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Social Networking - Thursday, July 19, 2007

Internet Brands Buys Auto Enthusiast Forums

The a:c believes we are the first to report that Internet Brands has acquired a number of large automotive forum sites, according to the owner of one of the sites. We do not know yet how much Internet Brands paid, however, the sites appear to be run by smaller companies. The list includes:
+ Corvetteforum
+ LS1Tech
+ PerformanceTrucks.net
+ ModMotorTech
+ Ford-trucks
+ Audiworld.com
+ Mustangforum.com
+ and ModernHemi.com.

Corvette Forum claims over 110K registered members, FordTrucks claims 400K registered users and 1M+ uniques per month.

The owner of one of the sites tells us he expects that others are in the works. He also argues that while discussion forums may seem like old tech he firmly believes that they are the most powerful of social networking sites. "The members of discussion forums do not usually drop one for another that may be a bit cooler or more trendy. They form relationships that keep them coming back. Competing forums are hard to start since nobody wants to post on a forum that is not active."

Now that Internet Brands owns vBulletin and is building up a stable of forums it may become a force in social networking for a relatively low price.