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Once Just a Site With Funny Cat Pictures, and Now a Web Empire (I Can Has Cheezburger?)
New York Times ^ | June 13, 2010 | JENNA WORTHAM

Posted on 06/14/2010 9:25:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Three years ago Ben Huh visited a blog devoted to silly cat pictures — and saw vast potential.

Mr. Huh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, first became aware of I Can Has Cheezburger, which pairs photos of cats with quirky captions, after it linked to his own pet blog. His site immediately crumbled under the resulting wave of visitors.

Sensing an Internet phenomenon, Mr. Huh solicited financing from investors and forked over $10,000 of his own savings to buy the Web site from the two Hawaiian bloggers who started it.

“It was a white-knuckle decision,” he said. “I knew that the first site was funny, but could we duplicate that success?”

Mr. Huh has since found that the appetite for oddball Internet humor is insatiable.

Traffic to the Cheezburger blog has ballooned over the last three years, encouraging Mr. Huh to expand his unlikely Web empire to include 53 sites, all fueled by submissions from readers. In May, what is now known as the Cheezburger Network attracted a record 16 million unique visitors, according to the Web analytics firm Quantcast.

A more recent success for the company is a site called Fail Blog, which chronicles disastrous mishaps and general stupidity in photos and video. The network’s smaller sites include Daily Squee, with pictures of cute animals, and There I Fixed It, for photos of bad repair jobs.

Mr. Huh said his company, which makes most of its money from Web advertising, has been profitable since Day 1.

“Then again, it was just me and Emily in the beginning,” he said referring to his wife, who also works at the company. Cheezburger now has more than 40 employees and has not sought additional investment.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Cheese, Moose, Sister; Pets/Animals; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: funny; internet; jpb; kitties; kitty; kittyping; lolcats; lolz; meme; napl
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To: nickcarraway

Not going over there..not going to look at his other sites..There’s work to be done and I will be laughing and looking instead of working! LOL


41 posted on 06/15/2010 12:05:41 PM PDT by MEG33 (God Bless Our Military Men And Women)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Love it..Thanks for the ping.


42 posted on 06/15/2010 12:07:51 PM PDT by MEG33 (God Bless Our Military Men And Women)
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To: nickcarraway

43 posted on 06/15/2010 12:10:25 PM PDT by mewzilla (Still voteless in NY-29. Over 250 roll call votes missed and counting...)
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To: martin_fierro

Could you please add me to your list? BTW, I like your Venn diagram.


44 posted on 06/15/2010 12:34:19 PM PDT by Huntress (Who the hell are you to tell me what's in my best interests?)
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To: gimme1ibertee; MEG33

Glad you liked.


45 posted on 06/15/2010 12:52:24 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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mark


46 posted on 06/15/2010 4:59:37 PM PDT by eureka! (Tea Party = Real Americans' ACORN --the ground game will save us.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

lmao

47 posted on 06/15/2010 5:04:31 PM PDT by txhurl
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To: Yaelle

ROFLMAO, oh my goodness that is truly dreadful!

I wish my brother was still alive to see how dreadful this is, that’s how dreadful it is, I wish the dead to live to see it!


48 posted on 06/15/2010 5:53:50 PM PDT by jocon307 (It's the spending, stupid.)
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To: nickcarraway
You still can't beat the owl pictures!


49 posted on 06/15/2010 6:28:46 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: txhurl

LOL!


50 posted on 06/15/2010 7:15:13 PM PDT by MotleyGirl70
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To: sockmonkey; MEG33
I love there I fixed it, funniest repair jobs ever.

For more funnies:

That Will Buff Out

Not going over there..not going to look at his other sites..There’s work to be done and I will be laughing and looking instead of working! LOL

Some pretty addictive websites on ICHC. You also have to have a healthy sense of humor to enjoy most of the stuff, as you do. If you ever need a good laugh that's the place to go.

Monday through Friday

51 posted on 06/15/2010 7:27:42 PM PDT by MotleyGirl70
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To: nickcarraway

I want to put your cat pictures on your site http://digital-art-gallery.com/picture/gallery/cat


52 posted on 10/05/2010 3:35:04 PM PDT by bariga
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