Formerly | Red F (1999–2003) |
---|---|
Company type | Private |
Industry | |
Founded | 2000 |
Headquarters | Indian Land, South Carolina, U.S. |
Key people | Ric Elias (CEO) |
Services | Marketing, advertising |
Revenue | US$2 billion (2021) |
Divisions | |
Subsidiaries | |
Website | redventures |
Red Ventures is an American media company that owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, CNET, ZDNet, The Points Guy, Healthline, and Bankrate. [1] Red Ventures focuses on news, advice, and review websites. [2] The company's corporate headquarters is located in Indian Land, South Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. [3]
Red Ventures was founded on September 29, 1999, [4] in Fort Mill, South Carolina by Ric Elias and Dan Feldstein. [5] Before its 2020 acquisitions, the company had grown into an international presence with more than 100 brands, 3,000 employees, and operations in the United Kingdom and Brazil. [6]
In 2015, the company got a $250 million investment from Silver Lake. [7] That same year, it doubled the size of its headquarters [8] and bought postal services company Imagitas from Pitney Bowes. [9]
Red Ventures acquired Bankrate Inc. for $1.24 billion in cash in a deal announced July 3, 2017. [10] [11]
On September 14, 2020, Red Ventures agreed to purchase the CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS for $500 million. [12] On December 1, 2020, Red Ventures bought Lonely Planet from Tennessee-based NC2 Media. [13]
In 2021, the company had 4,500 employees and 751 million readers per month. [14] [15]
In 2023, The Verge described the business model of the company as "publish[ing] content designed to rank highly in Google search for "high-intent" queries and ... monet[izing] that traffic with lucrative affiliate links". [16] Stories are aimed at people who are likely to buy something ("high-intent"), with a particular focus on financial content such as credit cards, as the media company gets payments in the hundreds of dollars for each customer that buys a credit card. [16] [17] Red Ventures also aims to get paid for guiding readers to buy drugs and medical consultations. [17]
The characterization came after the website Futurism found several articles published by Red Ventures properties, including CNET, were quietly written by artificial intelligence software, [18] with the stories containing numerous inaccuracies and instances of plagiarism. [19] Red Ventures announced layoffs at CNET a few weeks after the reports from The Verge and Futurism, which the company says were unrelated. [20] [21]
Futurism additionally highlighted undisclosed AI-generated, SEO-focused content produced by Red Ventures's education division (internally RV EDU). This content promotes schools with which Red Ventures maintains affiliate agreements, such as University of Phoenix (a for-profit college owned by Apollo Global Management) and Liberty University (founded by conservative activist and Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell). Websites operated by RV EDU include BestColleges.com, TheBestSchools.org, NurseJournal.org, ComputerScience.org, and Psychology.org, "as well as numerous sites with domain names that imply they're nonprofits". [22]
In July 2023, Elias announced that AI-generated content, both editorial content and targeted advertisements, would be a major part of the company's business model moving forward. [23]
Following CNET publishing AI-generated stories containing errors and plagiarized content, as well as incorrect attributions to human writers, the Wikipedia community downgraded CNET's reliability, such that all content since the Red Ventures acquisition should not be considered reliable. [24] [25] Employees unionized in response to layoffs and the risk to their professional reputations. [26] [24] [27] [28] Red Ventures subsequently attempted to sell CNET for $250 million; the approximate halving of CNET's value under Red Ventures' ownership is attributed to interest rates, a slower ad market, and potential buyers expressing concern at the reputational damage of the AI scandals. [26] [29]
In 2015, Red Ventures acquired MyMove (formerly Imagitas), [30] in large part due to their exclusive partnership with USPS. In 2011, Imagitas formed a 10 year exclusive partnership with the USPS to facilitate the official Change of Address process, which roughly 40 million people use each year. [31] This partnership has been heavily criticized by users on the internet, [32] [33] primarily due to the predatory nature of the user experience deployed on the USPS site. Users are forced to provide their data, in exchange for deals and advertisements, without the option to opt-out. Critics of the experience claim that it is intentionally done by MyMove and is misleading for consumers, who are led to believe they need to provide this information in order to change their address, or update their voter registration form.
