Jupitermedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jupitermedia, Inc. | |
| Type | Public (NASDAQ: JUPM) |
|---|---|
| Founded | Westport, Connecticut (1994) |
| Headquarters | Darien, Connecticut |
| Key people | Alan Mecker, CEO/Director |
| Industry | Internet |
| Revenue | 116.57M |
| Website | www.jupitermedia.com |
Jupitermedia, Inc. NASDAQ: JUPM, is a U.S.-based corporation, established in 1994, and headquartered in Darien, CT. The company is a global provider of original information, images and digital content for information technology, business and creative professionals.
JupiterMedia is divided into two divisions: Jupiterimages and JupiterWeb.
Contents |
[edit] History
In 1994, Alan Meckler, then CEO of Mecklermedia, created MecklerWeb as an addendum to his offerings in print (Virtual Reality World, CDrom World, and Internet World) and conferences (Internet World, Virtual Reality World). In 1996, as adverising-supported publishing emerged as a viable business model on the Web, the Website was renamed iWorld and began to publish content for the nascent Internet industry. As the Internet World conference propsered, iWorld set out on a strategy of acquiring successful Websites that were focused on technology content, such as Webopedia, SearchEngineWatch and WebReference. In 1997, the online division was renamed internet.com, Gus Venditto (formerly of PC Magazine) was named editor-in-chief, and the company began to hire writers and launch original Websites, such as InternetNews and ISP Planet, while continuing to acquire internet businesses.
In 1998, Mecklermedia was acquired by Penton Media and the online assets were spun off into a separate company called internet.com LLC. Internet.com went public on the NASDAQ in the second half of 1999 (trading as INTM). In 1999, internet.com Corp. lanched the Search Engine Strategies conference and in 2000, it acquired Earthweb, a network of Websites focused on corporate IT professionals.
In 2002, the company purchased the Jupiter Research business from Jupiter Media Metrix and renamed itself from INT Media to Jupitermedia, with a new stock ticker symbol JUPM.
In 2004, the company started acquiring image assets and developed Jupiterimages as a separate division.
In 2006, Jupitermedia sold its JupiterResearch division to MCG Capital Corporation, which merged it with its Kagan Research unit, creating a new portfolio company called JupiterKagan, Inc.
[edit] Online Content: JupiterWeb
The JupiterWeb network includes internet.com, EarthWeb.com, DevX , and Graphics.com.
[edit] internet.com
The history of internet.com starts in the early days of the Web, as Alan Meckler launched MecklerWeb with a goal of providing a hosted Web environment for businesses. As the nature of the Web showed little need for such offering, he repurposed the site to deliver information about the trade shows and magazine his company, Mecklermedia, was running.
In 1995, the site was relaunched under the name iWorld and started offering original content on a daily basis, focusing on servicing the Internet community through news and other resources. Throughout the 90s, the site's popularity grew and its director of development, Tristan Louis, set out a strategy that would mix organic growth with a rapid rampup through acquisitions. In 1995 and 1996, the site performed a few dozen acquisitions, adding such resources as TheList.com (ISP directory), ServerWatch and ServerCompare (server reviews and comparisons), WebReference.com and others.
In 1996, the site was renamed internet.com, after purchasing that domain name from a Web development company called The Internet Company.
In 1997, Mr. Louis left the company to launch EarthWeb's Developer.com. Following his departure, the site continued on the same acquisition strategy, acquiring sites like Webopedia, a free online dictionary for words, phrases and abbreviations that are related to computer and Internet technology.
The company also started offering foreign language versions targeting non-US markets and worked in partnerships with different companies in Mexico, China, and Europe.
In 1998, following the acquisition of internet.com's parent company (Mecklermedia) by Penton Media, the online unit was spun off as internet.com LLC and, in 1999, was introduced on the stock market as INTM.
[edit] Earthweb.com
When Mr. Louis left internet.com, he joined EarthWeb, a Java consulting company which hired him to help them monetize a Java directory (called Gamelan.com) they had created. Mr. Louis applied the lessons he learned at internet.com and created developer.com to service IT managers, hardware and systems professionals, networking & communications administrators, and software developers.
Following a similar strategy, he was responsible for the acquisition of such sites as JARS, Datamation, and CIO update. Mr. Louis left the company in 1998 over disagreements on strategy, looking to a pure content play as the source for revenues while the other partners looked to follow a strategy that would target the recruitment market. After his departure, the company acquired Dice.com, a large IT recruiting site.
In December 2000, internet.com acquired the content assets of EarthWeb and incorporated them into their online offerings.
In 2001, the company acquired HTML Goodies, an online tutorial Web site established in 1994 by Joe Burns, which originally specialized in HTML tutorials, but now contains tutorials on most Internet markup and programming languages and merged it under the EarthWeb.com banner.
[edit] DevX
In 2003, Jupitermedia (which was born out of the acquisition of Jupiter by internet.com in 2001) acquired DevX and entered the premium content business, offering downloadable code libraries and complete development course package either on a per use basis or on a subscription model.
In a move that follows a custom publishing model, DevX introduced new advertising programs that allowed large software vendors to get customized portals servicing their development community built easily using tools used by Jupitermedia.
The company also entered into partnerships with several software publishers and started offering software packages for download. Each portal offering mixes training components with expert tips, code libraries, collaboration tools, discussion communities, and premium content and services.
[edit] Graphics.com
Jupitermedia acquired the Graphics.com site as part of its purchase of ArtToday. It has since grown this content/community site into a popular destination for visual creatives, as the hub of the Graphics.com Network.
[edit] Controversies
In 2006 the company caused a stir when it proclaimed its new "social marketing" service, which was in fact a Social Media Optimization research service.[1] Despite protests from bona fide social marketeers, the company refused to back down,[2] probably because it was the second controversy about their services within a few months. [3]
[edit] Images: Jupiterimages
This division, which was born in 2004 as the result of the merger of several of Jupitermedia's image properties, provides rights managed and royalty free images. It has become the third largest stock photography group after Getty Images and Corbis.
Jupiterimages is one of the leading images companies in the world with over 7.0 million images online serving creative professionals with brands like BananaStock, Brand X, FoodPix, Botanica, Nonstock, Comstock Images, Creatas Images, PictureQuest, Liquid Library, Thinkstock Images, Thinkstock Footage, Goodshoot, Photos.com, AbleStock.com, PhotoObjects.net, Stockxpert.com, Stock.XCHNG, Clipart.com and AnimationFactory.com
