Risk Factors

          There are numerous risks and uncertainties that may affect our financial and operating performance and our growth. You should carefully consider all of the risks discussed in "Risk Factors," which begins on page 14, before investing in our common stock. These risks include the following:

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our history of operating losses and the limited operating history in our market, which makes evaluating our business and future prospects difficult;



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the possibility that we may not be able to maintain or improve our competitive position or market share with respect to our Content & Media and Registrar service offerings;



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the possibility that our relationship with Google from which a significant portion of our revenue is generated may be terminated or renewed on less favorable terms;



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the possibility that our future internal rates of return on content may be less than our historic internal rates of return on content;



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the current dependence of our Content & Media service offering on the success of eHow.com; and



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the possibility that our customers may not renew their domain name registrations or may transfer their existing registrations to our competitors and we fail to replace their business.

Corporate Information

          We are incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Santa Monica, California. We commenced operations in April 2006 with the acquisitions of eHow.com, a leading "how-to" content-oriented website, and eNom, a provider of Internet domain name registration services. Our principal executive offices are located at 1299 Ocean Ave, Suite 500, Santa Monica, California 90401, and our telephone number is (310) 394-6400. Our corporate website is www.demandmedia.com. Information contained on our website is not a part of this prospectus and the inclusion of our website address in this prospectus is an inactive textual reference only. Unless the context requires otherwise, the words "Demand Media," "we," "company," "us" and "our" refer to Demand Media, Inc. and our wholly owned subsidiaries.

          Demand Media®, the Demand Media logo and other trademarks or service marks of Demand Media appearing in this prospectus are the property of Demand Media. Trade names, trademarks, and service marks of other companies appearing in this prospectus are the property of the respective holders.

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RISK FACTORS

           Before deciding to invest in our common stock, you should carefully consider each of the following risk factors and all of the other information set forth in this prospectus. The following risks and the risks described elsewhere in this prospectus, including in the section entitled "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," could materially harm our business, financial condition, future results and cash flow. If that occurs, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely affect our business.

Risks Relating to our Content & Media Service Offering

We are dependent upon certain material agreements with Google for a significant portion of our revenue. A termination of these agreements, or a failure to renew them on favorable terms, would adversely affect our business.

          We have an extensive relationship with Google and a significant portion of our revenue is derived from cost-per-click performance-based advertising provided by Google. For the year ended December 31, 2009 and the six months ended June 30, 2010, we derived approximately 18% and 26%, respectively, of our total revenue from our various advertising arrangements with Google. We use Google for cost-per-click advertising and search results on our owned and operated websites and on our network of customer websites, and receive a portion of the revenue generated by advertisements provided by Google on those websites. Our Google cost-per-click agreement for our developed websites, such as eHow, expires in the second quarter of 2012 and our Google cost-per-click agreement for our undeveloped websites expires in the first quarter of 2011. In addition, we also engage Google's DoubleClick ad-serving platform to deliver advertisements to our developed websites and have another revenue-sharing agreement with respect to revenue generated by our content posted on Google's Youtube.com, both of which are currently on year to year terms that expire in the fourth quarter of 2010. Google, however, has termination rights in these agreements with us, including the right to terminate before the expiration of the terms upon the occurrence of certain events, including if our content violates the rights of third parties and other breaches of contractual provisions, a number of which are broadly defined. There can be no assurance that our agreements with Google will be extended or renewed after their respective expirations or that we will be able to extend or renew our agreements with Google on terms and conditions favorable to us. If our agreements with Google, in particular the cost-per-click agreement for our developed websites, are terminated we may not be able to enter into agreements with alternative third-party advertisement providers or ad-serving platforms on acceptable terms or on a timely basis or both. Any termination of our relationships with Google, and any extension or renewal after the initial term on terms and conditions less favorable to us would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

          Our agreements with Google may not continue to generate levels of revenue commensurate with what we have achieved during past periods. Our ability to generate online advertising revenue from Google depends on its assessment of the quality and performance characteristics of Internet traffic resulting from online advertisements on our owned and operated websites and on our undeveloped websites as well as other components of our relationship with Google's advertising technology platforms. We have no control over any of these quality assessments or over Google's advertising technology platforms. Google may from time to time change its existing, or establish new, methodologies and metrics for valuing the quality of Internet traffic and delivering cost-per-click advertisements. Any changes in these methodologies, metrics and advertising technology platforms could decrease the amount of revenue that we generate from online advertisements. Since most of our agreements with Google contain exclusivity provisions, we are prevented from using other providers of services similar to those provided by Google. In addition, Google may at any time change or suspend

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the nature of the service that it provides to online advertisers and the catalog of advertisers from which online advertisements are sourced. These types of changes or suspensions would adversely impact our ability to generate revenue from cost-per-click advertising. Any decrease in revenue due to lower traffic or a change in the type of services that Google provides to us would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We base our capital allocation decisions primarily on our analysis of the predicted internal rate of return on content. If the estimates and assumptions we use in calculating internal rate of return on content are inaccurate, our capital may be inefficiently allocated. If we fail to appropriately allocate our capital, our growth rate and financial results will be adversely affected.

