About Ask.com
Ask.com is a Technology company based in Oakland (United States) founded in 1996, and was acquired by IAC in March 2005. It operates as an a search engine and digital content platform is operated. It operates on a Advertising Model model. Ask.com has raised $25 million across 2 funding rounds from investors including IAC, Highland Capital Partners and IVP. Ask.com has completed 6 acquisitions, including Bloglines, Direct Hit and Dotdash. Its website ask.com draws about 14.5 million monthly visits. Ask.com offers products and services including Ask.com Search Platform and Content Articles. Its focus areas include Internet Services, Search Engines, Media and Digital Media. Its legal entity is Ask Media Group, LLC. Its competitors include Google, Yandex, Baidu, Yahoo and Naver and 4 more; 6 of its 9 listed competitors have raised funding.
Company details
A search engine platform is provided by Ask.com, enabling users to find answers to various questions. Additionally, digital content across sectors like lifestyle, culture, technology, and entertainment is curated and published. Solutions include articles, reviews, and trending news to engage a broad online audience.
Products & Services of Ask.com
Ask.com offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and services, including Ask.com Search Platform and Content Articles.
A platform for answering user questions online daily.
Articles on lifestyle, culture, and entertainment are provided.
Funding Insights of Ask.com
Ask.com has successfully raised a total of $25M across 2 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Series A round of $25 million completed in March 1999. This substantial capital infusion reflects strong investor confidence in the company's business model, growth potential, and market opportunities. The funding enables strategic expansion, product development, market penetration, and operational scaling to drive long-term value creation and competitive advantage.
- Total Funding $25M
- Total Rounds 2
- Last Round Series A — $25M
- Investors Count 3
All 2 funding rounds of Ask.com with amounts and investors; the two latest post-money valuations are shown, the rest are part of the premium plan.
| Date | Amount | Transaction Name | Valuation | Lead Investors | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 1999 | $25M | Series A | – | – | |
| Jun 1997 | – | Unspecified | – | – |
4 investors in total: 4 institutional.
Investors in Ask.com
Ask.com has secured backing from 4 investors, including venture fund and institutional investors. Prominent investors backing the company include IAC, Highland Capital Partners and IVP.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Venture capital investment and entrepreneur support services. | – | hcp.com | - | |
Growth in technology companies is supported through venture capital. | – | ivp.com | Menlo Park, United States | |
Seed and early-stage venture capital is provided in the US. | – | rodagroup.com | Berkeley, United States | |
Acquisitions and creations of media and internet brands are managed. | 1986 | iac.com | New York, United States |
Investor details for Ask.com
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People of Ask.com
46 people are tracked at Ask.com (14 in leadership, 32 in team).
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Mark Stein | President | Leadership |
Tae Kim | Chief Marketing Officer | Leadership |
Maxx Lobo | Chief Operating Officer | Leadership |
Paul Saito | VP, Analytics | Leadership |
Karen Ho | Director Of Business Development | Leadership |
Carlos Colón | Director Of Software Engineering | Leadership |
Gary Chang | Senior Vice President, Finance | Leadership |
Dave Smith | Director, Technical Operations | Leadership |
John Lenihan | Vp/senior Director Of Business Development | Leadership |
Mikel Shapiro | Senior Director Performance Marketing | Leadership |
David Lemoine | VP, Performance Marketing | Leadership |
Andrew Tchabovsky | Director Of Performance Marketing | Leadership |
Aron Bartling | CTO | Leadership |
Nazly H. | Chief Partnerships Officer & General Counsel | Leadership |
Enrique Henestroza Anguiano | Senior Data Scientist | Team |
Tsedal Agidew | Team Lead - International SEM | Team |
Nazly Hajjarian | SVP, GC Legal | Team |
Vladislav Nikonov | Senior QA Automation Engineer | Team |
Stephen Glachan | Software Engineering Manager | Team |
Lawrence Leung | Senior Devops Engineer | Team |
26 more people are available in the full profile.
Complete people profiles for Ask.com
Full employee and board profiles, team structure, tenure and professional contact details require an active premium plan.
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Investments & Acquisitions by Ask.com
Ask.com has strategically engaged in corporate development activities, having acquired 6 companies. Notable acquisitions include Bloglines, Direct Hit and Dotdash.
| Company Name | Description | Domain | Location | Founded | Acquired | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US-based network of content sites | dotdash.com | New York, United States | 1997 | Aug 2012 | $300M | |
Provider of content discovery platform | nrelate.com | New York, United States | 2009 | Jul 2012 | •••• | |
Direct navigation traffic monetization platform | sendori.com | San Francisco, United States | 2006 | Jan 2009 | •••• | |
Feed aggregator for blogs & RSS feeds | bloglines.com | Oakland, United States | 2003 | Feb 2005 | •••• | |
Search engine portal | excite.com | Seattle, United States | 1995 | Mar 2004 | $343M | |
A keyword-based search engine platform is provided by Direct Hit. | directhit.com | Oakland, United States | 1998 | Jan 2000 | $507M |
Complete acquisition details for Ask.com
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Timeline of Ask.com
11 dated milestones of Ask.com across 16 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded Ask.com is founded.
- Funding First funding round.
- Funding Latest funding round, Series A, of $25.0M.
- IPO Lists on the stock exchange (IPO).
- Acquisition Acquires Direct Hit.
- Acquisition Acquires Excite.
