Lifebyte goes up for sale six months after launch
Internet youth portal Lifebyte is being sold off just six months after its official launch.
The sale will be a blow to the site’s marketing director Alan Thornton, who left his position as marketing manager for Top Shop, which is part of the Arcadia Group, less than five months ago to join Lifebyte.
Thornton was responsible for branding the lifestyle site. It was aimed at 18to 24-year-olds and offered reviews, features and interviews. In October last year Thornton oversaw a viral marketing campaign run in conjunction with student travel company STA Travel. The promotion increased traffic to the site by 40 per cent.
Thornton says he is “disappointed” that Saffron Hill, formerly LootLab, which supported Lifebyte, has decided to ditch the portal to concentrate on the business-to-business market.
He will continue to work on two of Saffron Hill’s other portals, Hotproperty and Clickwalla – a website targeted at the Asian community – until his contract runs out in April.
The site and its content have been put up for sale and Thornton thinks it is likely that prospective buyers will want to continue to run it in an alternative form.
“It is the biggest youth site by far in terms of content. It is a shame as we have had a good response to the site. But a decision has been taken to focus on the business-to-business side,” he says.
Other high-profile dot-com in the past year failures include Boo.com, ClickMango.com and Boxman.com, while the downturn in Internet fortunes is predicted to continue.
