LIVESTRONG.com, Demand Media's newest venture and a trademark of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, wants to differentiate itself from other health information sites with its variety of high-quality content and the community surrounding that content, Director of Community Lex Friedman says.
Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt, the former CEO of MySpace, knows a thing or two about social communities. Friedman told me that his MySpace experience is "tremendoulsy influential with what we're doing at LIVESTRONG."
LIVESTRONG.com's interactive "Dare To" feature allows users to take dares together to change something in their lives, like quitting smoking or losing weight. In addition to challenging and encouraging each other, users can also ask questions of the experts from the site's 5,000 original video clips, which cover topics ranging from fitness to fishing.
The site, launched in June, accrued video quickly largely thanks to the connections of Demand Media how-to video site Expert Village, Friedman says.
John Heilemann at Business 2.0 estimated Demand Media's VC value to be at $500 million over a year ago, but reported that Rosenblatt insisted he wanted to build his media empire, not sell it. It looks like he's sticking to his word.
--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer