AskMen.com
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| AskMen.com | |
|---|---|
 |
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| URL | http://www.askmen.com/ |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Online men's publication |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | IGN |
| Created by | Ricardo Poupada
Chris Bellerose Rovny Luis Rodrigues |
| Launched | January 2000 |
AskMen.com is a free online men’s web portal, with international versions in the US, Canada, UK and Australia.
Contents |
[edit] History
AskMen.com was founded in August 1999 by Ricardo Poupada, Christopher Bellerose Rovny and Luis Rodrigues. The company secured $500,000 in venture capital in 2000 while its main competitor TheMan.com obtained $17 million in financing from Highland Capital. In November, 2000, TheMan.com shut down operations, providing an opportunity for AskMen.com to become the largest men's lifestyle website online.[1] By 2001, AskMen.com surpassed the other websites in its category to become the largest men's lifestyle website.[2]
Through a combination of partnerships with AOL and MSN, AskMen.com became the leader in the men's lifestyle space, though it still trailed ESPN.com and other websites in terms of total reach within the male segment on the Web, it has one of the highest concentration of males online, according to Media Metrix's @Plan.
As of February 2007, the site claims 7.2 million unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix. It ranks #801 on Alexa ranking's of websites.
[edit] Website Content
AskMen.com’s sections feature topics that are pertinent to men. The sections include:
- Fashion & Lifestyle
- Fine Living
- Cars
- Health & Sports
- Dating & Love
- Car Reviews
- Sexuality
- Women
- Men
- Power & Money
- Entertainment
- Gaming
- Poker
- Joke of the Day
- Cool Site of the Day
- Video of the Day
- Gadget of the Day
Other unique sections, specific to AskMen.com, include its annual list of Top 99 Most Desirable Women, The AskMen.com Top 49 Men, and The Player’s Guide, a paid subscription sub-site.
According to Hitwise, AskMen.com is consistently ranked No. 1 in the "Lifestyle – Men’s Sites" category, as it has over 40,000 articles available for free online. [3] Over the 7 years it has been in function, AskMen.com has had content partnerships with other successful Web properties such as MSN, AOL, Netscape, CompuServe, Univision, and Lycos Asia.
[edit] Print
AskMen.com launched a 3-book series published by HarperCollins in May 2007, starting with their first book "From The Bar To The Bedroom"
[edit] Message Boards
AskMen.com’s message boards launched on August 9, 2001, and thus far boast over 35,000 members. With over 3 million posts, the most popular topics on the boards include Men's Issues, Current Events/Politics, Love & Relationships.
[edit] Corporate Details
AskMen.com offers the bulk of its articles for free and therefore makes its money mostly from advertising.
In June 2005, AskMen.com was acquired by IGN, an Internet gaming site, for $13.5 million. IGN was then acquired by News Corporation in September 2005 for $650 million.
[edit] Current Management
- Ricardo Poupada - VP, General Manager, co-founder (former President)
- Chris Bellerose-Rovny - Director of Business Development, co-founder (former Vice-President Marketing)
- Luis Rodrigues - Director of Consumer Products, co-founder (former VP E-Commerce and CFO)
- Armando Gomez - Advertising & Promotions Manager (former Senior Publishing Coordinator)
- Alex Lefebvre - Development Manager
- James Bassil - Editor-in-Chief
[edit] References
- ^ Stefanie Olsen (2000-11-01). Latest dot-com bomb: TheMan.com. CNET News.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-03.
- ^ One-year-old AskMen.com Surpasses Maxim & GQ and Remains Profitable. PRNewswire (2001-06-04). Retrieved on 2006-09-03.
- ^ Category Spotlight: Lifestyle - Men's Interest. Hitwise.
