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Posts with tag: gather | Return to BloggersBlog.com Homepage
Gather.com Raises $6 Million
 Dow Jones reports that Gather.com has raised $6 million in venture funding.
Gather.com founder and CEO Tom Gerace, co-founder of the 1999 IPO from Be Free Inc., is leading an Internet-based push to end the "literary industrial complex" as it now exists.
The $6 million venture round was co-lead by Jim Manzi, former chief executive officer of Lotus Development Corp., and Allen & Co. Manzi will join Gather.com as a board member.
Other investors include Southern California Public Radio, American Public Media Group, and Gerace.
We mentioned Gather in a post from last November when we discussed their goal of building a giant blogging community. Gather's article ranking system may interest some writers but it remains to be seen how much interest there will be in Gather Points -- unless they are redeemable for actual cash.
On Malik and Mister Snitch are also discussing Gather.com. Mister Snitch thinks a Gather-like model will eventually work.
Malik doesn't think the business model has legs, but we think it (or something like it) will fly, pretty much the same way Blogcritics does. In fact, Blogcritics should be concerned, because they reimburse their reviewers with only attention and swag. Gather and its ilk will pay actual cash.
There does appear to be a lot of blogging activity at Gather but those Gather Points need to be redeemable as cash and not as coupons or free stuff. The Boston Globe also has an earlier article about Gather (via Micropersuasion.com)
Posted on January 17, 2006
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Gather.com Attempting to Build Giant Blogging Community
The Seattle Times reports that a community blogging website called Gather.com is trying to build a huge subscriber base. Gather.com plans to lure bloggers by offering them Gather Points that it says can later be redeemed for products and cash.
Gather will need at least 1 million regular subscribers to support its business model, said analyst John Blossom with Shore Communications. Its true strength is in community as content, he noted.
"Rather than aggregating the content as the value point, it's the community itself that represents the most important aggregation," he said. The rewards structure and insulated feedback loop could protect Gather against poaching from bigger services like Yahoo! and MSN.
As news shifts from print to online, community-based services are all trying to crack the same nut: doing for news what eBay did for yard sales, Yahoo! did for forums, Amazon.com did for books, Match.com did for dating, Slashdot did for geek-think and so on.
Gather.com looks like a large group blog but it also offers community and social networking services. Gather.com also ranks the most popular authors and the most popular articles. Gather says it is different because it will be offering the Gather Points which it defines as "your currency to purchase goods and services from your favorite Gather partners. Top earners can even exchange their points for cash." The text below is from Gather's about page.
Gather will make money by displaying advertising to people who use Gather's services. It just seems fair that we share our advertising revenue with you based on the quality and popularity of the content you contribute on Gather. We will also share some of our revenue with you if you choose to use the site actively, exploring content that others write, searching on Gather and on the web, and inviting your friends, family, and colleagues to use the site. We will pay occasional users in points that you will be able to use to purchase goods and services from Gather partners in a few months. We will pay frequent users, who write great content consistently, in cash if they choose.
Cash is a reliable lure for attracting bloggers -- many of the small blog networks are trying to get bloggers to join by offering cash or the promise of future cash from ad revenue sharing deals. Straight cash in the form of a freelance payment or salary is the most attractive offer and is much more appealing than a shared percentage of ad revenues. But redeemable points for products or coupons is not going to be nearly as attractive.
Posted on November 21, 2005
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