          We invest in content based on our calculation of the internal rate of return on previously published content cohorts for which we believe we have sufficient data. For purposes of these calculations, a content cohort is all of the content we publish in a particular quarter. We calculate the internal rate of return on a cohort of content as the annual discount rate that, when applied to the advertising revenue, less certain direct ongoing costs, generated from the cohort over a period of time, produces an amount equal to the initial investment in that cohort. Our calculations are based on certain material estimates and assumptions that may not be accurate. Accordingly, the calculation of internal rate of return may not be reflective of our actual returns. The material estimates and assumptions upon which we rely include estimates about portions of the costs to create content and the revenue allocated to that content. We make estimates regarding when revenue for each cohort will be received. Our internal rate of return calculations are highly dependent on the timing of this revenue, with revenue earned earlier resulting in greater internal rates of return than the same amount of revenue earned in subsequent periods. Further, our internal rate of return measure assumes a fair value of zero as of the measurement date.

          We make the following estimates and assumptions about the cost of creating content:

•

For purposes of calculating internal rate of return, we use averages to estimate the upfront cost involved in creating content. Specifically, we estimate the aggregate cost to create a specific cohort of content by multiplying the average payment made to our freelance content creators by the number of articles produced in that period. Additionally, we allocate certain in-house editorial costs to each cohort of content.



•

Our estimates exclude the indirect service costs that support content creation and distribution, such as bandwidth and general corporate overhead, which support other aspects of our business in addition to content creation and distribution.

          Our estimates and assumptions about the revenue generated by content include the following:

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With respect to each cohort, we estimate the revenue generated over its lifetime to date by using the average revenue per thousand page views multiplied by the number of page views generated in that period. This revenue estimate may not accurately reflect the actual revenue generated by a particular cohort of content because while we have page views for individual cohorts, page views are not necessarily proportionate to the amount of revenue generated by a given cohort.



•

Our revenue estimates exclude indirect revenue such as the revenue generated from advertising appearing on non-article pages or subscription revenues of websites to which content is distributed.

          We use more estimates and assumptions to calculate the internal rate of return on video content because our systems and processes to collect historical data on video content are less robust. As a result, our data on video content may be less reliable. If our estimates and calculations do not accurately reflect the costs or revenues associated with our content, the actual internal rate of return of

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a cohort may be more or less than our estimated internal rate of return for such cohort. In such an event, we may misallocate capital and our growth, revenue, financial condition and results of operations could be negatively impacted.

Since our content creation and distribution model is new and evolving, the future internal rates of return on content may be less than our historical internal rates of return on content.

          The majority of the content that we published from January 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010 consists of text articles published to our owned and operated website, eHow. We have disclosed in this prospectus an internal rate of return of 58% for text content published in the third quarter of 2008, or our Q308 cohort, which consists entirely of articles published to eHow.

          We selected the Q308 cohort for analysis because it represents the oldest cohort that utilized the core elements of our current content creation process, yielding seven quarters of historical results to date. However, due to the evolving nature of our business, the composition and distribution of the Q308 cohort is not the same as the composition and distribution of the content produced in all other historical periods and will not be the same as the composition and distribution of future content cohorts. Certain variables that may affect our internal rate of return on content include the following:

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Distribution outlets for our content are changing. We are distributing increasing amounts of content to customer websites and to owned and operated websites other than eHow. For example, 60% of our content produced in the second quarter of 2010 was published to eHow while 100% of the content in our Q308 cohort was published to eHow. To date, eHow is our largest and most established distribution outlet for our content. On average, internal rates of return on content published on less established distribution outlets have not been as high as the rates achieved on eHow.



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We have used and will continue to use new methodologies for content production. For example, approximately 32% of our Q308 cohort was sourced from third parties who were more expensive than our freelance content creators and who did not widely utilize our internal algorithms. Since the second quarter of 2009 our internal algorithms and freelance content creation processes have been used to produce substantially all of our article content.



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The format, category and media of the content that we produce changes over time, including the mix of article content versus video content. Although historically our data on video performance is not as comprehensive as our data on article performance, we believe currently that the internal rate of return on video is less than the internal rate of return on article content. Our Q308 cohort had no video content in it.



•

We have historically had a small number of revenue-sharing arrangements with our content creators and our customers. We are currently planning on entering into more of these revenue-sharing arrangements. Our Q308 cohort had no revenue sharing agreements.

          As a result, you should not rely on the internal rate of return for a cohort, including our Q308 cohort, as being indicative of the internal rate of return for any other cohorts. In the event that our content does not generate internal rates of return consistent with the internal rates of return achieved in prior periods or related to content produced for different areas of consumer interest, our growth, revenue, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We face significant competition to our Content & Media service offering, which we expect will continue to intensify, and we may not be able to maintain or improve our competitive position or market share.

