culture and company. We look for the best ideas no matter where they come from."
But for a young company, coming up with big ideas to fuel future growth often requires infusions of working capital. "We needed a partner that would under- stand us," Guy says. "And IDB was wonderful. They don't necessarily have the technical knowledge, but they know enough and care about our business, and we've developed a solid level of trust. Even when we had to make a change in our agreement, they simply said, 'Let's talk about it,' and they saw that it made sense.
"IDB understands that we live in a dynamic market that requires a lot of flexibility, so the level of trust is huge," Guy says. "Some other institutions will see change as weaknesses and exploit it to get better terms. But IDB is protective of us. They're a partner, not just a bank, and they prove it every day."
And that's how Hive Media will keep creating and refining its content to provide value for its audiences, reflecting its vision for this new era of publishing in the years to come.
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