JibJab, a site popular for its parody videos and irreverent eGreetings, has closed a $7.5 million Series C funding round with participation from new investors Overbrook Entertainment (a production company co-founded by Will Smith) and Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as existing investor Polaris Venture Partners. The company had previously raised around $9.4 million. The site generates a huge volume of traffic every year, and counts itself among the Top 100 most popular sites in the United States according to Quantcast (it currently ranks #73).
Over the holiday season JibJab recorded 60 million visits as users created 35 million personalized eCards on the site – figures that were likely boosted by the very popular ElfYourself videos that let you stick your face on a dancing elf.
The site is best known for its widespread political parodies (if you didn’t see the This Land video during the 2004 election, you were probably hiding in a cave), but has also expanded in recent years to offer parody sketches and personalized E-greetings. The company generates revenue by offering premium eCards and content through a subscription service alongside its assortment of free cards, and also sells digital downloads and personalized gifts like mugs and mousepads.
Congrats to Gregg and Evan, they have assembled a fantastic team, and produce amazing content.
Keep it up gentleman!
-Jeremy
I agree . . their team produces really great work at jibjab . . . . that type of creativity and entertainment is the kind of stuff people need these days to keep their minds off the economic garbage . . at least for a lil bit
I like JibJab.
Good to hear about a hefty funding to set the tone for 2009.
we need more geezers!!!
Great news in such tough times. Great execution.
Good to hear they can get funding in the current environment. What puzzles me though is that a site with that kind of traffic still needs funding to survive – or is the money used to accelerate growth, which would also be a curious approach ?
I was wondering the same thing. Anyone know the answer?
jibjab seems very different website.nice.. i like it
More economic activity in times of recession.
Fanny
http://manageme...ak.blogspot.com
What a gigantic waste of money. The people who invested are the biggest fools the investment world has ever seen!
This company has next to ZERO chance of making a successful exit. Almost ZERO!
Oh yeah right … because nobody would want to buy a site with tens of millions of visitors. Forgot about that one … good thing I read your comment otherwise I would have invested too ….. moron.
Chris, I guess you work for them. Who the f***k would wanna buy an AD BASED business model company for a price that HAS TO BE over $100M dollars?!
NAME ONE ACQUIRER! JUST ONE!
PS: Don’t call people names.. it makes you sound stupid.
So all sites that use ad-based business models are rubbish? Have you used Google or Yahoo – they’re both ad-based businesses and last time I looked they seem to be making money … But I guess you must have extra insight or know something the rest of us don’t.
If you post such blatantly idiotic posts then you should expect such a response. I’m sure the ‘big fools, that invested would interested on your opinion too. How many millions have you invested lately!
I would have written them off too. The point is they DO have a business model. They charge a very small amount to people for a permanent digital asset of the videos they create. I suppose one out of around 5000 users would convert into buying atleast once from them. The reason why these guys have invested in them is because they have access to this conversion ratio – and its probably “heatlhy”. If they are able to pull this off with just USA traffic – the possibilities are endless as they can easily expand into other cultures / regional (video cards etc). Thats the key here.
So, the investors have access to some paying / conversion stats – which we dont know.
The adsense / websites ads are just one other aspect of the business. Also, the main traffic comes around xmas time when their famous and wildly popular (Office max) elves cards / interface is made available to the public. Thats the main viral push – and thats how the other “content / cards” on their site have been discovered by first time elf users / viewers.
This is viral traffic with almost no promotion expense. So, they save a ton of money their.
We all know how BlueMountain Arts sold for $800 million to AOL and how this deal was a complete junk deal for AOL… but those cards were free and adsense was not around then and I dont remember seeing many ads on their site as they were after eyeballs and numbers.
Here, its ads plus “paid” personalized video cards. The only threat is a new entrant – who could possibly provide the same model to users for free.
That would tank them. Anyone interested? Let me know.
Hi Vishal
Excellent comments and I think you are on the money re JibJab. The interesting thing is why do they need the money ?
I think they must be burning cash to produce content. These cards can not be cheap to produce and they only have a limited life span. Look at the card featured in the artice, yes it is fantastically produced, buts its life span can on be 6 months (max)
I know of one site which has the headcutter application like jibjabs and is 100% free http://www.eCards.co.uk
I think they are going to be a fad which come and go within a couple of years. The investors IMO should be weary. But saying that in this market I should think they went into the deal with their eyes open.
Sam
A hell of xxx, porn, sexy videos and with a lot of entertainment, Plz come and join us http://www.krazyidea.com
oh,my god,7.5million…
I love their videos, but didn’t even realize that had any e-cards or premium services for a revenue model. Would be interesting to know if they make (gross) any real $$.
Great to actually start seeing some successful web ventures coming right out of Parsons School of Design… gives me hope. This is what happens when some real creativity enhanced by a solid UX is brought to the table. A small investment from the user yielding instant and satisfying value really works.
the elfyourself is the only thing worth having from these guys other than that nothing special http://www.then...z.wordpress.com
jibjab is an old idea hashed up again… blue mountain did this 10 years ago… and the elf yourself thing was big in 2007, and VERY PASSE in 2008.
that’s all they got? go elf yourself