          We operate in highly competitive and still developing markets. We compete for advertisers and customers on the basis of a number of factors including return on marketing expenditures, price of our offerings, and ability to deliver large volumes or precise types of customer traffic. This competition

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could make it more difficult for us to provide value to our consumers, our advertisers and our freelance content creators and result in increased pricing pressure, reduced profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses, decreased website traffic and failure to increase, or the loss of, market share, any of which would likely seriously harm our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors.

          We face intense competition from a wide range of competitors, including online marketing and media companies, integrated social media platforms and other specialist and enthusiast websites. Our current principal competitors include:

•

Online Marketing and Media Companies.   We compete with other Internet marketing and media companies, such as AOL, About.com and various startup companies as well as leading online media companies such as Yahoo!, for online marketing budgets. Most of these competitors compete with us across several areas of consumer interest, such as do-it-yourself, health, home and garden, golf, outdoors and humor.



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Integrated Social Media Applications.   We compete with various software technology competitors, such as Jive Software and KickApps, in the integrated social media space where we offer our social media applications.



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Specialized and Enthusiast Websites.   We compete with companies that provide specialized consumer information websites, particularly in the do-it-yourself, health, home and garden, golf, outdoors and humor categories, as well as enthusiast websites in specific categories, including message boards, blogs and other enthusiast websites maintained by individuals and other Internet companies.



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Distributed Content Creation Platforms.   We compete with a growing number of companies, such as AOL and Yahoo! that employ a content creation model with aspects similar to our platform, such as the use of freelance content creators.

          We may be subject to increased competition with any of these types of businesses in the future to the extent that they seek to devote increased resources to more directly address the online market for the professional creation of commercially valuable content at scale. For example, if Google chose to compete more directly with us, we may face the prospect of the loss of business or other adverse financial consequences given that Google possesses a significantly greater consumer base, financial resources, distribution channels and patent portfolio. In addition, should Google decide to directly compete with us in areas such as content creation, it may decide for competitive reasons to terminate or not renew our commercial agreements and, in such an event, we may experience a rapid decline in our revenue from the loss of our source for cost-per-click advertising on our owned and operated websites and on our network of customer websites. In addition, Google's access to more comprehensive data regarding user search queries through its search algorithms would give it a significant competitive advantage over everyone in the industry, including us. If this data is used competitively by Google, sold to online publishers or given away for free, our business may face increased competition from companies, including Google, with substantially greater resources, brand recognition and established market presence.

          In addition to Google, many of our current and other potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition, longer operating histories, substantially greater financial, technical and other resources and, in some cases, the ability to combine their online marketing products with traditional offline media such as newspapers or magazines. These companies may use these advantages to offer products similar to ours at a lower price, develop different products to compete with our current offerings and respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. For example, both AOL and

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Yahoo! have access to proprietary search data which could be utilized to assist them in their content creation processes. In addition, many of our current and potential competitors have established marketing relationships with and access to larger customer bases. As the markets for online and social media expand, we expect new competitors, business models and solutions to emerge, some of which may be superior to ours. Even if our platform is more effective than the products and services offered by our competitors, potential customers might adopt competitive products and services in lieu of using our services. For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current and potential competitors.

Our Content & Media service offering primarily generates its revenue from advertising, and the reduction in spending by or loss of advertisers could seriously harm our business.

          We generated 41% and 45% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2009 and six months ended June 30, 2010 from advertising. One component of our platform that we use to generate advertiser interest in our content is our system of monetization tools, which is designed to match content with advertisements in a manner that maximizes revenue yield and end-user experience. Advertisers will not continue to do business with us if their investment in advertising with us does not generate sales leads, and ultimately customers, or if we do not deliver their advertisements in an appropriate and effective manner. The failure of our yield-optimized monetization technology to effectively match advertisements with our content in a manner that results in increased revenue for our advertisers would have an adverse impact on our ability to maintain or increase our revenue from advertising.

          We rely on third-party ad-providers, such as Google, to provide advertisements on our owned and operated websites and on our network of customer websites. Even if our content is effectively matched with such ad content, we cannot assure our current advertisers will fulfill their obligations under their existing contracts, continue to provide advertisements beyond the terms of their existing contracts or enter into any additional contracts. If any of our advertisers, but in particular Google, decided not to continue advertising on our owned and operated websites and on our network of customer websites, we could experience a rapid decline in our revenue over a relatively short period of time.

          In addition, our customers who receive a portion of the revenue generated from advertisements matched with our content displayed on their websites, may not continue to do business with us if our content does not generate increased revenue for them. If we are unable to remain competitive and provide value to advertisers they may stop placing advertisements with us or with our network of customer websites, which would negatively harm our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

          Lastly, we believe that advertising spending on the Internet, as in traditional media, fluctuates significantly as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. These factors include:

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variations in expenditures by advertisers due to budgetary constraints;



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the cancellation or delay of projects by advertisers;



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the cyclical and discretionary nature of advertising spending;



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general economic conditions, as well as economic conditions specific to the Internet and online and offline media industry; and



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the occurrence of extraordinary events, such as natural disasters, international or domestic terrorist attacks or armed conflict.

If we are unable to generate advertising revenue due to factors outside of our control, then our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operation would be adversely affected.

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If we are unable to continue to drive and increase visitors to our owned and operated websites and to our customer websites and convert these visitors into repeat users and customers cost-effectively, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

          The primary method that we use to attract traffic to our owned and operated websites and to our customer websites and convert these visitors into repeat users and customers is the content created by our freelance content creators. How successful we are in these efforts depends, in part, upon our continued ability to create and distribute high-quality, commercially valuable content in a cost effective manner at scale that connects consumers with content that meets their specific interests and enables them to share and interact with the content and supporting communities. We may not be able to create content in a cost effective manner or that meets rapidly changing consumer demand in a timely manner, if at all. Any such failure to do so could adversely affect user and customer experiences and reduce traffic driven to our owned and operated websites and to our customer websites through which we distribute our content, which would adversely affect our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

          One effort we employ to create and distribute our content in a cost effective manner is our proprietary technology and algorithms which are designed to predict consumer demand and return on investment. Our proprietary technology and algorithms have a limited history, and as a result the ultimate returns on our investment in content creation are difficult to predict, and may not be sustained in future periods at the same level as in past periods. Furthermore, our proprietary technology and algorithms are dependent on analyzing existing Internet search traffic data, and our analysis may be impaired by changes in Internet traffic or search engines' methodologies which we do not have any control over. The failure of our proprietary technology and algorithms to accurately identify content that generates traffic on websites through which we distribute our content and which creates a sufficient return on investment for us and our customer websites would have an adverse impact on our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

          Another method we employ to attract and acquire new, and retain existing, users and customers is commonly referred to as search engine optimization, or SEO. SEO involves developing websites to rank well in search engine results. Our ability to successfully manage SEO efforts across our owned and operated websites and our customer websites is dependent on the timely modification of SEO efforts from time to time in response to periodic changes in search engine algorithms, search query trends and related efforts by providers of search services designed to ensure the display of unique offerings in search results. Our failure to successfully manage our SEO strategy could result in a substantial decrease in traffic to our owned and operated websites and to our customer websites through which we distribute our content, which would result in substantial decreases in conversion rates and repeat business, as well as increased costs if we were to replace free traffic with paid traffic. Any or all of these results would adversely affect our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

          Even if we succeed in driving traffic to our owned and operated websites and to our customer websites, neither we nor our advertisers and customers may be able to monetize this traffic or otherwise retain consumers. Our failure to do so could result in decreases in customers and related advertising revenue, which would have an adverse effect on our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

If Internet search engines' methodologies are modified, traffic to our owned and operated websites and to our customers' websites and corresponding consumer origination volumes could decline.

          We depend in part on various Internet search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and other search engines to direct a significant amount of traffic to our owned and operated websites. For the quarter ended June 30, 2010, approximately 40% of the page view traffic directed to our owned and operated websites came directly from these Internet search engines (and a majority of the traffic from

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search engines came from Google), according to our internal data. Our ability to maintain the number of visitors directed to our owned and operated websites and to our customers' websites through which we distribute our content by search engines is not entirely within our control. For example, search engines frequently revise their algorithms in an attempt to optimize their search result listings. Changes in the methodologies used by search engines to display results could cause our owned and operated websites or our customer websites to receive less favorable placements, which could reduce the number of users who link to our owned and operated websites and to our customers' websites from these search engines. Some of our owned and operated websites and our customers' websites have experienced fluctuations in search result rankings and we anticipate similar fluctuations in the future. Internet search engines could decide that content on our owned and operated websites and on our customers' websites, including content that is created by our freelance content creators, is unacceptable or violates their corporate policies. Any reduction in the number of users directed to our owned and operated websites and to our customers' websites would negatively affect our ability to earn revenue. If traffic on our owned and operated websites and on our customers' websites declines, we may need to resort to more costly sources to replace lost traffic, and such increased expense could adversely affect our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

Since the success of our Content & Media service offering has been closely tied to the success of eHow, if eHow's performance falters it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operations.

          For the year ended December 31, 2009 and the six months ended June 30, 2010, Demand Media generated approximately 13% and 21%, respectively, of our revenue from eHow. No other individual site was responsible for more than 10% of our revenue in these periods. In addition, most of the content that we published during these periods was published to eHow.

          eHow depends on various Internet search engines to direct traffic to the site. For the quarter ended June 30, 2010, approximately 60% of eHow's page view traffic came from Google searches. Any changes in search engine methodologies or our failure to properly manage SEO efforts for eHow may adversely impact the traffic directed to eHow and in turn the performance of the content created for and distributed on eHow. Furthermore, as the amount of content housed on eHow grows, its increased size may slow future growth. For example, we have found that users' ability to find content on eHow through popular search engines is impaired if the increased volume of content on the site is not matched by an improved site architecture. A material adverse effect on eHow could result in a material adverse effect to Demand Media and its business, financial condition, and operations.

