TheQueen
06-14-2010, 12:52 PM
June 13, 2010
Once Just a Site With Funny Cat Pictures, and Now a Web Empire
By JENNA WORTHAM
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/06/14/business/sub-jp-burger-2/sub-jp-burger-2-articleInline.jpgThe image that inspired the name of the I Can Has Cheezburger blog.
SEATTLE — Three years ago Ben Huh visited a blog devoted to silly cat pictures — and saw vast potential.
Mr. Huh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, first became aware of I Can Has Cheezburger, which pairs photos of cats with quirky captions, after it linked to his own pet blog. His site immediately crumbled under the resulting wave of visitors.
Sensing an Internet phenomenon, Mr. Huh solicited financing from investors and forked over $10,000 of his own savings to buy the Web site from the two Hawaiian bloggers who started it.
“It was a white-knuckle decision,” he said. “I knew that the first site was funny, but could we duplicate that success?”
Mr. Huh has since found that the appetite for oddball Internet humor is insatiable.
Traffic to the Cheezburger blog has ballooned over the last three years, encouraging Mr. Huh to expand his unlikely Web empire to include 53 sites, all fueled by submissions from readers. In May, what is now known as the Cheezburger Network attracted a record 16 million unique visitors, according to the Web analytics firm Quantcast.
A more recent success for the company is a site called Fail Blog, which chronicles disastrous mishaps and general stupidity in photos and video. The network’s smaller sites include Daily Squee, with pictures of cute animals, and There I Fixed It, for photos of bad repair jobs.
Mr. Huh said his company, which makes most of its money from Web advertising, has been profitable since Day 1.
“Then again, it was just me and Emily in the beginning,” he said referring to his wife, who also works at the company. Cheezburger now has more than 40 employees and has not sought additional investment.
As the company has grown, so have the opportunities to make money, said Todd Sawicki, the company’s chief revenue officer.
CONTINUE READING (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/technology/internet/14burger.html)
Once Just a Site With Funny Cat Pictures, and Now a Web Empire
By JENNA WORTHAM
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/06/14/business/sub-jp-burger-2/sub-jp-burger-2-articleInline.jpgThe image that inspired the name of the I Can Has Cheezburger blog.
SEATTLE — Three years ago Ben Huh visited a blog devoted to silly cat pictures — and saw vast potential.
Mr. Huh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, first became aware of I Can Has Cheezburger, which pairs photos of cats with quirky captions, after it linked to his own pet blog. His site immediately crumbled under the resulting wave of visitors.
Sensing an Internet phenomenon, Mr. Huh solicited financing from investors and forked over $10,000 of his own savings to buy the Web site from the two Hawaiian bloggers who started it.
“It was a white-knuckle decision,” he said. “I knew that the first site was funny, but could we duplicate that success?”
Mr. Huh has since found that the appetite for oddball Internet humor is insatiable.
Traffic to the Cheezburger blog has ballooned over the last three years, encouraging Mr. Huh to expand his unlikely Web empire to include 53 sites, all fueled by submissions from readers. In May, what is now known as the Cheezburger Network attracted a record 16 million unique visitors, according to the Web analytics firm Quantcast.
A more recent success for the company is a site called Fail Blog, which chronicles disastrous mishaps and general stupidity in photos and video. The network’s smaller sites include Daily Squee, with pictures of cute animals, and There I Fixed It, for photos of bad repair jobs.
Mr. Huh said his company, which makes most of its money from Web advertising, has been profitable since Day 1.
“Then again, it was just me and Emily in the beginning,” he said referring to his wife, who also works at the company. Cheezburger now has more than 40 employees and has not sought additional investment.
As the company has grown, so have the opportunities to make money, said Todd Sawicki, the company’s chief revenue officer.
CONTINUE READING (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/technology/internet/14burger.html)