- Acquisition Acquires Bloglines.
- Exit Acquired by IAC.
- Acquisition Acquires Sendori.
- Acquisition Acquires nRelate.
- Acquisition Acquires Dotdash.
Competitors of Ask.com
Ask.com has 9 listed competitors in our database, 6 of them funded. They include Google, Yandex, Baidu, Yahoo and Naver, among others.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| google.com | 1998 | Mountain View, United States | $34.02M | 183,323 | A technology company offering products and services, including search engine, cloud computing, advertising, email, productivity software, and more | |
| yandex.com | 1997 | Moscow, Russia | – | – | An AI-enabled search engine and related digital services are provided. | |
| baidu.com | 2000 | Beijing, China | $101.2M | 45,887 | AI-enabled keyword-based search engine is operated for information retrieval. | |
| yahoo.com | 1994 | New York, United States | $6.8M | 4,480 | News, insights, and services are delivered via an online platform. | |
| naver.com | 1999 | Seongnam-si, South Korea | – | – | Keyword-based searches are enabled for information, news, and services. | |
| sohu.com | 1996 | Beijing, China | $158,770 | – | Online media, search, and gaming services are offered by Sohu.com. | |
| bing.com | 2009 | Redmond, United States | – | 69,364 | Search engine, productivity software, and online services are provided. | |
| sogou.com | 2004 | Beijing, China | $448M | – | Provider of an AI-driven keyword-based search engine | |
| vectara.com | 2020 | Palo Alto, United States | $73.5M | – | Cloud-based text analytics and semantic search platform is operated. |
Detailed competitors of Ask.com
The full competitor set, operating metrics and side-by-side benchmarks require an active premium plan.
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Web traffic of Ask.com
The website of Ask.com (ask.com) receives about 14.5M visits a month and ranks #5,055 among all websites worldwide, #743 in Search Engines.
- Monthly visits14.5M
▼ 0.8% vs previous month
- Unique visitors2.1M
per month
- Global rank#5,055
among all websites
- Category rank#743
Computers Electronics and Technology · Search Engines
- Bounce rate49%
- Pages per visit2.5
- Average visit5 min 23 sec
- DevicesDesktop 91% · Mobile 9%
Websites whose visitors overlap most with Ask.com. Affinity shows how closely the audiences match.
| Website | Domain | Audience affinity | Monthly visits | Global rank | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bing.com | 100% | 3.5B | #10 | View details | |
| google.com | 98% | 85.8B | #1 | View details | |
| excite.com | 96% | 186K | #242,216 | View details | |
| altavista.com | 94% | 52K | #911,968 | View details | |
| webcrawler.com | 94% | 76.9K | – | View details | |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
All 40 similar websites and full traffic analytics for Ask.com
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- 40 similar websites
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Top companies in Search, Discovery & Knowledge Tools
10 companies that operate in the same segment as Ask.com (Search, Discovery & Knowledge Tools), ranked by their profile score on The Company Check.
| Company | Description | Founded | Location | Total funding | Revenue | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A technology company offering products and services, including search engine, cloud computing, advertising, email, productivity software, and more | 1998 | Mountain View, California, United States | USD 34.02 M | – | – | |
Keyword-based private search engine for user privacy is provided online. | 2008 | Paoli, Pennsylvania, United States | USD 113 M | – | – | |
Citation-based AI answer engine with real-time sourcing is operated. | 2022 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 1.72 B | – | 1,401 | |
AI-enabled keyword-based search engine is operated for information retrieval. | 2000 | Beijing, China | USD 101.2 M | USD 18.5 B | 41,300 | |
AI-enabled private search engine for keyword-based queries is operated. | 2020 | Palo Alto, California, United States | USD 199 M | – | 337 | |
Online media, search, and gaming services are offered by Sohu.com. | 1996 | Beijing, China | USD 158.77 K | USD 585.88 M | 4,300 | |
An AI-enabled search engine and related digital services are provided. | 1997 | Moscow, Russia | – | – | – | |
Provider of a data security search engine to filter results | 2013 | Paris, France | USD 57.26 M | – | – | |
Keyword-based searches are enabled for information, news, and services. | 1999 | Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea | – | – | – | |
News, insights, and services are delivered via an online platform. | 1994 | New York, New York, United States | USD 6.8 M | – | 4,480 |
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Related news about Ask.Com
Complete news archive for Ask.com
Full article history, source details, and older brand coverage require an active premium plan.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Ask.com
Ask.com was founded in 1996 and raised its 1st funding round 1 year after it was founded.
Ask.com is headquartered in Oakland, United States. It is registered at Oakland, California, United States.
Ask.com is a funded company, having raised a total of $25M across 2 funding rounds to date.
A search engine platform is provided by Ask.com, enabling users to find answers to various questions. Additionally, digital content across sectors like lifestyle, culture, technology, and entertainment is curated and published. Solutions include articles, reviews, and trending news to engage a broad online audience.
Ask.com offers Ask.com Search Platform and Content Articles.
Ask.com has made 6 acquisitions, including Bloglines, Direct Hit, and Dotdash.
Ask.com has 4 investors. Key investors include IAC, Highland Capital Partners, IVP, and The Roda Group.
Ask.com operates through Ask Media Group, Llc.
Yes. Ask.com was acquired by IAC in March 2005.
The website of Ask.com receives about 14.5 million visits a month and ranks #5,055 among all websites worldwide.