Poor perception of our brand, business or industry could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

          Our business is dependent on attracting a large number of visitors to our owned and operated websites and our network of customer websites and providing leads and clicks to our advertisers and customers, which depends in part on our reputation within the industry and with our customers. Because our business is transforming traditional content creation models and is therefore not easily understood by casual observers, our brand, business and reputation is vulnerable to poor perception. For example, perception that the quality of our content may not be the same or better than that of other published Internet content, even though baseless, can damage our reputation. We are frequently the subject of unflattering reports in the media about our business and our model. While disruptive businesses are often criticized early on in their life cycles, we believe we are more frequently targeted than most because of the nature of the business we are disrupting — namely the traditional print and publication media as well as popular Internet publishing methods such as blogging. Any damage to our reputation could harm our ability to attract and retain advertisers, customers and freelance content creators, which would materially adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and

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business. Furthermore, certain of our owned and operated websites, such as LIVESTRONG.com, are associated with high-profile experts to enhance the websites' brand recognition and credibility. In addition, any adverse news reports, negative publicity or other alienation of all or a segment of our consumer base relating to these high-profile experts would reflect poorly on our brands and could have an adverse effect on our business.

We rely primarily on freelance content creators for our online content. We may not be able to attract or retain sufficient freelance content creators to generate content on a scale sufficient to grow our business. As we do not control those persons or the source of content, we are at risk of being unable to generate interesting and attractive features and other material content.

          We rely primarily on freelance content creators for the content that we distribute through our owned and operated websites and our network of customer websites. We may not be able to attract or retain sufficient freelance creators to generate content on a scale sufficient to grow our business. In addition, our competitors may attempt to attract members of our freelance content creator community by offering compensation that we are unable to match. We believe that over the past two years our ability to attract and retain freelance content creators has benefited from the weak overall labor market and from the difficulties and resulting layoffs occurring in traditional media, particularly newspapers. We believe that this combination of circumstances is unlikely to continue and any change to the economy or the media jobs market may make it more difficult for us to attract and retain freelance content creators. While each of our freelance content creators are screened through our pre-qualification process, we cannot guarantee that the content created by our freelance content creators will be of sufficient quality to attract users to our owned and operated websites and to our network of customer websites. In addition, we have no written agreements with these persons which obligate them to create articles or videos beyond the one article or video that they elect to create at any particular time and have no ability to control their future performance. As a result, we cannot guarantee that our freelance content creators will continue to contribute content to us for further distribution through our owned and operated websites and our network of customer websites or that the content that is created and distributed will be sufficient to sustain our current growth rates. In the event that these freelance content creators decrease their contributions of such content, we are unable to attract or retain qualified freelance content creators or if the quality of such contributions is not sufficiently attractive to our advertisers or to drive traffic to our owned and operated websites and to our network of customer websites, we may incur substantial costs in procuring suitable replacement content, which could have a negative impact on our business, revenue and financial condition.

The loss of third-party data providers could significantly diminish the value of our services and cause us to lose customers and revenue.

          We collect data regarding consumer search queries from a variety of sources. When a user accesses one of our owned and operated websites, we may have access to certain data associated with the source and specific nature of the visit to our website. We also license consumer search query data from third parties. Our Content & Media algorithms utilize this data to help us determine what content consumers are seeking, if that content is valuable to advertisers and whether we can cost-effectively produce this content. These third-party consumer search data agreements are generally for perpetual licenses of a discrete amount of data and generally do not provide for updates of the data licensed. There can be no assurances that we will be able to enter into agreements with these third parties to license additional data on the same or similar terms, if at all. If we are not able to enter into agreements with these providers, we may not be able to enter into agreements with alternative third-party consumer search data providers on acceptable terms or on a timely basis or both. Any termination of our relationships with these consumer search data providers, or any entry into new agreements on terms and conditions less favorable to us, could limit the effectiveness of our content creation process, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and

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results of operations. In addition, new laws or changes to existing laws in this area may prevent or restrict our use of this data. In such event, the value of our algorithms and our ability to determine what consumers are seeking could be significantly diminished.

If we are unable to attract new customers for our social media applications products or to retain our existing customers, our revenue could be lower than expected and our operating results may suffer.

