Red Ventures was founded on September 29, 1999,[4] in
Fort Mill, South Carolina by Ric Elias and Dan Feldstein.[5] 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.[6]
In 2015, the company got a $250 million investment from
Silver Lake.[7] That same year, it doubled the size of its headquarters[8] and bought postal services company Imagitas from
Pitney Bowes.[9]
Red Ventures acquired Bankrate Inc. for $1.24 billion in cash in a deal announced July 3, 2017.[10][11]
On September 14, 2020, Red Ventures agreed to purchase the CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS for $500 million.[12] On December 1, 2020, Red Ventures bought Lonely Planet from Tennessee-based NC2 Media.[13]
In 2021, the company had 4,500 employees and 751 million readers per month.[14][15]
Business model
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".[16] Stories are aimed at people who are likely to buy something ("high-intent"), with a particular focus on financial content such as credit cards, as the media company gets payments in the hundreds of dollars for each customer that buys a credit card.[16][17] Red Ventures also aims to get paid for guiding readers to buy drugs and medical consultations.[17]
The characterization came after the website Futurism found several articles published by Red Ventures properties, including
CNET, were quietly written by artificial intelligence software,[18] with the stories containing numerous inaccuracies and instances of plagiarism.[19] Red Ventures announced
layoffs at CNET a few weeks after the reports from The Verge and Futurism, which the company says were unrelated.[20][21]
Futurism additionally highlighted undisclosed AI-generated,
SEO-focused content produced by Red Ventures's education division (internally RV EDU). This content promotes schools with which Red Ventures maintains affiliate agreements, such as
University of Phoenix (a
for-profit college owned by
Apollo Global Management) and
Liberty University (founded by conservative activist and Baptist pastor
Jerry Falwell). Websites operated by RV EDU include BestColleges.com, TheBestSchools.org, NurseJournal.org, ComputerScience.org, and Psychology.org, "as well as numerous sites with domain names that imply they're nonprofits".[22]
In July 2023, Elias announced that AI-generated content, both editorial content and targeted advertisements, would be a major part of the company's business model moving forward.[23]
Following CNET publishing AI-generated stories containing errors and plagiarized content, as well as incorrect attributions to human writers, the
Wikipedia community downgraded CNET's reliability, such that all content since the Red Ventures acquisition should not be considered reliable.[24][25] Employees unionized in response to layoffs and the risk to their professional reputations.[26][24][27][28] Red Ventures subsequently attempted to sell CNET for $250 million; the approximate halving of CNET's value under Red Ventures' ownership is attributed to interest rates, a slower ad market, and potential buyers expressing concern at the reputational damage of the AI scandals.[26][29]
MyMove LLC and USPS Partnership
In 2015, Red Ventures acquired MyMove (formerly Imagitas),[30] in large part due to their exclusive partnership with
USPS. In 2011, Imagitas formed a 10 year exclusive partnership with the USPS to facilitate the official Change of Address process, which roughly 40 million people use each year.[31] This partnership has been heavily criticized by users on the internet,[32][33] primarily due to the predatory nature of the user experience deployed on the USPS site. Users are forced to provide their data, in exchange for deals and advertisements, without the option to opt-out. Critics of the experience claim that it is intentionally done by MyMove and is misleading for consumers, who are led to believe they need to provide this information in order to change their address, or update their voter registration form.
In May 2023, Red Ventures agreed to pay the United States $2.75 million to resolve a
whistleblower's allegations that they violated the
False Claims Act[34] by underpaying on contracts connected to the USPS change-of-address process.[35]