30 January 2008
AUSTIN, the Lance Armstrong Foundation is getting into the online social-networking business with a website focusing on health and fitness issues.
www.LiveStrong.com, will launch later this year in a partnership with Demand Media Inc., an online media startup run by Richard Rosenblatt, the former head of MySpace.com. The site will cover a range of health issues with blogs, chat rooms, videos and other tools visitors can use to interact and share their own content.
The site will be linked to the non-profit LiveStrong.org, but the new site will not focus on cancer issues, the focus of Armstrong's foundation.
Santa Monica, California based Demand Media has about 60 Web sites, mostly focusing on niche activities with dedicated participants, such as golf. These are used to generate advertising revenue. The company will keep any profits generated by LiveStrong.com
Foundation president Doug Ulman said the organisation sees the venture as a chance to drive awareness for its cause and the LiveStrong brand. The agreement also calls for Demand Media to provide online social networking tools and technologies for the foundation's website. Those tools, which were valued at $8 million to $10 million, will enhance the non-profit site by allowing cancer patients to "to share experiences, ideas and thoughts," according to Doug Ulman.
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