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==History== | ==History== | ||
Demand Media was founded in 2006 in Santa Monica by Richard Rosenblatt, formerly the head of Intermix Media and chairman of MySpace, and Shawn Colo, a private equity specialist.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/business/media/08carr.html?_r=1&8dpc NYTimes.com]</ref> In its first two years, Demand raised $355 million in funding from private investors | Demand Media was founded in 2006 in Santa Monica by Richard Rosenblatt, formerly the head of Intermix Media and chairman of MySpace, and Shawn Colo, a private equity specialist.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/business/media/08carr.html?_r=1&8dpc NYTimes.com]</ref> In its first two years, Demand raised $355 million in funding from private investors,<ref>[http://paidcontent.org/article/419-demand-media-raises-another-35-million-total-comes-to-355-million/ paidcontent.org]</ref> including $239 million in investment from [[Spectrum Equity Investors]].<ref>[http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/spectrum-equity-investors CrunchBase Profile]</ref> | ||
In June 2007, Demand Media hired Charles Hilliard, formerly a Morgan Stanley investment banker and United Online senior executive, as its President and CFO.<ref>[http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services/4352976-1.html allbusiness.com]</ref> Around the same time, Demand also acquired ExpertVillage.com, a how-to site, for roughly $20 million. Byron Reese, founder of ExpertVillage, became Demand's Chief Innovation Officer and went on to develop the company's content-generating algorithms.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1 Wired]</ref> | In June 2007, Demand Media hired Charles Hilliard, formerly a Morgan Stanley investment banker and United Online senior executive, as its President and CFO.<ref>[http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services/4352976-1.html allbusiness.com]</ref> Around the same time, Demand also acquired ExpertVillage.com, a how-to site, for roughly $20 million. Byron Reese, founder of ExpertVillage, became Demand's Chief Innovation Officer and went on to develop the company's content-generating algorithms.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1 Wired]</ref> | ||
Revision as of 17:18, 2 September 2011
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| Type: | Public |
| Industry: | Internet, Social Media |
| Founded: | Santa Monica, 2006 |
| Founder(s): | Richard Rosenblatt |
| Headquarters: | 1299 Ocean Ave., Ste. 500 Santa Monica, CA 90401 |
| Country: | USA |
| Employees: | 550 (2009) |
| Revenue: | $198.50 million (2009)[1] |
| Website: | demandmedia.com |
| Twitter: |  @DemandMedia
|
| Key People | |
| Richard Rosenblatt, CEO and Founder Shawn Colo, Co-Founder, Head of Mergers & Acquisitions Charles Hilliard, President and CFO Byron Reese, Chief Innovation Officer | |
Demand Media is an online media company focused on buying and creating niche, in-demand content for both outside publishers and its own network of websites including eHow.com, Livestrong.com, Trails.com, GolfLink.com, Mania.com, and Cracked.com.[2][3]
Demand owns eNom, the world's second largest domain registrar. Recently, Demand and eNom came under fire from ICANN, as Internet security group HostExploit reported that eNom is host to an unusually large number of malicious websites and is a preferred domain name registrar for pharmaceutical spammers.[4]
Demand also owns web media syndication company Pluck, which has developed commenting and social networking systems for websites to implement.[5]
History
Demand Media was founded in 2006 in Santa Monica by Richard Rosenblatt, formerly the head of Intermix Media and chairman of MySpace, and Shawn Colo, a private equity specialist.[6] In its first two years, Demand raised $355 million in funding from private investors,[7] including $239 million in investment from Spectrum Equity Investors.[8]
In June 2007, Demand Media hired Charles Hilliard, formerly a Morgan Stanley investment banker and United Online senior executive, as its President and CFO.[9] Around the same time, Demand also acquired ExpertVillage.com, a how-to site, for roughly $20 million. Byron Reese, founder of ExpertVillage, became Demand's Chief Innovation Officer and went on to develop the company's content-generating algorithms.[10]
Business Model
Demand Media employs freelance writers, copyeditors, and filmmakers through its Demand Studios business to create content for its websites.[11]
In order to generate content topics, Demand Media employs a set of algorithms. The first algorithm analyzes bulk data purchased from search engines and other sources to determine what terms are being searched for. Then it crunches keyword rates to calculate how much advertisers might pay to appear on pages that include those terms. Then it counts how many pages already include those terms, ignoring the ones with the most established content.
Then another algorithm, called the Knowledge Engine, goes back through the data and analyzes what it was about the terms uncovered by the first algorithm that people wanted to know. It also looks at how profitable titles using similar key words have been in the past in terms of ad revenue. At the end of the process, the algorithm reveals the lifetime value (in dollars) expected to be generated from any resulting content.
Next, a team of freelancing "title proofers" will take the often nonsensical content generated from the algorithms and turn it into legitimate article titles. Approved headlines are posted to the Demand Studios site, where freelance writers and filmmakers can claim them. These freelance workers rush to load their assignment queue with titles they feel they can produce quickly and easily, as pay for individual articles is low.[12]