Doug Dohring

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Doug Dohring is owner of the Dohring Company, a marketing research firm based in Glendale, California.

Contents

[edit] Holdings

Some of the websites owned by the Dohring Company include:

  • MarketSurveys.com
  • RestaurantSurveys.com
  • SatisfactionSurveys.com

From 2000 to 2005 Dohring was CEO and a major shareholder of NeoPets, which quickly became a leading youth-targeted online community. NeoPets was sold to Viacom in 2005 for $160 million (USD).

[edit] The Dohring Company

Dohring formed The Dohring Company in 1986, with his wife serving as president. Customers for the company's market research services have included retail chains including Baskin-Robbins and House of Fabrics, and entertainment firms including Capitol Records. However, automotive surveys comprised up to 80% of the firm's business in 1995. At that time, the company was ranked 55th on the Advertising Age list of the nation's largest market research firms. It was 92nd on the Business Journal 's recent List of fastest growing private companies in Los Angeles County. [1]

[edit] Neopets

See also: Neopets and Neopets, Inc.

In December, 1999, Dohring was introduced by a mutual friend to the two British college students who had created a web site which allowed users to adopt “virtual pets” -- creatures from cartoon species -- personalize them with names and traits they choose, and care for their pets in the virtual world of “Neopia”. Seeing the potential for an entertainment venture extending well beyond the web, Dohring “took one look at Neopets and instantly decided to invest”.

In April, 2000, he brought in his first paying customers for a concept that he called immersive advertising. [2]

Two years after its creation, in December 2001, Neopets had attracted more than 20 million accounts, more than 80% of them under the age of 17. While the "tech bubble" was bursting and large percentages of new web sites were folding, Neopets was signing up 50,000 new accounts per day, with members spending an average of four hours or more per month on the site. Business Week cited Neopets as “one of the top three entertainment sites on the Web, according to Jupiter Media Metrix”. [3][4]

Advertising Age listed Dohring and Neopets in their 2001 “Roster of Marketing 100s”, noting that in July 2001 the site was ranked the “stickiest” at-home web site by Nielsen/Net Ratings.[5]

By 2002 Neopets had 24 million accounts, and people spending more time on the site than at major services such as America Online. It was cited by Stacey Herron at Jupiter Media Metrix as “one of the most usage-intensive sites on the Web.”[6][7]

Dohring sold the Neopets site to Viacom's MTV Network in June 2005 for $160 million. At the time, approximately 140 million Neopets had been created. [8] [9] Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks, stated that ""Neopets is a smart, creative and innovative company that with Doug Dohring's leadership has become one of the most popular and fastest growing sites on the Web."[10]

[edit] Other Business Ventures

From March until October 1996, he was an executive at Digital Lightwave,[11] a Clearwater, Florida maker of fiber-optic testing equipment. The company was later accused of numerous financial misdealings.[12][13] He was also a major shareholder, and profited from the IPO.

Mr. Dohring was also a principal shareholder in Speedyclick.com circa 1999-2001, an organization linked with spamvertising.[14] He was quoted in a December 2005 Wired Magazine article as having "also invested in the Web-based game developer Speedyclick, which he later sold for $50 million."[15] ($3 million in cash and $47 million in ShopNow stock[1], later renamed as "Network Commerce",[16] deemed worthless in 2001.[17]

[edit] Personal life

A 47-year-old California native, Dohring is the youngest son of a car dealer and a homemaker. He has been married to Laurie Dohring since 1979. They have five children including two sets of identical twins.[1][15] His son, actor Jason Dohring, previously starred as Logan Echolls in the now-canceled CW Television series, Veronica Mars. Jason has since been tapped by 'Mars' producer Joel Silver to play Josef, a 400-year old vampire on the CBS show 'Moonlight'.

[edit] Doug Dohring and Scientology

Doug Dohring has attended the Scientology-related Hubbard College of Administration, which quotes him "...Mr. Hubbard's organizational concepts are always with me".[18] According to the Church of Scientology's magazine Source, Mr. Dohring completed the course OT VI[19], which, according to Scientology, means that he is progressing on a program to become "essentially a being able to operate free of the encumbrances of the material universe".[20]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Black box approach to market research - The Dohring Co, Los Angeles Business Journal, Dec. 25, 1995
  2. ^ BW Online | December 12, 2001 | Real Profits from an Imaginary World
  3. ^ http://www.adage.com/wtw99/article?article_id=53602&search_phrase=%2BDohring"
  4. ^ Login | labusinessjournal.com
  5. ^ Advertising Age
  6. ^ As Children Adopt Pets, A Game Adopts Them - New York Times
  7. ^ Who let the NeoPets out? | CNET News.com
  8. ^ Viacom adopts NeoPets and their millions of owners | Los Angeles Business Journal | Find Articles at BNET.com
  9. ^ Viacom's MTV buys Neopets for $160m - The Boston Globe
  10. ^ http://www.lycos.com/info/neopets--doug-dohring.html
  11. ^ D I G L - W A T C H - Bryan Zwan, Digital Lightwave & Scientology
  12. ^ Litigation Release No. 16491A / March 29, 2000
  13. ^ D I G L - W A T C H - Bryan Zwan, Digital Lightwave & Scientology
  14. ^ hispeedmedia.com / adprosolutions.com - domains (ROKSO ID: ROK4681). spamhaus.org. Retrieved on 2007-05-31.
  15. ^ a b The Neopets Addiction, WIRED, December 2005
  16. ^ Companies claim there's life after delisting - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):
  17. ^ Companies claim there's life after delisting - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):
  18. ^ Hubbard College of Administration | Use In Society
  19. ^ Church of Scientology, Source Magazine, issue 79, March 1992
  20. ^ Church of Scientology, Definition of Operation Thetan, Auditing.org web site (accessed April 14, 2007)

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