          Our enterprise-class social media tools allow websites to add feature-rich applications, such as user profiles, comments, forums, reviews, blogs, photo and video sharing, media galleries, groups and messaging offered through our social media application product suite. In addition to adding new customers for our social media products, to increase our revenue, we must sell additional social media products to existing customers and encourage existing customers to maintain or increase their usage levels. If our existing and prospective customers do not perceive our social media products to be of sufficiently high quality, we may not be able to retain our current customers or attract new customers. We sell our social media products pursuant to service agreements that are generally one to two years in length. Our customers have no obligation to renew their contracts for our products after the expiration of their initial commitment period, and these agreements may not be renewed at the same or higher level of service, if at all. In addition, these agreements generally require us to keep our product suite operational with minimal service interruptions and to provide limited credits to media customers in the event that we are unable to maintain these service levels. To date, service level credits have not been significant. Moreover, under some circumstances, some of our customers have the right to cancel their service agreements prior to the expiration of the terms of their agreements, including the right to cancel if our social media product suite suffers repeated service interruptions. If we are unable to attract new customers for our social media products, our existing customers do not renew or terminate their agreements for our social media products or we are required to provide service level credits in the future as a result of the operational failure of our social media products, then our operating results could be harmed.

Our success depends upon the continued commercial use of the Internet, and acceptance of online advertising as an alternative to offline advertising.

          The percentage of the advertising market allocated to online advertising lags the percentage of time spent by people consuming media online by a significant percentage. Growth in our business largely depends on this distinction between online and off-line advertising narrowing or being eliminated. This may not happen in a way or to the extent that we currently expect. Many advertisers still have limited experience with online advertising and may continue to devote significant portions of their advertising budgets to traditional, offline advertising media. Accordingly, we continue to compete for advertising dollars with traditional media, including print publications, in addition to websites with higher levels of traffic. We believe that the continued growth and acceptance of online advertising generally will depend on its perceived effectiveness and the acceptance of related advertising models, and the continued growth in commercial use of the Internet, among other factors. Any lack of growth in the market for various online advertising models could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Wireless devices and mobile phones are increasingly being used to access the Internet, and our online marketing services may not be as effective when accessed through these devices, which could cause harm to our business.

          The number of people who access the Internet through devices other than personal computers has increased substantially in the last few years. Our Content & Media services were designed for persons accessing the Internet on a desktop or laptop computer. The smaller screens, lower resolution graphics and less convenient typing capabilities of these devices may make it more difficult for visitors to respond to our offerings. In addition, the cost of mobile advertising is relatively high and may not be cost-effective for our services. We must also ensure that our licensing arrangements with third-party content providers allow us to make this content available on these devices. If we cannot effectively make our content, products and services available on these devices, fewer consumers may access and use our content, products and services. Also, if our services continue to be less effective or economically attractive for customers seeking to engage in advertising through these devices and this segment of Internet traffic grows at the expense of traditional computer Internet access, we will experience difficulty attracting website visitors and attracting and retaining customers and our operating results and business will be harmed.

We are dependent upon the quality of traffic in our network to provide value to online advertisers, and any failure in our quality control could have a material adverse effect on the value of our websites to our third-party advertisement distribution providers and online advertisers and adversely affect our revenue.

          We use technology and processes to monitor the quality of, and to identify any anomalous metrics associated with, the Internet traffic that we deliver to online advertisers and our network of customer websites. These metrics may be indicative of low quality clicks such as non-human processes, including robots, spiders or other software; the mechanical automation of clicking; and other types of invalid clicks or click fraud. Even with such monitoring in place, there is a risk that a certain amount of low-quality traffic, or traffic that is deemed to be invalid by online advertisers, will be delivered to such online advertisers. As a result, we may be required to credit future amounts owed to us by our advertisers. Furthermore, low-quality or invalid traffic may be detrimental to our relationships with third-party advertisement distribution providers and online advertisers, and could adversely affect our revenue.

The expansion of our owned and operated websites into new areas of consumer interest, products, services and technologies subjects us to additional business, legal, financial and competitive risks.

          An important element of our business strategy is to grow our network of owned and operated websites to cover new areas of consumer interest, expand into new business lines and develop additional services, products and technologies. In directing our focus into new areas, we face numerous risks and challenges, including increased capital requirements, long development cycles, new competitors and the requirement to develop new strategic relationships. We cannot assure you that our strategy will result in increased net sales or net income. Furthermore, growth into new areas may require changes to our existing business model and cost structure, modifications to our infrastructure and exposure to new regulatory and legal risks, any of which may require expertise in areas in which we have little or no experience. If we cannot generate revenue as a result of our expansion into new areas that are greater than the cost of such expansion, our operating results could be harmed.

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As a creator and a distributor of Internet content, we face potential liability and expenses for legal claims based on the nature and content of the materials that we create or distribute, or that are accessible via our owned and operated websites and our network of customer websites. If we are required to pay damages or expenses in connection with these legal claims, our operating results and business may be harmed.

