Doug Dohring (1957 - September 14, 2023) [1] [2] was a marketer and entrepreneur. He founded the market research firm, The Dohring Company, in 1986. From 1999 to 2005, he was the CEO of Neopets, Inc.. In 2007, he founded Age of Learning, Inc., [3] an edtech company, serving as CEO and Executive Chairman of the company until his death. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Dohring was also the Chairman of the philanthropic Age of Learning Foundation, a member of the UNESCO Global Education Coalition.
Dohring founded market research firm The Dohring Company in 1986, where he served as Chairman and CEO. [9] Customers for the company's market research services included retail chains including Baskin-Robbins and House of Fabrics, and entertainment firms including Capitol Records, as well as automotive, financial services, and health care companies. [10] 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 Los Angeles Business Journal 's 1995 list of fastest growing private companies in Los Angeles County. [11]
Dohring founded Neopets, Inc. after being introduced to the Neopets.com site by a mutual friend upon its December, 1999 launch by two British college students, Adam Powell and Donna Williams. According to BusinessWeek , Dohring bought the site immediately thereafter. [12] In April, 2000, he brought in his first advertising partners for a concept that he trademarked as immersive advertising . [13] [14]
According to a Harvard Business School case study, Neopets, Inc. had reached profitability four months after launching operations, "largely due to the fact that it spends nothing for customer acquisition, relying strictly on word-of-mouth". [15]
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 websites 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. [16]
Dohring sold the Neopets site to Viacom's MTV Network in June 2005 for $160 million. [17] At the time, approximately 140 million Neopets had been created, with advertising making up about 60% of the company's revenues and a line of plush toys sold through Target Corporation and other stores. [18] [19]
After the sale of Neopets to Viacom in 2005, Dohring founded Age of Learning, Inc., in 2007, and launched the ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, website in 2010. The Wall Street Journal said that ABCmouse was "designed to teach basic reading, math, science and other subjects to children between the ages of two and six." [20] Unlike Neopets, which relied on advertising, ABCmouse.com charges a subscription of $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year, and is free to individual teachers, libraries, Head Start programs, and other community organizations. [21]
In 2016, Age of Learning launched ABCmouse for Schools, a service marketed to school districts and groups rather than families or individual teachers. [22] [23]
Age of Learning, a privately held company, was reported to have reached a $1 billion valuation based on $150 million in funding from ICONIQ Capital in May 2016. [24] [25] A subsequent round of funding in June, 2021, led by TPG, raised another $300 million, which valued the company at $3 billion. [26] [27]
In September 2019, the company appointed former Disney executive Paul Candland as CEO with Dohring being named the Executive Chairman. [28] Candland served as CEO until April, 2022, at which time Dohring resumed his position as CEO.[ citation needed ]
In January 2020, Dohring announced the formation of the Age of Learning Foundation, which offers free access to Age of Learning digital education programs, at the Education World Forum. [29] [30]
Age of Learning was named “Most Innovative Ed Tech Company” by SIIA in the 2023 CODiE Awards. [31]
Dohring was also a principal shareholder in Speedyclick.com circa 1999-2001, which according to a December 2005 Wired Magazine article, "he later sold for $50 million." [12] The $50 million deal included $3 million in cash and $47 million in ShopNow stock, [32] (later renamed as "Network Commerce", [33] and deemed worthless in 2001). [33]
A California native, Dohring was the youngest son of a car dealer and a homemaker. He and his wife Laurie, both Scientologists, were married in 1979. They had five children including two sets of identical twins and actor Jason Dohring, best known for his roles in the series Veronica Mars and Moonlight . [11] [12]
Doug Dohring died on September 14, 2023, due to an illness diagnosed four months prior. [1] [2]
Neopets is a free-to-play virtual pet browser game. First launched in 1999, the game allows users to own virtual pets ("Neopets") and explore a virtual world called "Neopia." Players can earn one of two virtual currencies. One currency, called Neopoints, can be obtained for free through on-site features like games, events, and contests. The other, Neocash (NC), is purchased with real-world money and can be exchanged for wearable items for pets.
