(2006-02-04) Wired Neopets Profile

Wired Mag profile of NeoPets.

• Neopets has a staggering 25 million members worldwide. It has been translated into 10 languages and gets more than 2.2 billion pageviews per month. These dedicated Neopians spend an average of 6 hours and 15 minutes per month on the site. That makes Neopets the second-stickiest site on the Internet - ahead of Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and EBay, according to MediaMetrix.

• For ViaCom, the main draw is the site's Advertising model.

• ...scrappy UK startup launched in November 1999 by a young couple hoping to quit their day jobs. Adam Powell and DonnaWilliams, still together and still with the company, met while they were high school students in Surrey.

• CEO Doug Dohring brought two things to the company: expertise in Market Research and a deep commitment to the principles of Scientology.

• The result: Immers Ive Advertising, a phrase Neopets has trademarked. The idea is straightforward enough. For example, a link from Neopia Central, the site's shopping district, takes members to a splash page for the Cereal Adventure zone. Dotting lush green hillsides are the homes of a half-dozen breakfast mascots, from the Trix rabbit to the Cocoa Puffs cuckoo. Clicking on Lucky the Leprechaun leads to a game called Lucky Charms: Shooting Stars!, in which kids navigate a series of Marshmallow treats - hearts! moons! stars! - to earn NeoPoints.