          We rely on the work product of freelance content creators to create original content for our owned and operated websites and for our network of customer websites and for use in our marketing messages. As a creator and distributor of original content and third-party provided content, we face potential liability based on a variety of theories, including defamation, negligence, unlawful practice of a licensed profession, copyright or trademark infringement or other legal theories based on the nature, creation or distribution of this information, and under various laws, including the Lanham Act and the Copyright Act. We may also be exposed to similar liability in connection with content that we do not create but that is posted to our owned and operated websites and to our network of customer websites by users and other third parties through forums, comments, personas and other social media features. In addition, it is also possible that visitors to our owned and operated websites and to our network of customer websites could make claims against us for losses incurred in reliance upon information provided on our owned and operated websites or our network of customer websites. These claims, whether brought in the United States or abroad, could divert management time and attention away from our business and result in significant costs to investigate and defend, regardless of the merit of these claims. If we become subject to these or similar types of claims and are not successful in our defense, we may be forced to pay substantial damages. While we run our content through a rigorous quality control process, including an automated plagiarism program, there is no guarantee that we will avoid future liability and potential expenses for legal claims based on the content of the materials that we create or distribute. Should the content distributed through our owned and operated websites and our network of customer websites violate the intellectual property rights of others or otherwise give rise to claims against us, we could be subject to substantial liability, which could have a negative impact on our business, revenue and financial condition.

We may face liability in connection with our undeveloped owned and operated websites and our customers' undeveloped websites whose domain names may be identical or similar to another party's trademark or the name of a living or deceased person.

          A number of our owned and operated websites and our network of customer websites are undeveloped or minimally developed properties that primarily contain advertising listings and links. As part of our registration process, we perform searches and screenings to determine if the domain names of our owned and operated websites in combination with the advertisements displayed on those sites violate the trademark or other rights owned by third parties. Despite these efforts, we may inadvertently register the domain names of properties that are identical or similar to another party's trademark or the name of a living or deceased person. Moreover, our efforts are inherently limited due to the fact that the advertisements displayed on our undeveloped websites are delivered by third parties and the advertisements may vary over time or based on the location of the viewer. We may face primary or secondary liability in the United States under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act or under general theories of trademark infringement or dilution, unfair competition or under rights of publicity with respect to the domain names used for our owned and operated websites. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we could be exposed to claims for damages, financial penalties and reputational harm, which could increase our costs of operations, reduce our profits or cause us to forgo opportunities that would otherwise support our growth.

We may not succeed in establishing our businesses internationally, which may limit our future growth.

          One potential area of growth for us is in the international markets. We have launched sites in the United Kingdom and China, among others and are exploring launches in certain other countries. We

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have also been investing in translation capabilities for our technologies. Operating internationally, where we have limited experience, exposes us to additional risks and operating costs. We cannot be certain that we will be successful in introducing or marketing our services internationally or that our services will gain market acceptance or that growth in commercial use of the Internet internationally will continue. There are risks inherent in conducting business in international markets, including the need to localize our products and services to foreign customers' preferences and customs, difficulties in managing operations due to language barriers, distance, staffing and cultural differences, application of foreign laws and regulations to us, tariffs and other trade barriers, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, establishing management systems and infrastructures, reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries, changes in foreign political and economic conditions, and potentially adverse tax consequences. Our inability to expand and market our products and services internationally may have a negative effect on our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Relating to our Registrar Service Offering

We face significant competition to our Registrar service offering, which we expect will continue to intensify. We may not be able to maintain or improve our competitive position or market share.

          We face significant competition from existing registrars and from new registrars that continue to enter the market. As of June 30, 2010, ICANN had accredited approximately 960 registrars to register domain names in one or more of the generic top level domains, or gTLDs, that it oversees. There are relatively few barriers to entry in this market, so as this market continues to develop we expect the number of competitors to increase. The continued entry into the domain name registration market of competitive registrars and unaccredited entities that act as resellers for registrars, and the rapid growth of some competitive registrars and resellers that have already entered the market, may make it difficult for us to maintain our current market share.

          The market for domain name registration and other related web-based services is intensely competitive and rapidly evolving. We expect competition to increase from existing competitors as well as from new market entrants. Most of our existing competitors are expanding the variety of services that they offer. These competitors include, among others, domain name registrars, website design firms, website hosting companies, Internet service providers, Internet portals and search engine companies, including GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Tucows, Microsoft and Yahoo!. Some of these competitors have greater resources, more brand recognition and consumer awareness, greater international scope, larger customer bases and larger bases of existing customers than we do. As a result, we may not be able to compete successfully against them in future periods.

          In addition, these and other large competitors, in an attempt to gain market share, may offer aggressive price discounts on the services they offer. These pricing pressures may require us to match these discounts in order to remain competitive, which would reduce our margins, or cause us to lose customers who decide to purchase the discounted service offerings of our competitors. As a result of these factors, in the future it may become increasingly difficult for us to compete successfully.

If our customers do not renew their domain name registrations or if they transfer their existing registrations to our competitors and we fail to replace their business, our business would be adversely affected.

