9GAG
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 12, 2008 |
| Headquarters | Hong Kong |
| Country of origin | Hong Kong |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Founder(s) | Ray Chan |
| Key people | Ray Chan (CEO) |
| Slogan(s) | Go Fun Yourself |
| Website | Official website |
| Alexa rank |
 197 (March 2016)[1] |
| Type of site | Entertainment |
| Advertising | Banner ads |
| Registration | Optional (required to submit, comment, or vote) |
| Available in | English |
| Current status | Active |
9GAG, Inc. operates an online platform and social media website. "Users" upload and share content either "user-generated content" or found on other social media websites. 9GAG, Inc. is based in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong. Since the website was launched on April 12, 2008,[2] it has grown in popularity, reaching more than 28.4 million Facebook “likes”[3] and 5.99 million Twitter followers in December 27, 2015.[4]
In December 2015 it had 164 million visitors. As of May 2016, the country break-down for the largest traffic to the 9GAG website is as follows: 11.1% from India, 7.9% from the United States, 6.2% from Germany, 3.6% from Indonesia and 3.0% from France.[1] As of 2015 the company raised $2.8 million in total funding. Amongst others, investors include 500 Startups, Benjamin Ling, BoxGroup, Adam Rothenberg, David Tisch, Freestyle Capital, James Hong, Philip Kaplan, Scott Banister and Y Combinator.[5]
History
The website was co-founded in 2008 - 2009 by University of Hong Kong student Ray Chan, his brother Chris Chan, and others, with the intention of creating an alternative online platform to email on which users could easily share humorous photos or videos. In a 2012 interview, Ray Chan declined to explain where the name "9GAG" is derived from.[6]
Starting the company under a “Just for Fun” mentality, 9GAG's co-founders began using 9GAG as a résumé-builder for the 500 Startups accelerator program. During the summer program, the 9GAG team worked on other startup ideas, including StartupQuote and Songboard. [7] Following the 500 Startups accelerator program, 9GAG participated in Y Combinator's incubator and its user-base increased to 70 million global unique visitors per month.[8] The 9GAG co-founding team discontinued all other projects and shifted their focus on solely 9GAG. 500 Startups was given equity for their aid and mentorship.
In July 2012, 9GAG raised an additional US$2.8 million in funding from Silicon Valley-based venture capital behemoths,[9] including True Ventures and Greycroft Partners. In this month the company also released a mobile application for iOS and Android.
In August 2012, 9GAG received another US$2.8 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalists, including True Ventures and Greycroft Partners, as well as individual investors like Christopher Sacca, Kevin Rose, and Naval Ravikant. This funding was able to support 9GAG's engineering team growth both in Hong Kong and in Silicon Valley.[10]
Mobile app development
9GAG has a mobile application on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, and for BlackBerry 10.[11][12]
In July 2012, 9GAG launched an app for iOS and Android. The mobile application serves as a streamlined version of the web-based content.[13] In summer 2014 9GAG launched 9CHAT. 9GAG users are able to log in to their account and write to a stranger by sending them a message. 9CHAT improved by allowing the creation of groups in different sections. It's possible to write with more people at the same time.[14] January 2015, 9GAG launched its first game called 9GAG Redhead redemption.
Content
- The website's content is generally referred to as "internet memes", and is upvoted (similar to liking on YouTube), downvoted (as in disliking a video on YouTube), and commented on by users based on its popularity at a given time.[15]
- Similar to other social media websites like Reddit and Digg, 9GAG utilizes user-generated memes that are shared with the entire 9GAG community. While memes have different categories, they are typically displayed as humorous images, or comic strips, with captions conveying certain messages.[16]
- Content is separated into the following general categories of hot, trending, fresh, TV, girl, comic, NSFW, cosplay, geeky, timely, meme, WTF, and a few others such as cute, food, and Gifs. The website allows users to up-vote or down-vote memes, followed by long comment threads where users comment on the image/video content and on each other's comments.
- Most of 9GAG's content is presented in the form of image memes, whereby animal-related image memes (e.g., Advice Animals or Good Advice Mallard) tend to be popular.
- These image memes are typically formatted whereby a given image has both top and bottom captions. While the top caption describes a certain situation, the bottom caption usually complements the top caption by presenting a humorous follow up message to the original situation.
- Memes are commonly presented in a 4x4 comic strip.
- A new featured section is now added depending on what is popular at that time. As of Jan 2016, sections such as Fallout 4, Star Wars, Anime and Manga, One-Punch Man and others have been added.
Authorship
9GAG users may also re-post (possibly without any consent from its respective authors) content found on other humor related websites like 4chan, Newgrounds, Reddit, SomethingAwful, FunnyJunk, and YTMND, often with the source site's watermark removed, and adding their own to it. In 2011, 9GAG and 4chan disputed authorship of internet memes published on both websites, whereby each company claimed the memes originated in their own website. Evidence seems to support 4chan's claim that most of the disputed content was created by 4chan users. As stated by 9GAG co-founder Ray Chan, "9GAG does not create memes or rage comics, but helps spread them." 9GAG also adopted 4chan's "legion" and “hearth of the internet” nicknames.[17][18]
References
- 1 2 "9gag.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-01-01.
- ↑ "9GAG.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. 2016. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
- ↑ "9GAG". 9GAG on Facebook. Facebook. December 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ↑ "9GAG". 9GAG on Twitter. Twitter. December 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ↑ "9GAG | CrunchBase". www.crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
- ↑ Fiona Ren (24 July 2012). "How Ray Chan started 9GAG, and a career in fun". Meld Magazine. Meld Magazine. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
- ↑ Mott, Nathaniel (2012-08-21). "9GAG, the Biggest Little Startup at Y Combinator’s Demo Day | PandoDaily". Pando.com. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- ↑ "Jokes aside, 9GAG’s co-founder Ray Chan shares about the serious side of their latest US$2.8M round". E27.co. 2012-08-08. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- ↑ "Project st@rt-up | South China Morning Post". Scmp.com. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- ↑ "Meet 9GAG, the Community Comedy Site That's Growing Like Crazy - Liz Gannes - Social". AllThingsD. 2012-04-12. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- ↑ "Behind 9gag. Its business modelFix Need". Fixneed.com. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- ↑ http://9gag.tv/
- ↑ "Humor Website 9GAG Ups the Ante for Fun, Launches New Mobile App and Receives $2.8 Million in Seed Funding". Marketwired.com. 2012-07-30. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- ↑ http://9chatapp.com/
- ↑ "Y Combinator S12 Demo Day Batch 1: Meet 9GAG, Double Robotics, Hubchilla, SmartAsset And More". TechCrunch. 2012-08-21. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- ↑ "Meet 9GAG, the Community Comedy Site That's Growing Like Crazy - Liz Gannes - Social - AllThingsD". AllThingsD. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
- ↑ Seitz, Dan (September 12, 2012). "Redditor Details 9Gag’s Theft Process". UPROXX. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- ↑ Eördögh, Fruzsina (June 4, 2012). "Internet pounces on 9GAG after joke theft". Daily Dot. Daily Dot. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
