- AskMen.com
Infobox Website
name = AskMen.com
caption = ASKMEN.COM: 40,000 articles available online
url = http://www.askmen.com/
commercial = Yes
type = Online men's publication
registration = Optional
owner =IGN Fox Interactive Media News Corporation
author = Ricardo PoupadaChris Bellerose RovnyLuis Rodrigues
launch date = January 2000AskMen.com is a free online men’s
web portal , with international versions in the [http://www.askmen.com US] , [http://ca.askmen.com Canada] , [http://uk.askmen.com UK] and [http://au.askmen.com Australia] .History
AskMen.com was founded in
August 1999 by Ricardo Poupada, Christopher Bellerose Rovny and Luis 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. [cite web
url = http://news.com.com/news/0-1007-200-3360232.html
title = Latest dot-com bomb: TheMan.com
author = Stefanie Olsen
publisher = CNET News.com
date = 2000-11-01
accessdate = 2006-09-03] By 2001, AskMen.com surpassed the other websites in its category to become the largest men's lifestyle website. [cite web
url = http://ca.askmen.com/mediakit/yahoo_nielsen_ratings.html
title = One-year-old AskMen.com Surpasses Maxim & GQ and Remains Profitable
publisher = PRNewswire
date = 2001-06-04
accessdate = 2006-09-03]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 & Lifestyle
*Fine Living
*Cars
*Health & Sports
*Dating & Love
*Car Reviews
*Sexuality
*Women
*Men
*Power & Money
*Entertainment
*Gaming
*Poker
*Joke of the Day
*Cool Site of the Day
*Video of the Day
*Gadget of the DayOther 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.cite web
url = http://www.hitwise.com/news/us200506.html
title = Category Spotlight: Lifestyle - Men's Interest
publisher = Hitwise] Over the 7 years it has been in function, AskMen.com has had content partnerships with other successful Web properties such asMSN ,AOL ,Netscape ,CompuServe ,Univision , andLycos Asia .Print
AskMen.com launched a 3-book series published by
HarperCollins in May 2007, starting with their first book "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 3 million posts, the most popular topics on the boards include Men's Issues, Current Events/Politics, Love & 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 byIGN , an Internet gaming site, for $13.5 million. IGN was then acquired byNews Corporation inSeptember 2005 for $650 million.Current management
* Ricardo Poupada - VP, General Manager, co-founder (former President)
* Armando Gomez - Advertising & Promotions Manager (former Senior Publishing Coordinator)
* Alex Lefebvre - Development Manager
* James Bassil - Editor-in-ChiefReferences
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.