90min.com

90min.com
Available in
Predecessor(s) FTBpro.com
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Country of origin Israel
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s)
  • Yuval Larom
  • Asaf Peled
  • Gilad Beiman
CEO Asaf Peled
Services Sports news
Website 90min.com
Launched 2011
Current status Active

90min.com is a technology-enabled football news platform, which produces Internet content covering various football leagues. The content offered by the platform is user-generated following the principles of citizen journalism. The first London based company website was launched in 2011 as FTBpro.com by Israeli entrepreneurs Yuval Larom, Asaf Peled, and Gilad Beiman.

History

90min.com was founded in late 2011, as FTBpro, by Yuval Larom, Asaf Peled, Gilad Beiman.[1][2] Prior to 90min, Peled has worked for Cisco Systems for four years,[3] while Beiman was among the founders of the Israeli Web portal Tapuz.[1] The initial idea for the website came as the founders, all of them football fans, noticed that there was little investment in football-related start-ups.[4] Shortly after its establishment the company raised $300,000 by angel investors including Shahar Erez and Boaz Dinte.[1] In a second funding round in 2012 the company managed to raise $5.8 million from Battery Ventures and Gemini Israel Ventures,[5] stating that the funding would be used for the geographic expansion of the company.[6]

Another $18 million were raised in 2014 by former investors Battery Ventures and Gemini Israel Ventures, as well as new investors including UK-based Dawn Capital.[7][8] The funding was to be used for expansion to new markets, for the opening of new offices in Southeast Asia, and for the enrichment of the site's video and mobile content.[7] Approaching the end of 2014 the website was renamed from FTBpro to 90min.[4] The last funding round ended in October 2015, and it raised a total of $15 million.[9][2] The round was led by German media company ProSiebenSat.1 Media, an investment that aimed toward the establishment of a joint venture targeting the German football market, also receiving funds from previous investors.[9]

Services

90min has developed and provides an online platform that shares football related content for desktop and mobile devices,[10] using video, text, listicles, slideshows, social round-ups and interactive polls as elements to create its articles.[2][4] There is content creation on the platform in 10 different languages, namely English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Turkish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indonesian.[2][11] The mobile application offered on Google Play and Apple iTunes Store allows users to customise the news they are getting from the website, in a way that, for example, could focus on the user's favourite team.[12] The platform also allows football clubs to publish content from 90min.com on their websites.[13]

The platform follows the concept of citizen journalism, which is also followed by American sports websites, allowing fans to create articles and other forms of multimedia content.[14] In most cases content contributors create content on an unpaid voluntary basis, although there are some paid internships which cover article creation costs.[4] An extra incentive for contributors is the website's content sharing agreements with The Telegraph, The Independent, GQ, USA Today, Huffington Post, and the Mirror, thus allowing the contributors to see their work published in well-established news providers.[15] The website, which exceeded 30 million unique users per month in 2015,[2][14] generates revenue via online advertising, with its clientele including the likes of Nike, Kia Motors, and Heineken.[13][16] The company's services were offered, at the end of 2015, from its offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Manila.[2][16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bar, Avishai (May 8, 2013). "הישראלית מגייסת 5.8 מיליון דולרים FTBPro" (in Hebrew). Geektime.co.il. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Goldenberg, Roy (October 6, 2015). "Israeli soccer media platform 90min raises $15m". Globes.co.il. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  3. ↑ Ackerman, Gwen (September 9, 2013). "Israel-Based Football Website Is Turning Fans' Love of the Game Into a New Media Business". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "The Big Interview - 90min". Sportindustry.biz. November 6, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Soccer fans site FTBpro raises $5.8m". Globes.co.il. May 7, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  6. ↑ "FTBpro Raises $5.8M in Funding". Finsmes.com. May 7, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  7. 1 2 Raz, Gali (March 27, 2014). "Asaf Peled Closes a $18 Million Funding Round for FTBpro". Jewish Business News. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  8. ↑ Dunsby, Megan (March 26, 2014). "Global football network FTBpro raises $18m to launch platform across South East Asia". startups.co.uk. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  9. 1 2 O'Hear, Steve (October 6, 2015). "Football Media Platform 90min Scores $15M Further Funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  10. ↑ "90min private marketplace powered by AOL Platforms' Adap.tv enables addressable advertising". AOL Advertising. March 11, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  11. ↑ "About us". 90min.com. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  12. ↑ Chubb, Peter (September 23, 2014). "Focused Chelsea, Man Utd news now possible in FTBpro". Product-Reviews.net. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  13. 1 2 Orpa, Inbal (October 6, 2015). "90min גייסה 15 מיליון דולר". TheMarker. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  14. 1 2 "The Big Interview: 90min". Sportindustry.biz. November 12, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  15. ↑ Lefkoe, Michael (June 26, 2014). "World Cup: Israel's FTBpro Becomes World's Largest Social Soccer News Website". nocamels.com. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  16. 1 2 Davies, Jessica (December 15, 2015). "How UK publishers are using Facebook Instant Articles". Digiday.com. Retrieved March 29, 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.