IAC Set To Jump Into Crowded How-To Space With Life333.com
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
You could almost see this one coming: IAC (NSDQ: IACI) is prepping a fresh entrant into the crowded "how-to" space, as part of its strategy of incubating a string of homegrown start-ups, paidContent.org has learned. A launch could come in the next couple of months. This has become a suffocatingly crowded area, with a new start-up announcing funding seemingly every couple of weeks. The site, which will be called Life333.com (a lookup confirms the domain is registered to IAC), will offer a mix of content types, including, but definitely not limited to video. Details are a little sketchy, but the basic idea is to aggregate how-to content, with an eye towards distributing it across their network, while maintaining a high profile in search engines. A source suggests it has shades of Mahalo and About.com, though again, all based around how-to. It will also produce original content. As mentioned, the how-to space is very crowded, but for a new entrant, taking an aggregation/SEO-driven approach sounds like a smart approach. For the record, IAC declined to comment either way on the story.
-- One odd detail we've heard: It's named Life333 because each basic how-to chunk comes in three versions: one you can consume in three minutes, one in thirty minutes, and one that takes three hours. If they can get anyone to spend three hours on a site in a session, that'll be seriously impressive.
By Joseph Weisenthal