• Digging Into Demand Media IPO: Losing Money And Domain Name Business Still 44% Of Revenues

    Friday, August 6th, 2010

    Erick Schonfeld is a technology journalist and the former Editor in Chief of TechCrunch. At TechCrunch, he oversaw the editorial content of the site, helped to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produced TCTV shows, and wrote daily for the blog. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular blog to a thriving... → Learn More

    Anybody want to buy a content farm? Demand Media filed its IPO registration today.  It describes its business this way:

    While traditional media companies create content based on anticipated consumer interest, we create content that responds to actual consumer demand. Our approach is driven by consumers’ desire to search for and discover increasingly specific information across the Internet.

    It is also filled with all sorts of detailed financial data.

    It turns out that Demand Media is not yet a very profitable business. Last year it reported $22 million in losses on $198 million in revenues. In the first six months of this year, however, it brought its net loss down to $6 million, on revenues of $108 million.

    And while Demand Media has been pursuing a content and media strategy of creating search-friendly articles and videos for its network of sites including eHow and many niche sites, a full 44 percent of its revenues in the first half of 2010 ($47.7 million) still came from its domain registration business, eNom.

    Some other juicy details from the prospectus (unless otherwise stated, stats are for the first half of 2010):

    • 45 percent of revenues are from advertising
    • 26 percent of revenues came from Google ads
    • 21 percent of revenues come from eHow
    • 60 percent of eHow’s page views come from Google searches
    • In the third quarter of 2008, 100 percent of the articles an d other content Demand Media’s creates itself was published on eHow. That was down to 60 percent in the second quarter of 2010.

    That is just from a quick scan. There is lots more in there.  Above and below are a couple of tables showing consolidated financial data and a breakdown of revenues along business lines. Click to enlarge

    Company: Demand Media
    Website: demandmedia.com
    Launch Date: June 1, 2006
    IPO: NYSE:DMD

    Demand Media, Inc. (NYSE: DMD) is a leading content and social media company that informs and entertains one of the Internet’s largest audiences, helps advertisers find innovative ways to engage with their customers and enables publishers to expand their online presence. Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Demand Media has offices in North America, South America and Europe.

    Learn more

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