Francesco D’Orazio is a researcher, product strategist and entrepreneur specialised in online audiences and Internet culture. He is the Founder of Pulsar, an award-winning narrative intelligence platform that helps brands and organisations understand their audiences and create messages that matter to them.

Besides Pulsar, Francesco has founded multiple organisations operating at the nexus of culture and technology including: The Audiences Podcast (2023), an audience discovery and development show for publishers, brands and content creators; AudienceCON (2023), a global event for audience intelligence and culture analytics professionals; The Visual Social Media Lab (2014), an industry-academia think tank specialized on studying the impact of social media images on society and culture; MYRL (2007), a social network for avatars designed to be a web based gateway to the Metaverse; ZZUB (2005), a community platform to connect brands and fandoms in co-designing products and campaigns.

He holds a PhD in immersive media and the evolution of online audiences and has been working in the field of big data, AI and audience research for two decades, advising a range of global organisations, including The United Nations, World Health Organization, Meta, X, and Google.

He is also a frequent speaker and commentator on technology trends and their impact on business and society and his work on virality, fandoms, social influence, public opinion and misinformation has been featured in the likes of BBC, Guardian, CNN, Forbes, The Independent.