Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Catster http://pulse2.com Sat, 26 May 2012 21:27:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 SAY Media Acquires Dogster http://pulse2.com/2011/04/19/say-media-acquires-dogster/ http://pulse2.com/2011/04/19/say-media-acquires-dogster/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 01:12:30 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=46151 Continue reading →]]>
SAY Media has acquired Dogster Media, the company that runs Dogster.com and Catster.com. Dogster is a social network for dog owners to create a profile for their pet. Catster is the same concept for cats. Dogster receives about 2 million unique visitors per month.

SAY Media was formed when VideoEgg acquired Six Apart. VideoEgg founder and SAY Media CEO Matt Sanchez said that they plan to use Six Apart’s technology to create a modern vertical media company that focuses on niche communities. Dogster is the first community to become a part of SAY Media’s network of websites. SAY Media has raised $33.9 million in total funding since started in April 2005.

[TechCrunch]

]]> http://pulse2.com/2011/04/19/say-media-acquires-dogster/feed/ 1 Should Dogster Inc. Be Worried About MyDogSpace & MyCatSpace? http://pulse2.com/2007/08/04/should-dogster-inc-be-worried-about-mydogspace-mycatspace/ http://pulse2.com/2007/08/04/should-dogster-inc-be-worried-about-mydogspace-mycatspace/#comments Sun, 05 Aug 2007 03:33:02 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/2007/08/04/should-dogster-inc-be-worried-about-mydogspace-mycatspace/ Continue reading →]]> Dogster Inc. and MyDogSpace LogosWhen Tim Berners Lee and Robert Cailliau invented the world wide web 17 years ago, I don’t think that they would have expected anyone to use their technology for competition in who has a cooler social network for their dogs and cats.  Yet two competing social networks for dogs and cats do exist and I’m questioning who will be the reigning champion.

MyDogSpace and MyCatSpace are owned by NextPulse Ventures, who also owns a plethora of other companies that involve animals in the names.  This includes DateMyPet.com, DomainMonkey.com, and MyFatKat.com.  NextPulse’s motto seems to be “We take ‘crazy’ ideas and turn them into reality.”  And I would agree that these were crazy ideas, but similar ideas actually exist, so there’s more than one crazy out there.  That other crazy is Ted Rheingold, founder of Dogster and Catster and his pets are more than just house broken.

Dogster has about 310,000 users and Catster has about 129,000 users.  Dogster launched in January 2004 and Catster launched in August 2004.  Dogster had received funding from the likes of Michael Parekh and Michael Arrington.  And last month, Dogster was listed as one of the top three companies in Advertising Age’s “Rethink Your Web Strategy Or Fail’ article[1].”

However, MyDogSpace and MyCatSpace are benefitting from the name MySpace.  I wouldn’t be surprised if a ignorant user would believe that both MyDogSpace and MyCatSpace were actually a subsidiary of MySpace.  I also believe that by simply having an easy-to-remember domain name, MySpace traffic skyrocketed.  This is a benefit that MyDogSpace and MyCatSpace have right now.  The disadvantage with this situation though is the legalities of having similar names can be disastrous (Similar Case: Alexaholic vs. Alexa).

For now Dogster has nothing to fear… for now.  MyDogSpace doesn’t have as many resources as Dogster, but in a play on a phrase by Mark Twain, “It’s not the size of the MyDogSpace in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the MyDogSpace.”

[1] Dogster Inc. Company Blog: AdAge Names Dogster a Top-Three Site
[2] Yahoo! Tech – Gina Hughes: Social Networks for Pets (and Their Owners)

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