Product Distribution and Investment Deal to Benefit Brands and Publishers Using Social Media
SANTA MONICA, Calif. & TORONTO – Demand Media, the leader in distributed social media, and CoveritLive, a live social event software company, announced a strategic partnership to offer the tools that enable new original programming for the web to the hundreds of leading brands and publishers that currently make up Demand Media’s customer base. Demand Media is also making its first strategic investment by securing a minority interest in CoveritLive.
CoveritLive is used by online publishers and bloggers to create live events around topical interests while engaging experts and audience participants. From the largest sporting events to local court cases, online publishers have used CoveritLive to power more than 100 million monthly viewership minutes. Demand Media’s enterprise social media platform, Pluck, powers more than 3 billion monthly community interactions on the world’s largest consumer media and brand sites.
“We believe CoveritLive’s model for live programming with audience participation is a natural evolution of the social web,” said Dave Panos, Demand Media’s executive vice president of social media platforms. “This deep partnership enables us to continue delivering upon our customer promise to harness the most valuable applications of social media and deliver integrated experiences with best-of-breed services like CoveritLive, Facebook and Twitter.”
“Demand Media is a terrific partner to help us grow the company and improve the CoveritLive product experience,” said Keith McSpurren, president and founder of CoveritLive. “Dozens of mutual customers have already independently made the decision to use our products to drive social engagement on their websites. Together, we’ll deliver an enterprise class solution that delights millions of consumers each month.”
Under terms of the agreement, the companies will integrate their software products — enabling CoveritLive implementations to seamlessly connect with those of Pluck. Additionally, Demand Media will market, resell and service the joint solution to enterprise customers, simplifying their social media efforts while maintaining the high caliber of service their customers demand.
“Sky News has been partnering both Pluck and CoveritLive for a variety of user participation activities,” said Simon Bucks, associate editor at Sky News. “The announcement of the strategic relationship between the two seems to be a logical development which we hope will lead to more integration and ultimately an even better service for the 8 million plus unique users who come to Skynews.com each month.”
About Demand Media
As the leader in distributed social media, Demand Media™ makes possible more than 3 billion conversations every month. The Demand Media platform harnesses the creativity of individuals to deliver valuable content and help websites grow by providing content and community features that consumers truly want. The privately held company was founded in May 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, CA, with offices in Bellevue, WA; Austin, TX; New York, NY; and London, UK. For more information about Demand Media, Inc., please visit: www.demandmedia.com
About CoveritLive
CoveritLive powers live events with social engagement for thousands of digital destinations around the world. Based in Toronto, Canada, CoveritLive’s popular service is used by leading brands and media companies including ESPN, Fox, Hearst, Sky News, TMZ, Washington Post, and Yahoo. For more information about CoveritLive, Inc., please visit: www.coveritlive.com
