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40 Million is HOT

40 Million is HOT

Jeremy Schoemaker February 12, 2008

Hot Or Not Hot Or Not has been purchased by Avid Life Media for a reported 20 million dollars. Big congratulations to founders Jim Young and James Hong. I originally met James at a TechCrunch party last fall. Very cool & down to earth guy. He was telling me about the explosive growth that hot or not was experiencing due to Facebook and other super high trafficked social media sites.

Hot or Not has a great story. Basically 2 buddies built a site for fun where people could rate people based on their looks. They always had a moderation queue so they could weed out the pornography. The funny thing behind this is James’s parents were doing most of the moderation for the first couple years of the site. He told me it was kind of weird paying his parents to sort out the porn pictures on Hot or Not. Anyway they implemented a dating/connection component and other items to create revenue over the years. Techcrunch reported last may the site was bring in 5 million a year in revenue with 2-3 million of that being profit on average. Also reported was that the founders had taken out 20 million from the site over the years.

So this means they have personally taken in 40 million from the site now with the sale. Great job guys.

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About The Author

Jeremy Schoemaker

Jeremy "ShoeMoney" Schoemaker is the founder & CEO of ShoeMoney Media Group, and to date has sold 6 companies and done over 10 million in affiliate revenue. In 2013 Jeremy released his #1 International Best selling Autobiography titled "Nothing's Changed But My Change" - The ShoeMoney Story. You can read more about Jeremy on his wikipedia page here.

48 Comments

  1. Nick

    Wow, good for them is all I have to say 🙂

    February 12, 2008
  2. Aleks

    i know this site for years, nice job!

    congrats to the founders!

    February 12, 2008
  3. Funny t shirts

    It’s funny how so many comments at TechCrunch are claiming $20m is too low… I’d say that was a decent offer if true.

    February 12, 2008
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    February 12, 2008
  5. Sheepeffect.com

    I’m wondering how they were making millions of profit each year?

    February 12, 2008
  6. Jeremy Schoemaker

    its pretty spelled out in the TC post. They offer a dating component and other virtual services. They were getting about 10,000 signups a day on average in 2007

    February 12, 2008
  7. Make Money Online

    it’s great to see that if you stick at something long enough, the web will pay out a small fortune!

    February 12, 2008
  8. CatherineL

    That is amazing. It doesn’t seem long since they launched and I remember thinking it seemed like a smart idea. It has certainly paid off for them.

    February 12, 2008
  9. FREE PPC Affiliate Tracking 2.0

    Personally I felt that if they were bringing in 5 million per year and of that, half were profits, 20 million was a little on the low side. They probably could have generated more by keeping the site unless they have something else in mind to invest the 20 million in.

    February 12, 2008
  10. Erica DeWolf

    Easy, simple concept…yet extremely successful!

    It just goes to show you…put your simple ideas into action. They don’t have to be complicated to be popular and make money!

    February 12, 2008
  11. Sabrina

    Wow, sounds like a hot site, lol. What an awesome thing to have bragging rights on. We’re definitely in a new generation, our kids and grandkids are going to be web fortune heirs!

    February 12, 2008
  12. Dan Rucci

    I was actually reading about Jim and James yesterday in a book …. great concept and great result for these guys!

    February 12, 2008
  13. Start Blogging

    Congrats to them! It’s amazing what a little, simple idea can turn into.

    February 12, 2008
  14. Syed Balkhi

    40 million is surely hot. I am surprised to see that they credit facebook and social network sites that much. It was just a unique idea and innovation is good money 😉

    February 12, 2008
  15. Affiliate Confession

    That’s insane! 5 million a year in revenue and then they get paid $20 million for the site, I know there are still a million ideas like that left, I just have to find one. That just frickin’ insane!

    February 12, 2008
  16. Blog Advertising Network

    I think what you said in your past video applies. Do something that you love to do. This is what Hor or Not owners did

    February 12, 2008
  17. SEOContest2008

    wow $20 million from a site is just great. James’s parents must be really happy now 🙂

    February 12, 2008
  18. darin carter

    this is a great story … I remember using hot or not in the past … My buddy met his wife on there!

    February 12, 2008
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    February 12, 2008
  20. Tom Beaton

    Thats a pretty cool success story. Everyone has heard of it!

    February 12, 2008
  21. RacerX

    That’s about $20 Million more then the Paris Hilton movie with a similar title made!

