Sugar Inc, the company behind a network of popular women-focused blogs that includes PopSugar, is announcing two major releases tonight that take advantage of its fashion-hungry userbase. The first, dubbed PopSugar’s CelebStyle, is positioning itself as an IMDB for style, analyzing outfits from many of television’s most popular shows. Sugar Inc is also announcing a new ShopStyle API, which gives developers access to the site’s massive database of clothing and accessories which can be used in any variety of applications. Here’s a breakdown of both announcements:
ShopStyle API
ShopStyle, which Sugar acquired a year ago, is a search engine for fashion. The site indexes clothing and accessories across thousands of brands and stores, presenting them to users in a uniformly formatted grid of thumbnails, prices, and descriptions.
Sugar had previously made this data available to partner sites like In Style and People, and is now opening it up to developers. CEO Brian Sugar says that apps using the API could easily be deployed across a variety of platforms, including webpages (like SaleHabit, which Sugar developed in a weekend), Facebook, and the iPhone.
In thirty days, the platform will also allow developers to convert clicks from the fashion items they’ve displayed into cash. Sugar says the revenue split will vary by app, and will be determined by the success rate of the app’s lead generation.
Fashion may not be most developers’ cup of tea, but the market for this kind of application is huge – expect to see a variety of fashion-based iPhone and web applications hit the market in the next few months.
PopSugar’s CelebStyle will allow users to see exactly what their favorite stars have been wearing on some of the most popular shows on TV. The site is edited by a number of Sugar employees, who will pick some of the most prominent outfits from these shows and offer links to each accessory and piece of clothing. To build and help populate the site, Sugar is leveraging the technology and partnerships behind StarBrand, which it acquired in May. Through some of these partnerships (and PR representatives), Sugar editors will have access to lists detailing exactly what the stars were wearing, so users will be assured that the items presented are authentic.
Visitors to CelebStyle will also be able to craft their own outfits using Sugar’s database of clothing, which can be added as comments beneath any article. For instance, users could put together an outfit closely mirroring a fancy get-up shown in the latest episode of Gossip Girl, but with clothes that were only a fraction of the cost.
Yay?
Does any TC reader actually care about Sugar? The answer is “no”.
Yeah, except for the ones that build a fashion-based iPhone app and get rich off it.
Oh, you mean the 2 whole people on the planet that are actually going to do that? Yeah, makes sense to clutter the front page with a story with such large appeal.
i must agree with you can add glam media to the list also .
i second the motion and would like to elect blahgirls as my tc personal favorite.
I hate to break it to you, but women use the Internet too. And it’s quite a chauvinistic attitude to suggest that “TC reader[s]” wouldn’t be interested in hearing about a website that is aimed at women. I, for one, welcome all women to the Internet, it’s fun in here.
I’m not a girl but am interested in what women find interesting. They make up more then 50% of all internet users after all. Everybody is optimizing their sites for Firefox and Mac users but when it comes to women most of us don’t have a clue.
And no, painting your site pink doesn’t do it…
Right, except for the fact that their network was built out utilizing exactly the kind of things that readers of TC / entrepreneurs would be wise to emulate:
- network of low-cost, niche communities
- Built on low cost Drupal framework
- Cross-functional marketing to adjacent communities
Sugar has rarely put a foot wrong. To say that it’s not of interest to TC is out of touch with the facts at hand.
great post. Truly great stuff.
http://www.quan...p-36POJYHTosuxU
27 sites, all together, with 8.6 million uniques (only 5 million in the US)…well, color me “impressed” with 15 million raised life to date.
Problem is “positioning”…think social networking, facebook or myspace. Think search, Google or Yahoo. Think Operating Sytems, Mac or PC.
Now…think fashion: ??? Is it vogue, style, marie clarie, stylehive, kaboodle, thisnext, cafemom, sugarinc, ?
Don’t get me wrong, impressive numbers, but…”sugar x” isn’t someting joe six pack will care about OR remember. They need a uniform brand…sizzle, and steak, not just “sugar”
Ah, and “edited by a number of employees”…how does this compete well with Cosmo, Glam, or Vogue? I’m confused: it sounds like they’re applying a magazine principles to a blog network…isn’t there a reason the print model is disappearing, quite apart from the dead tree aspect? Of course there is.
Still, if they play this right, perhaps they’ll be the amazon of ecommerce data…ah, wait, Amazon’s the Amazon of ecommerce data.
I think Sugar bought StarBrand not StarStyle (a competitor).
You’re right, fixed it.
No worries. =)
techcrunch investment in sugar pay back.
Question, what % of people who watch these show can afford to buy these ridiculously expensive outfits?
If you can market it to the MTV Sweet 16 demo, then you have a good chance, but what developer wants to takke that mess of a group on.
If CelebStyle is based on affiliate commission from linked shops like DKNY and Forever 21 that is an amazing business model they have created.
I think this is a great idea. Social networking for fashion and a way for people to view the vast amount of fashion out there in an organized way. This market is huge fellas.
Also someone mentioned vogue, style, marie clarie… Yes they are fashion, but they are stuck in the magazine business model on the internet. They have no clue how to leverage IT technologies on the internet. Perhaps a company like Sugar Inc will grow so much as to have its own magazine content as well, by just hiring more fashion writers….
this is great and about time! can’t wait to see the fashion db.
IMDB for fashion would be a listing of stylists and photographers who create or service projects in the fashion industry….
I should add…. Sugar media is probably one of the most successful modern day start up media companies to date, love it or leave it. If you hear people at top level M&A, industry, etc. talk about sucesses in the market, Sugar comes up. I know everybody says that PopSugar is still it’s main draw and that all that fat traffic they boast isn’t carrying to the other sites on the platform but still. They’re not doing bad.
this is a proven business model, in the UK – ASOS (As Seen on Screen) http://www.asos.com has been around for a while and posting great growth rates. i’m happy that TC is posting posts about businesses that will eventually go and make some money
There are female TC readers, not to mention those who are interested in pieces like this. Not just because they’re female, but for the reasons Michigan mentioned as well.
How come pop sugar and it’s other confectionery friends haven’t ventured into the facebook goldmine?
Looks like Sugar is heavily betting on e-commerce and clicks and links to shopping. This sounds good and a good strategy- like Lucky Magazine. Very popular with young women.
However, it is no secret within publishers and agencies that the media side of sugar is a dismal failure. I just went over and took a quick look — something is SERIOUSLY WRONG AT SUGAR! The only ads I saw, including the home page were ShopStyle — self promotion on the most desirable spot??? And beat this- “Run your e-business, by Network Solution” Ha! May be its all the users TechCrunch is sending today, right? But seriously, that means most of their ads are cheap remnant from Ad Networks at $0.10 or are free retail CPC click based ads used to fill.
I think Sugar is a complete scam, hiding the numbers. All those impressions on gossip are not selling, and in a recession, they will simply be out of business. Take a look at US Weekly, Star or any other magazine they compete in print with. They have NO ADS!!! They make money from selling magazines — their sites are a failure.
I think Sequoia screwed up on this one — just because people like gossip, doesn’t mean it is a good business. Take a look at ValleyWag, they just laid of 60% of their people, AOL/TMZ, Sugar are next. Why? Gossip, Social Networking, Forums, and user blogs are simply the worst performing businesses for brands and have the lowest CPM’s.
The e-commerce seems like the only hope, so they need to move fast. The rest is not worth anything in this market.