Yahoo! Elects to Buy Another Social Platform
Yahoo Inc. has purchased Bix.com, a Web site and technology platform that permits users and advertisers to create, enter and run online contests using consumer-generated content.
Palo Alto CA-based Bix lets users upload video, post photos, create profile pages and connect with other user “fans”. But it also enables the quick and easy creation of online contests and lets users decide the winners — voting for the best lip-synch performance of a Pat Benatar rock classic, or running Warren G. Harding against Herbert Hoover in a presidential “Hot or Not” competition.
Bix sells sponsorships to some of its contests, such as a “Great American Scream-Off” that ran this summer under the branding of Six Flags amusement parks.
It’s the most recent social-networking acquisition for Yahoo!, which already owns photo-sharing site Flickr, bookmarking site del.icio.us, group calendar Upcoming.org and recently bought online video editing site Jumpcut. While the Bix.com site will run independently from the Yahoo.com portal, as those other sites do, it’s thought that Yahoo! will integrate its content and functions into other sites in the Yahoo! network.
Bix.com was founded last January by Mike Speiser, co-founder of the Epinions.com Web site, which offers user-generated product reviews. As part of the acquisition, Speiser will join Yahoo! as a vice president in charge of community-oriented sites.
