Gaia Online gets some $$$?

[Strideo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_Online

Traditionally, the site has relied on donations from members to stay active. However, in June 2006 it was reported that Gaia Online received nearly $9 million in venture capital funding from Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures.

http://mashable.com/2006/06/19/gaia-online-gets-893m-for-anime-community/

Quote:

California-based Gaia Online has taken $8.93 million in VC funding, reports Alarm:Clock - investors include Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. Gaia is a youth community inspired by manga and anime - it launched in 2003 and has more than 3.5 million registered users. The site began as a collection of anime links, and it claims to host the biggest web-based forum in the world (over 600 million posts).

 

[Not Importante]

wow. I do wonder what they do with all that funding.  

[crazydude444292]

how about finally release the battle system?  

[x.XNameleszX.x]

Ho-shoot..that's a ton of money.. whee  

[Jackalope2]

Line their beds will the bills and call it a night. 3nodding  

[Strideo]

The article doesn't say what Gaia plans to use the capital on or how much the venture captalists hope to gain or by what means Gaia Online will use to make a profit for them. Maybe a combination of donation items, advertising, and merchandise?  

[Zphal]

*Moved to IDT*  

[Cornelius loh Quatious]

Perhaps it would be best to ask the Powers That Be directly in a well-spoken and non-judgemental private message?

Honestly I believe that the money will be put to good use, as most of the higher-ups already do work for the site totally out of the goodness of their hearts on a totally volunteer basis, in addition to actual jobs, careers, school, and other grown-up stuff. I'm sure they all have bills to pay, and any help that they get with those means more time and energy to improve the site as a whole. Also, that much money is probably more than enough to keep the site's server space growing and lasting until the end of the world.

The Powers That Be have not yet given me a reason not to trust them with a large sum of money, so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they'll put it to good use. However, money does change a lot of people, so I would do my best to let them know that the money came from the support of all the members on this site, whether active or not.  

[Duchessa]

Wow, gaia makes so much money!! I really don't think the donation items should cost so much stare .  

[P34ch35]

Dunno, maybe they'll assimilate other sites for the fun of it.  

[Awaterybeginning]

Paying to keep the server going. It gets expensive...  

[AngelSong0]

Agreed. Its probably mostly to keep the servers going.

You have to figure that to run a site you need to pay for:

1. bandwidth
2. hosting
3. maintence
4. other expenses like electricity  

[[P]issed]

Last time they said they didn't have money to make gaia a new site. I wish they still didn't! Why waste money on this site that my opinion don't like  

[predatorywasps]

crazydude444292

how about finally release the battle system?

I thought that was just a myth sweatdrop