Time Warner Invests in Online Teen Destination

SAN JOSE, January 9: After
receiving financing from Sony Pictures Entertainment in December, the web-based
teen destination Gaia Online has secured an investment by Time Warner.

Time Warner made the
investment in a Series B funding round. Gaia Online is a social environment
where teens can connect with each other using customized avatars, homes and
cars. The site also provides casual games, discussion forums and virtual spaces
such as movie theaters, drag races and towns.

“This investment is
further validation for the original vision of the Gaia Online founders, who
simply setout to create a fun and engaging place for teens to express
themselves online,” said Craig Sherman the CEO of Gaia Online. “We’ve been able
to develop a compelling user experience that keeps teens coming back, but there
is no shortage of things for us to work on. In the coming months we will
continue to invest in the community by adding new features and functionality
that our users have been asking for.”

Gaia Online boasts nearly
3 million unique users per month, with members spending an average of more than
two hours on the site per day.

“We view Gaia Online as a
company with a bright future and are excited to be able to help them continue
their evolution as a business,” said Rachel Lam, the senior VP of Time Warner
Investments. “We have been impressed by Gaia Online’s growing and extremely
loyal user base and the low barrier to entry. It is also clear the management
team has a solid understanding of who their users are and is squarely-focused
on delivering a unique experience that will be appealing to that group without
compromise.”

Last month, Gaia Online
announced a partnership with Warner Bros. to make both free and pay-per-view
versions of the studio’s films available in Gaia’s virtual cinemas.

—By Mansha Daswani