The second phase of Viacom Inc., was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate with interests primarily in film and television. It was established on December 31, 2005, as one of two companies which succeeded the original Viacom, alongside the second CBS Corporation. The controlling shareholder of both companies was National Amusements, a theater company headed by businessman Sumner Redstone. The split was structured so that the original Viacom changed its name to CBS Corporation and spun out its cable and film interests as a new Viacom.
LookSmart is an American search advertising, content management, online media, and technology company. It provides search, machine learning and chatbot technologies as well as pay-per-click and contextual advertising services.
JumpStart Games, Inc., formerly Knowledge Adventure, Inc., was an American edutainment video game company based in Torrance, California. Founded in 1991, it was acquired by Chinese holding company NetDragon Websoft in 2017.
Adam James Powell is a Welsh computer programmer, game designer and businessman. He is the co-founder of Neopets and Meteor Games.
Paramount Media Networks is an American mass media division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of its television channels and online brands. The division was originally founded as MTV Networks in 1984, named after the MTV cable network. It would be known under this name until 2011; when it would be thereafter known as Viacom Media Networks until 2019; and ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks until 2022.
Sky Dylan Dayton is an American entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder of Internet service provider EarthLink, co-founder of eCompanies, the founder of Boingo, and co-founder of City Storage Systems and CloudKitchens.
Business Insider is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in Business Insider's parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the international publishing house Axel Springer. It operates several international editions, including one in the United Kingdom.
Cloudera, Inc. is an American data lake software company.
ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy is a digital education program for children ages 2–8, created by the edtech company Age of Learning, Inc. The program offers educational games, videos, puzzles, printables, and a library of regular and “read-aloud” children’s books, covering subjects including reading and language arts, math, science, health, social studies, music, and art.
Udemy, Inc. is an education technology company, founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. It is based in San Francisco, California, United States, with hubs in Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Austin, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; İstanbul, Turkey, and Gurgaon, India.
Coursera Inc. is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects.
WeWork Inc. is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, headquartered in New York City. As of December 31, 2022, the company operated 43.9 million square feet (4,080,000 m2) of space, including 18.3 million square feet (1,700,000 m2) in the United States and Canada, in 779 locations in 39 countries, and had 547,000 members, with a weighted average commitment term of 19 months.
Awesomeness, formerly and best known as AwesomenessTV, is an American digital media and entertainment network company owned by Viacom Digital Studios, a division of Paramount Global. Established in July 2012 by Brian Robbins and Joe Davola, the company operated a network initially focused on children’s programs, teen dramas, comedies, live events and music videos targeting adolescents and young adults.
Robert Marc Bakish is an American business executive. He became the president and CEO of Paramount Global on December 4, 2019, formerly holding the same position at Viacom before the merger with CBS Corporation. He resigned on April 29, 2024 when Paramount was considering a major merger after a poor performance in the stock market.
Byju's is an Indian multinational educational technology company, headquartered in Bengaluru. It was founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath. As of October 2024, various media outlets reported that Byju's valuation has now plummeted to zero, down from its peak valuation of $22 billion in 2022. In April 2023, the company claimed it had over 150 million registered students.
Xandr, Inc. is the advertising and analytics subsidiary of Microsoft, which operates an online platform, Community, for buying and selling consumer-centric digital advertising.
Donna Williams Powell is a British game designer and businesswoman. She is the co-founder of Neopets and Meteor Games.
Paramount Global is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, Midtown Manhattan. The company was formed on December 4, 2019, as ViacomCBS through the merger of the second incarnations of CBS Corporation and Viacom. The company took its current name on February 16, 2022.
Steven Cliff Bartlett is a British entrepreneur and podcaster. He was the co-founder and co-CEO of Social Chain, but stepped down as CEO in 2020. In 2021, he began appearing as an investor on the BBC One show Dragons' Den. He also runs The Diary of a CEO podcast. Spotify Wrapped ranked it in the top 10 most popular podcasts globally in 2023. He is also the founder of Thirdweb, Flight Story and Flight Fund. Bartlett has been frequently criticised for making misleading claims and breaching advertising standards.