Red Ventures is an American media company that owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, CNET, ZDNet, The Points Guy, Healthline, and Bankrate. Red Ventures focuses on sites that dispense news, advice, and reviews. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Indian Land, South Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Red Ventures was formed on September 29, 1999, in Fort Mill, South Carolina by Ric Elias and Dan Feldstein. Before its 2020 acquisitions, the company had grown into an international presence with more than 100 brands, 3,000 employees, and operations in the United Kingdom and Brazil.
In 2015, the company got a 250millioninvestmentfromSilverLake.Thatsameyear,itdoubledthesizeofitsheadquartersandboughtpostalservicescompanyImagitasfromPitneyBowes.RedVenturesacquiredBankrateInc.for1.24 billion in cash in a deal announced July 3, 2017.
On September 14, 2020, Red Ventures agreed to purchase the CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS for $500 million. On December 1, 2020, Red Ventures bought Lonely Planet from Tennessee-based NC2 Media.
In 2021, the company had 4,500 employees and 751 million readers per month.
In 2023 The Verge described the business model of the company as "publish[ing] content designed to rank highly in Google search for "high-intent" queries and ... monet[izing] that traffic with lucrative affiliate links.", with a particular focus on financial content such as credit cards. The characterization came after the website Futurism found several articles published by Red Ventures properties, including CNET, were quietly written by artificial intelligence software, with the stories containing numerous inaccuracies and instances of plagiarism. Red Ventures announced layoffs at CNET a few weeks after the reports from The Verge and Futurism, which the company says were unrelated.
Futurism additionally highlighted undisclosed AI-generated, SEO-focused content produced by Red Ventures's education division (internally RV EDU).
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CNET (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. CNET originally produced content for radio and television in addition to its website before applying new media distribution methods through its internet television network, CNET Video, and its podcast and blog networks. Founded in 1992 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through that unit's acquisition of CNET Networks in 2008.