International Data Group (IDG) is a technology media, research, event management, and venture capital organization. IDG evolved from International Data Corporation (IDC) which was formed in 1964 in Newtonville, Massachusetts, by Patrick Joseph McGovern and a friend, Fred Kirch. IDC is now a subsidiary of IDG.
There is an international mother company (located in Boston), with a few publications. In every country where IDG is located, the publications are produced on a national level, where there is a lot of knowledge for that particular local market.
IDG publishes over 300 magazines in 85 countries and their five global publication product lines — Computerworld/InfoWorld, CIO, Macworld, Network World, and PC World — account for more than 175 of these titles. McGovern has made billions of dollars from the growth of IDG, which has remained a private company.
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IDG's subsidiary IDG World Expo produces a variety of large-scale events, such as conventions. These are typically conventions for technology businesses. IDG World Expo runs E for All, Macworld Conference & Expo, and LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.
IDG also has its own international news agency, IDG News Service. It is headquartered in Boston and has bureaus in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Tokyo, Taipei, Beijing, Singapore, Bangalore, Paris, London, Stockholm, and Brussels. It provides news, images, video and other editorial content to IDG's web sites and print publications worldwide.
In 2005, several investors, including IDG, attempted to purchase BlogCN.[1]
IDG Books, which was a public company spun off from the privately held IDG, published the popular self help "...For Dummies" books. The "...For Dummies" range was originally limited to computer related fields, but later expanded to include a much wider variety of topics. The series is now published by John Wiley & Sons. IDG Books/Hungry Minds — as IDG Books was briefly renamed before being sold to Wiley in 2001 — no longer exists as a separate company.
IDG publishes magazines and websites in several European countries and languages. In June 2008, owner Pat McGovern said that two thirds of IDG's readership in the U.S. were online readers, while in Europe two thirds were print readers. The company has tried to address this with the launch of UK titles, Techworld and Computerworld UK and the launch of TecChannel in Germany - all three of which are online-only titles. Of the European titles, none matches Computer Sweden, the Swedish edition of Computerworld, which is a tabloid size morning newspaper published twice a week. Its turnover is larger than the German Computerwoche and is IDG's largest publication in Europe, said McGovern.[2] Computer Sweden is printed and circulated in 51,000 copies.[3] IDG also provides IT Bransjen, a Norwegian trade publication for the it sales channel, in Norway. IT Bransjen is published 11 times a year, circulating 10,000 copies to 34,000 readers.[4]
IDG has subsidiary in China engaged exclusively in the venture capital business. It is regarded as one of the most successful foreign venture capital firms in China.
IDG has a wholly owned subsidiary based in Sydney, Australia. Employing around 70 staff, IDG Australia was incorporated in 1978 and operates local versions of the brands Computerworld, CIO, PC World, TechWorld as well as Australian-specific brands ARN and GoodGearGuide.
IDG Ventures was founded in 1996; the first fund created by IDG was located in San Francisco. The latest San Francisco fund, formed in 2007, accepted other institutional investors in addition to IDG, which remains a major investor. Following the successful launch of the San Francisco fund, IDG organized its non-publishing investments in China into venture funds. In 2009, IDG Ventures China renamed itself IDG Capital Partners to reflect the breadth of its half dozen funds encompassing start-up venture through growth investments. In 2000, IDG started a fund in Europe; this fund is now closed. In 2001, IDG started a fund in Boston, also named IDG Ventures. The manager of the Boston fund renamed itself Flybridge Capital Partners in 2008 and is no longer associated with the IDG Ventures funds. In the 2000s, IDG started funds in Vietnam, India and Korea. As of 2010, there are five countries with IDG funds - China, Vietnam, India, Korea and the United States (San Francisco).
IDG Connect is the demand generation division of International Data Group. Founded in 2006, it has offices in Framingham, Massachusetts and Staines, Middlesex and offers global services in lead generation,[5] lead nurturing, research and content creation.[6] IDG Connect also conducts research aimed at B2B marketers worldwide; [7] its white paper library of IT and business content was shortlisted for the PPA Awards 2011.[8]
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