Gather or Gather.com was a
social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
website designed to encourage interaction by discussion of various social, political and cultural topics. Its headquarters were located in
Boston, Massachusetts. It became defunct in 2015.
History
The website was founded in 2005 by
Tom Gerace
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
, an entrepreneur who previously founded the
affiliate marketing company, Be Free.
Gather attracted investments and partnerships from media companies ranging from
McGraw-Hill and
Hearst Publications
Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televi ...
to
American Public Media and a member of the
McClatchy family.
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain.
As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...
chose Gather over other social networking sites because of its adult demographic.
Lotus founder
Jim Manzi
Jim Manzi (born 1951) is the former chairman, president and CEO of Lotus Development Corporation and is currently a private investor in various technology start-up ventures.
Early career
Manzi received his B.A. in Classics from Colgate Univers ...
was an early investor.
Gather was one of very few 2006 startups to use television advertising.
Demographics
The countries where the site was most visited were (in descending order):
41.5%
27%
4.9%
4.3%
(UK) 3.3%
2.1
Operations
Members received their own subdomain, where they could publish articles and share comments. Also, members could create groups pertaining to their own efforts, or to any other topic. Writers could also comment on each other's works.
In 2010, Gather management, including owner Tom Gerace, started a business-making subdomain entitled "The Gather News Channel." This consisted of a series of subdomains such as Celebrities, Entertainment, Business, Technology, Politics, Sports and News. Writers were paid to write short articles on a subject for which they were selected from the above topics. Additional money was possible based on a formula of revenue per views. The "Gather News Channel" existed until 2014 when Gather Inc., including Gather.com, was sold to Kitara Media.
In October, 2015, Gather became defunct.
References
External links
CEO Tom Gerace interview, Social Networking Watch, Nov '08
Defunct social networking services
American political blogs
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