Former teenage dot.com millionaire comes out for web revival
Benjamin Cohen, one of the stars of the late 1990s dot.com boom has returned to the industry with a new business set to revolutionise the gay media world as Britain heads for a dot.com revival in 2006.
Cohen as a teenager created the soJewish/JewishNet websites in the height of the internet mania of the late 90s. He was dubbed ‘Britain’s first teenage dot.com millionaire’ and was the focus of a BBC fly on the wall documentary.
As the dot.com revival begins to hit Britain, with predictions that 2006 will see record levels of investment in internet stock, he launches PinkUnlimited.co.uk, a network of online and offline media outlets set to revolutionise the gay community in much the same way as his soJewish business changed the Jewish media world.
PinkUnlimited.co.uk’s first website, PinkNews.co.uk launched in a test phase in August of this year and has rapidly grown to become the most visited gay news service outside of the USA.
Last week, PinkLegal.co.uk – a gay legal advice service was launched to coincide with the first civil partnerships in Britain. The site offers gay couples the opportunity to draft pre-nuptial agreements and update their wills. It is the first dedicated gay legal website in the world.
Aimed at gay professionals, the websites have carved out a unique and maturing segment in the gay media market, previously only occupied by occasional pages in mainstream publications and the odd article in gay magazines.
Unlike the rest of the gay media offerings, PinkUnlimited.co.uk and its associated publications are not aimed at young gay males interested only in clubbing and sex. PinkNews.co.uk for example offers in-depth analysis of precedent making court cases, political comment and human rights investigations.
Commenting on the pre-launch phase of PinkUnlimited.co.uk, Benjamin Cohen said: “Rather like the Jewish websites, this business was a bit of a fluke. Originally I was really using the site as a way of commenting on news stories I felt were relevant to our community. However, I seemed to strike gold and hit upon a niche market that had not been tapped into before.”