    February 12, 2008
  22. Blog Advertising Network

    LOL! I am sure they are happy and think that it worth watching so much porn 🙂

    February 12, 2008
  23. naijagal

    congratulations they have made it!

    February 12, 2008
  24. Will

    wow.. how do you even go about asking your parents to weed out porn on your site? lol

    February 12, 2008
  25. Will

    another true success story. I didn’t think hot or not was this popular.

    February 12, 2008
  26. PPC Management

    Wow. That’s impressive.

    February 12, 2008
  27. Hustle Strategy

    It was like pringles, once you started, you couldn’t stop… you had to go through withdrawl symptoms and all.

    February 12, 2008
  28. Hood Workout

    It was always a good distraction, before all these social gathering sites. still a great site though.

    February 12, 2008
  29. Hood Workout

    i would go with it being low. depends on whether they can do something more with it. but the pe ratio seems great for an internet company.

    February 12, 2008
  30. Geiger

    Now I will do the same with http://www.FavoritePart.com

    February 12, 2008
  31. Paul

    Incredible! I hope that I can get someone like you Shoe to write a post just like that about me. Do you know if they had an investor?

    February 12, 2008
  32. RacerX

    If they are pulling in $2M a year it is 10x earnings which isn’t cheap. Unless they have some decent IP its a gamble.

    February 12, 2008
  33. Jen, writer MembershipMillionaire.com

    It’s amazing what these two buddies did. And to think it all started from something they thought was a fun and cool idea. It makes me wonder what next new idea is going to appear next and who will be responsible for it? It takes just a bit of creativity and a dash or innovative thinking to create something new and exciting. That bit about paying the parents was pretty amusing, too!

    February 12, 2008
  34. Discount Web Design

    So, the parents lost their job? 😀

    February 13, 2008
  35. Flash Gamer

    Thats funny that his parents had to weed through the porn. This is my dream, develop a site, it gets hot and sell it off for millions. Awesome job they did in my opinion.

    February 13, 2008
  36. Affiliate Confession

    It’s crazy because I’ve spent like 5 minutes on the site in the last 2 years. I had no idea it was this popular either.

    February 13, 2008
  37. Ty Brown

    You’ve got to love the internet

    February 13, 2008
  38. Make Money - Cashtacular

    It’s nice to see a very simple idea with strong execution get rewarded. There are a ton of small ideas that could make loads of dough, as long as their implemented properly. Ideas are obviously important. Execution is much more significant.

    February 13, 2008
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    February 13, 2008
  40. RacerX

    …and a Roomie. They were going to get him Rims for his bed at Christmas too…

    Kidding

    February 13, 2008
  41. Puneet

    Wow thats a good amount 😉

    thinkin for a good idea for which theme should be started

    February 15, 2008
  42. Nicholas James

    I blogged about it on my blog when a source rang me as the deal was going through, was a great business deal for them 🙂

    February 15, 2008
  43. Nicholas James

    I’d say its marginally on the low side considering the revenue it was pulling in and I’m sure they can increase profitability on their site too

    February 15, 2008
  44. Money Never Sleeps

    I remember when Hot or Not started…it was huge in the office! The people who invented that site were like pioneers for the Social Networking sites and the boom that we are in…I think they sold for too low! Hopefully they still have some sort of profit sharing agreement or something!

    February 16, 2008
  45. Money Never Sleeps

    Execution of your idea is the NUMBER 1 thing…it is so important not to just sit around himming and hawing…just do it!

    February 16, 2008
  46. Chris

    Wow. I’m impressed by that. I was trying to figure out what kind of revenue that site brought in. Not bad–now they’re rich.

    February 16, 2008
  47. Chris

    I agree completely–20 mil for that site seems like a very nice payday.

    February 16, 2008
  48. oakling

    I remember being shown that site when I worked at Ask Jeeves in 2000… it’s been around FOREVER!

    February 16, 2008
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    February 26, 2008
  50. Bonus Ringtones

    i actually thought the site had more potential and could be worth up in the low xxx millions. Surprised it sold for so less, although the popularity has kinda died down since the site is a couple years old if they sold it in its prime i guarantee they could of got a lot more, and 40 million isn’t really a whole lot of money nowadays, im guessing it coudl buy 20-30 years of good living

    February 28, 2008
  51. Paid Surveys Reviewed

    They did well to get that for it as there are so many competitors out there, just shows you that there is great money to be had with sex sites

    March 11, 2008
  52. HardGeek

    40 million is too hot.

    March 11, 2008

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