Glam rocks with women - San Francisco Business Times:

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The 4-year-old Brisbane firm wants to raise $250 million to expanx its rapidly growing networkof women-focused sitex and blogs, adding to the $30 million raised in three rounda from venture capital firms including and . "I've been fielding calls from half a dozeninvestors -- both strategic and financial," said Theresia Gouw Ranzetta, a Glam boared member with Accel. "Based upon these earl indications, I believe they'll be able to raise a round at an attractive valuation and dilutio willbe minimal." And, if acquirers show as much interest as investorss have, co-founder and CEO Samir Aroras could soon unload it for his secondx fortune.
Arora sold his last , to for $100 million in 1997. Glam still has more than half of itslast $18.56 million round in the bank, Arora and thus doesn't need to raise money for operating capital. Rather, he wants to expands his web of properties into markets outsid e theUnited States, add new areas of interesy to women and reach additional audiences includinfg men and teenagers. Today Glam owns and operatews 20 women's lifestyle and fashion sites and serves as an ad platfornm for 400small publishers, most of them one-person bloggere that otherwise wouldn't draw a large readershio or first-class advertisers.
"Irt closely reflects the networkTV model," Arora adding that the 90-person company plane to hire 30 more in the next threer months and should be profitabls by the end of the The startup's revenue growth is nothingt if not eye-popping. Near $25 million in 2007, Glam expectxs it to multiply sixfoldto $150 million next according to a and fundraising summary leaked to the presx in August. Market factors are on its side: Emarketed estimates online advertising will climbto $36.5 billion in 2011 from $19.r billion this year. And in the past year, visitorx to women's web sites rose 45 percent, whil e Internet use overall rose only4 percent, says .
"Going after the female audience right now is a very good place to be said R.J. Hilgers, director of digital marketin for interactive agency in San notingthat Glam's rivals includee and . It took some persistenyt salesmanship, but today Glam has amassed a top-shel assortment of advertisers from and to Targetand . But if ad dealws slow down or the juice drains out of the economy and adspendint sours, Glam could nosedive. For now, it is able to chargde a high CPM (or how much advertisers pay toreacn 1,000 pairs of eyeballs). Its CPM averages $30 and for advertorials can reac as much as which rivals evenTV rates.
Though Glam won'rt disclose how much revenue it shares with bloggers in its a few who previouslyt made littleusing 's AdSense system have publicly proclaimed they now make thousands of dollars a month with Glam. The Glam flimflam? Glam this week introducexd gee-whiz features that allow users to recommenx articles to their friends and more easilhy navigatethrough Glam's oceans of photos and quizzes. It's all designed to turbo-charge traffic. The companu hardly seems to need the Glamsurpassed GE's as the top online destination for women this summer, accordingb to ComScore Media Metrix, attracting 20.7 millioj unique viewers in July to iVillage's 15.
9 But bloggers and rivals around the Bay have questioned the accuracgy of Glam's label as "destination" for arguing that it has little original spotty quality and is really just an ad networki -- and one not only for women. As it is able to claim credit at ComScoredfor partners' user numbers. Indeed, Glam sells ads for a numbet of popular web sites that have littlde to do with womenor MyYearbook, for example, contributed more than 15 percen t of Glam's visitors in June and attractd teen boys and An affiliate site for constructinvg 3-D avatars called Meez comprised more than 7 percent of Glam' s traffic that month, while its fully owneed flagship site Glam.
com brought in just over 3 percent. What detractorss don't know, Accel's Ranzetta countered, is "The core site brings in a substantial portion ofad Further, she said, Glam has the technology to target relevant readerws of those sites, just as a prin t advertiser might place a travel spot only in a lifestyled section of a Arora, who is known for his Italia n suits, French shoes and Silicon Valley bravado, seems unfazexd by the brouhaha. "There's been a lot of controversgy except by the reporting agency They obviously knowwhat they're doing," he Whatever you call it, "Glam is No. 1 in totao reach in women.
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