LiveJournal sold to Russian media company SUP
The transaction is intended to allow Six Apart to focus on its other core brands, including MovableType, TypePad, and Vox.
This morning, blogging software producer Six Apart announced it's selling the rest of its LiveJournal service -- that part which Russian media company SUP hasn't already been running there -- to SUP for an undisclosed sum.
LiveJournal is not foreign to SUP: the company licensed the platform in October 2006 to allow it to offer LiveJournal services in Russia. Since then it has grown to become the dominant blogging platform there, easily providing 28% of LiveJournal's overall monthly traffic -- although SUP claims comScore is underestimating even that figure.
Overall, LiveJournal has some 14 million users and some 13.8 million unique visitors monthly as of October 2007. Six Apart acquired the site in 2005.
The service is probably best known for the fiercely independent -- and sometimes controversial -- views of its users. Most recently, management and subscribers butted heads over blogs it thought promoted pedophilia, although many only discussed it peripherally through references to literature, law, or culture.
Customers later won out against management, and many of the blogs deleted were restored.
SUP is also working to calm fears that a change in management would alter he service itself. Six Apart and SUP have laid out a plan for the service over the next 100 days, and have promised both new features as well as upgrades to existing service. In addition, SUP has pledged significant investment of both time and personnel to LiveJournal over the next few years.
An advisory board has also been created which would include a rotating position for two LiveJournal users, that would help steer the future of the service overall. Most of the team from Six Apart has moved over to LiveJournal, Inc., a new SUP division to be based in San Francisco.
"Having gotten to know LiveJournal in Russia over the past year we see enormous potential in developing the business worldwide; it has already showed its durability in America. We believe this is a great opportunity," SUP president Andrew Paulson said.