Remark Holdings

Remark Holdings (NASDAQ: MARK) is a Las Vegas, Nevada based digital media company with crowd counting, artificial intelligence for a Chinese Social Credit System, and content platform verticals. It was formerly known as HSW International, then Remark Media.

The company cofounded Sharecare, a healthcare content platform and has retained a 4.5% stake. The company has approximately 100 employees worldwide, with U.S. offices in New York and Atlanta and international offices in Beijing and São Paulo.

In 2006, HSW International was founded as a subsidiary of HowStuffWorks to bring its website to global emerging economies. One year later, the company launched its first international version of HowStuffWorks, the Brazilian ComoTudoFunciona. In October 2007, HSW International went public on NASDAQ in connection with a merger with Intac International. The merger facilitated the launch of the company’s second international version of HowStuffWorks, the Chinese-based BoWenWang, in 2008.

In 2008 the company acquired the US website DailyStrength – a social media website hosting health and wellness discussions. Starting in 2009, as part of its establishing a joint venture with Harpo Studios, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Discovery Communications, Sony Pictures Television, and Jeff Arnold (founder of WebMD), that company developed and launched the social Q&A health website, Sharecare. In May 2011, in partnership with Discovery Communications, the company developed and launched a Q&A site for Discovery Channel’s TV show Curiosity. Remark also owns VEGAS.com and bikini.com.

In October 2011, the company announced it would change its name to Remark Media, and in December 2011 the company formally changed its name to Remark Media and NASDAQ stock ticker to MARK.

In 2017, the company renamed itself to Remark Holdings. At that time, Carrie Ferman was named as CEO.

Remark created the AI-driven KanKan Social Credit Score, a social credit score aimed at the Chinese market. Remark uses data from Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu. Their facial recognition is used in China and is also used by 7-Eleven in Thailand. As Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon suspended their facial-recognition programs and as Clearview AI's facial recognition product was exposed, Remark "doubled down" on their facial recognition program.

Their video recognition code is used for content filtering in Guizhou, China. It is also used to monitor face mask compliance in 200 Shanghai restaurants and to count students in schools in China.

In 2020, the company received FCC approval for their KanKan thermal imaging camera, and there were rumors the company would be bought by Wynn Resorts. The cameras are in place at University Medical Center of Southern Nevada.As part of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company received between $350,000 and $1 million in federally backed small business loan from East West Bank as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The company stated it would allow them to retain 27 jobs.