Australian active lifestyle vertical portal Bluemanna recently launched in Sydney,
showcasing its site of interactive content covering outdoor and adventure
travel and leisure.
Giraffe Online, the media company that produced Bluemanna, expects the
site to act as a primary navigation point for users interested in an active
lifestyle.
The portal brings together activities such as camping, climbing,
fishing, adventure travel, surfing, cycling and extreme sport in its first
channel, MannaOutdoors.
Later this year, second and third channels will be rolled out by the 30
person editorial team, incorporating the design and feel of MannaOutdoors
and aiming to reach an international audience.
Giraffe Online managing director Charles Murphy said Bluemanna has the
potential to succeed where others have failed because of worldwide interest
in outdoor sports. Together with relevant content, Murphy said this
combination will enable Bluemanna to attract and retain a targeted
audience.
“We have accumulated high quality content and positioned our Web sites
as primary navigation points for people with an interest in specific
topics,” he said.
“Although initially Bluemanna will be a content-only site, we are
currently adding more channels and e-commerce capacity,” said Murphy.
Bluemanna will derive part of its revenue from advertising and
sponsorship, but Murphy said the bulk of the site’s income will be
generated by providing selected companies with the opportunity to sell
products and services through the Bluemanna site.
“Our site will act as a gateway through which companies can conduct
e-commerce on a revenue sharing basis,” he said.
Bluemanna is currently forming alliances with a number of Australian
active lifestyle retailers to achieve this aim.
The launch of Bluemanna forms part of Giraffe Online’s long-term
strategy to move into broadband content and commerce provision.