In May 2023, Red Ventures agreed to pay the United States $2.75 million to resolve a whistleblower's allegations that they violated the False Claims Act [34] by underpaying on contracts connected to the USPS change-of-address process. [35]
ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT–focused online publication.
GameSpot is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition to the information produced by GameSpot staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. It has been owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022.
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development.
Roku, Inc. is a U.S. public company founded by Anthony Wood in 2002. It runs a streaming TV service through its branded streaming devices and smart TVs, supporting both advertising and subscription models on its platform. Roku leads U.S. streaming TV distribution, and reports over 80 million users globally as of 2023. Beyond the U.S., the company serves markets in Canada, Australia, the U.K., France, Germany, and several Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Men's Journal is an American men's lifestyle magazine focused on outdoor recreation and comprising editorials on the outdoors, environmental issues, health and fitness, style and fashion, and gear. It was founded in 1992 by Jann Wenner of Wenner Media, who sought to create a publication for "active, accomplished men to fuel an adventurous and discerning lifestyle". Wenner Media sold Men's Journal to American Media, Inc. in 2017. The Arena Group acquired Men's Journal in 2022.
Paramount Streaming is a division of Paramount Global that oversees the company's video streaming technology and direct-to-consumer services; including Pluto TV and Paramount+.
Xumo, LLC is an American internet television and consumer electronics company. It is a joint venture of Charter Communications and Comcast that operates the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) and advertising video on demand (AVOD) service Xumo Play, and distributes Xumo Stream Box digital media players and Xumo TV smart TVs. The Xumo Play platform's service operations are based in the Greater Los Angeles suburb of Irvine, California. As of October 2020, Xumo Play has 24 million monthly active users.
CNET is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. CNET originally produced content for radio and television in addition to its website before applying new media distribution methods through its internet television network, CNET Video, and its podcast and blog networks.
Chowhound was a food website owned by Red Ventures. It ceased operations on March 28, 2022.
Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media company based in Mumbai, India. Founded in 2007 by the MTV Networks Europe division, it later became a joint venture between TV18 and Viacom in 2014, with TV18 becoming the majority shareholder in the company since April 2023, with Paramount Networks EMEAA and Bodhi Tree Systems owning minority stakes. The company owns and operates various channels, as well as content production studios in India.
Healthline Media, Inc. is an American website and provider of health information headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1999, relaunched in 2006, and established as a standalone entity in January 2016. Healthline has been ranked towards the middle of top-ranking health information websites. A study of top-ranking health websites published in 2021 evaluated its quality as "good", compared to MedlinePlus's "excellent" scores and Medical News Today's "fair/good" ranking.
HubSpot, Inc. is an American developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in 2006.
Paramount+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures, CBS Studios, Paramount Media Networks, and Paramount Pictures, while also including original series and films, live streaming sports coverage, and in the United States, live streaming of local CBS broadcast stations.
Pluto TV is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global.
FuboTV Inc., operating as FuboTV or Fubo, is an American streaming television service serving customers in the United States, Canada, and Spain and based in Midtown Manhattan. The network focuses primarily on channels that distribute live sports. Depending on the country it is accessed in, channels offered by Fubo may potentially include access to the Premier League, NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, CPL, and international football, as well as news, network television series, and movies.
The Points Guy (TPG) is an American travel website and blog that produces sponsored news and stories on travel, means of accumulating and using airline points and miles, politics, and credit cards - in particular, credit card reviews. The site was founded in 2010 and was initially a blog written by founder Brian Kelly. By 2017, the site employed 20 full-time staff in addition to 50 freelance contributors.
G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that owns and operates several digital media outlets, including Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik, The Root, The Inventory, and Quartz.
Paramount Global is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The company was formed on December 4, 2019, as ViacomCBS Inc. through the merger of the second incarnations of CBS Corporation and Viacom. The company took its current name on February 16, 2022, the day after its Q4 earnings presentation.
The 2019 merger of CBS Corporation and Viacom was announced on August 13, 2019, and was completed on December 4, 2019. The merger of equals reunited CBS Corporation and Viacom into a single company known as ViacomCBS after their separation from the first incarnation of Viacom on December 31, 2005. Both companies were owned by the theater company National Amusements, which remains the owner of the merged entity.