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| URL | http://www.askmen.com/ |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Online men's publication |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | IGN News Corporation |
| Created by | Ricardo Poupada
Chris Bellerose Rovny Luís Rodrigues |
| Launched | January 2000 |
AskMen.com is a free online men’s web portal, with international versions in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia.
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History
AskMen.com was founded in August 1999 by Ricardo Poupada, Christopher Bellerose Rovny, and Luís 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.
Website content
AskMen.com’s sections feature topics that are pertinent to men. The sections include:
- Fashion and lifestyle
- Fine living
- Cars
- Health and sports
- Dating and love
- Car reviews
- Sexuality
- Women
- Men
- Power and money
- Entertainment
- Gaming
- Amateur hypnotism
- 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 seven 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.
AskMen.com launched a three-book series published by HarperCollins in May 2007, starting with their first book titeld From the Bar to the Bedroom.
Message boards
AskMen.com’s message boards launched on August 9, 2001 and thus far boast over 35,000 members. With over three million posts, the most popular topics on the boards include men's issues, current events, politics, and love and relationships.
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.
Current management
- Ricardo Poupada - Vice-president, general manager, co-founder (former president)
- Ryan Johnson - Director, marketing, and business development
- Armando Gómez - Advertising and promotions manager (former senior publishing coordinator)
- Martin Helie - Development manager
- James Bassil - Editor-in-chief
References
- ^ Stefanie Olsen (2000-11-01). "Latest dot-com bomb: TheMan.com". CNET News.com. http://news.com.com/news/0-1007-200-3360232.html. Retrieved 2006-09-03.
- ^ "One-year-old AskMen.com Surpasses Maxim & GQ and Remains Profitable". PRNewswire. 2001-06-04. http://ca.askmen.com/mediakit/yahoo_nielsen_ratings.html. Retrieved 2006-09-03.
- ^ "Category Spotlight: Lifestyle - Men's Interest". Hitwise. http://www.hitwise.com/news/us200506.html.
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