June 2021, Roar Global marks seven years since our foray into South Asia’s digital media landscape. It’s been a remarkable journey that has earned us a unique position in the industry and encouraged us in our mission to build the future of media in this part of the world.
From humble beginnings in 2014 as a niche media startup, then called Roar.lk, Roar Global has grown rapidly, evolving style and strategy to thrive in a fast-paced, largely unpredictable industry. As a result, Roar Global has progressed from a media startup to a regional media network comprising three distinct businesses:
Roar Media, our multilingual media platform, produces and publishes original stories and constructive journalism that explore the deeper issues and untold tales of the South Asian region.
Roar Studios, our digital content production house, crafts authentic narratives for brands and organizations using stunning visuals and creative storytelling techniques.
Roar Digital, our media sales arm and Facebook’s Authorised Sales Partner (ASP) in Sri Lanka, serves local agencies and advertisers by providing local currency billing solutions, training, and consultancy for executing campaigns across Facebook’s family of apps.
As Roar Global’s primary media platform, Roar Media began its journey with Roar LK, our flagship English media publication, and later diversified locally and internationally, into Roar Sinhala, Roar Tamil, and Roar Bangla. Over the years, Roar Media has become the dominant source of engaging and impactful stories for diverse audiences across South Asia, reaching millions of local internet users each year and resulting in numerous accolades from around the world.
In the last few years Roar Media has produced exceptional human-interest stories with a focus on constructive journalism. The Media team’s methodology for reporting is solutions-oriented, revolving less around sensational headlines, buzzwords, and trending topics, and more on matters of culture, history, society, development, the environment, conservation, and more. As such, Roar Media aspires to be educational and informative, focusing on issues that matter and creating content that has a positive impact on diverse audiences across South Asia.
In 2020, Roar Media recorded 38.7 million article reads and 50.5 million video views, having published over 3,300 in-depth pieces of content.
Roar Studios has been pivotal in defining the future of branded content since launching in 2017. Having built a team of industry specialists that continuously learn and experiment, the production house works closely with diverse brands and organisations both regional and international.
The Studios team specializes in documentary storytelling for impact-focused brands and organizations as well as helping B2B companies internationally create content at scale. Roar Studios also works with leading media and creative agencies to help conceptualize and execute branded content productions.
Over the past year, Roar Studios successfully completed 168 content campaigns, which included 280 video productions for 78 clients, an incredible feat in any year let alone one that was impacted by a pandemic.
Roar Digital has also made a great deal of meaningful headway since starting in April 2020 as Sri Lanka’s sole Facebook Authorised Sales Partner (ASP), an appointment that allowed the team to provide support and billing solutions to local businesses and agencies. In only its first year of operation, Roar Digital made the news having successfully supported over 1,000 local brands, racked up 2,830 support hours, trained 2,230 individuals, and conducted 33 public training sessions.
Lately, Roar Digital has been instrumental in helping local businesses and SMEs navigate the daunting economic barriers of COVID-19 by harnessing the potential of performance marketing across Facebook’s family of apps.
While still in the early stages of our journey, Roar Global aspires to build the future of media for and across South Asia. A form of media that is diverse, inclusive, and agile. A media that embraces disruption, maintains credibility, and most of all, leaves its audience in a better place than they were before. This is an objective that we advocate for, and one that we strive to embody in our own identity.
The past seven years have been one incredible journey for Roar Global, full of successes, challenges, and learnings. As we forge ahead, we will continue to invest in our growth and empower our teams to drive meaningful change and beneficial impact, fulfilling our mission of building the future of South Asian media and bringing us closer to our vision of becoming the largest media network in the region.
