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 News Archive
VM Digital: the future of online media lies in special interest propositions, 3.11.2008
 backVienna, 3 November 2008 - VM Digital, the investment subsidiary of Vorarlberger Medienhaus, predicts that digital business models that serve a special interest are the way forward in media. Therefore the firm focuses on this particular segment of the online market when searching for potential investment opportunities. Under this premise, VM Digital seeks to further increase its presence in Germany, where the firm has already acquired stakes in a number of new start-ups such as www.carsablanca.de, www.mamiweb.de or www.smash247.com. In addition, VM Digital has acquired the majority of Germany's leading horse portal www.pferde.de. The portal was launched in 1998 and is one of the horse websites with the most extensive reach in Europe. More than 130.000 horse enthusiasts are registered on the site; page views exceeded the barrier of 4 million for the first time in May 2008. Another success story is www.quoka.de, owned by the VM Group and one of the most renowned classified websites in Germany. "While other media companies still focus on long term investments in print, we fully concentrate on growth opportunities in digital media. In particular, we are interested in digital business models in the areas of classifieds, communities, mobile and e-commerce", states Helmar Hipp, managing director of VM Digital. Within 5 years, VM Group wants to generate at least a third of its revenue from its online businesses. "We already see stronger growth in our online business compared to classic media; with VM Digital we want to accelerate this trend in order to achieve our ambitious goal", Hipp adds. Apart from investing in Internet start-ups, VM Digital has also launched its own online ventures such as a pet community (www.vivatier.de), a classified site for used trucks and machinery (www.mascus.de) or a wedding portal (www.unsere-traumhochzeit.at). VM Group was founded more than 60 years ago and has gained wide respect in the industry on international scale. Its flagship newspaper "Vorarlberger Nachrichten" (VN) was in the spotlight in 2006 for gaining the prestigious award "Newspaper of the Year" presented in Moscow by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). In 1996 - considered to be the early days of Internet - the company launched www.vol.at, a regional infotainment website which is widely used in the province of Vorarlberg, having more visitors than Google in this geographical area. The current online portfolio of VM Group is comprised of more than 60 websites including news, classified and community sites in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Ukraine. back |
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