          Our success depends in large part on our customers' renewals of their domain name registrations. Domain name registrations represented approximately 41% of total revenue in the year ended December 31, 2009, and approximately 37% of our total revenue in the six months ended June 30, 2010. Our customer renewal rate for expiring domain name registrations was approximately 69% in the year ended December 31, 2009, and approximately 73% in the six months ended June 30, 2010. If we are unable to maintain or increase our overall renewal rates for domain name registrations or if any decrease in our renewal rates, including due to transfers, is not offset by increases in new customer

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growth rates, our customer base and our revenue would likely decrease. This would also reduce the number of domain name registration customers to whom we could market our other higher-margin services, thereby further potentially impacting our revenue and profitability, driving up our customer acquisition costs and harming our operating results. Since our strategy is to expand the number of services we provide to our customers, any decline in renewals of domain name registrations not offset by new domain name registrations would likely have an adverse effect on our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

Regulation could reduce the value of Internet domain names or negatively impact the Internet domain name acquisition process, which could significantly impair the value attributable to our acquisitions of Internet domain names.

          The acquisition of expiring domain names for development, undeveloped website commercialization, sale or other uses, involves the registration of thousands of Internet domain names, both with registries in the United States and internationally. We have and intend to continue to acquire previously-owned Internet domain names that have expired and that, following the period of permitted redemption by their prior owners, have been made available for registration. The acquisition of Internet domain names generally is governed by regulatory bodies. The regulation of Internet domain names in the United States and in foreign countries is subject to change. Regulatory bodies could establish additional requirements for previously-owned Internet domain names or modify the requirements for holding Internet domain names. As a result, we might not acquire or maintain names that contribute to our financial results in the same manner as we currently do. A failure to acquire or maintain such Internet domain names could adversely affect our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

We could face liability, or our corporate image might be impaired, as a result of the activities of our customers or the content of their websites.

          Our role as a registrar of domain names and a provider of website hosting services may subject us to potential liability for illegal activities by our customers on their websites. For example, we are a party to a lawsuit in which a group registered a domain name through our registrar and proceeded to fill the site with content that was allegedly defamatory to another business whose name is similar to the domain name. We provide an automated service that enables users to register domain names and populate websites with content. We do not monitor or review, nor does our accreditation agreement with ICANN require that we monitor or review, the appropriateness of the domain names we register for our customers or the content of our network of customer websites, and we have no control over the activities in which our customers engage. While we have policies in place to terminate domain names or to take other appropriate action if presented with a court order, governmental injunction or evidence of illegal conduct from law enforcement or a trusted industry partner, we have in the past been publicly criticized for not being more proactive in this area by consumer watchdogs and we may encounter similar criticism in the future. This criticism could harm our reputation. Conversely, were we to terminate a domain name registration in the absence of legal compulsion or clear evidence of illegal conduct from a legitimate source, we could be criticized for prematurely and improperly terminating a domain name registered by a customer. In addition, despite the policies we have in place to terminate domain name registrations or to take other appropriate actions, customers could nonetheless engage in prohibited activities.

          For example, we have been criticized for not being more proactive in policing online pharmacies acting in violation of U.S. laws. We recently entered into an agreement with LegitScript, LLC, an Internet pharmacy verification and monitoring service recognized by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, to assist us in identifying customers who are violating our terms of service by operating online pharmacies in violation of U.S. state or federal law. Under that agreement, LegitScript provides

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us a list, updated regularly, of customers using their domain names knowingly to host illegal online pharmacies, allowing us to better enforce our policy of terminating services or taking other appropriate action against customers engaged in illegal activity in violation or our terms of service. In addition, LegitScript has agreed to serve as a resource to us regarding issues concerning drug safety, pharmacy laws and regulations, coordination with law enforcement authorities, and complaints regarding action taken by us against our customers based on information provided by LegitScript. We have agreed to assist LegitScript with its research concerning illegal online pharmacies by providing our expertise in the domain name registrar business. Our agreement with LegitScript may not be sufficient to identify all illegal online pharmacies hosted by our customers, may not protect us from further criticism when our customers engage in illegal activities, will not address any illegal activities other than in the online pharmacy area, and may subject us to complaints or liability if we terminate customer websites mistakenly.

          Several bodies of law may be deemed to apply to us with respect to various customer activities. Because we operate in a relatively new and rapidly evolving industry, and since this field is characterized by rapid changes in technology and in new and growing illegal activity, these bodies of laws are constantly evolving. Some of the laws that apply to us with respect to customer activity include the following:

•

The Communications Decency Act of 1996, or CDA, generally protects online service providers, such as Demand Media, from liability for certain activities of their customers, such as posting of defamatory or obscene content, unless the online service provider is participating in the unlawful conduct. Notwithstanding the general protections from liability under the CDA, we may nonetheless be forced to defend ourselves from claims of liability covered by the CDA, resulting in an increased cost of doing business.



•

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, or DMCA, provides recourse for owners of copyrighted material who believe that their rights under U.S. copyright law have been infringed on the Internet. Under this statute, we generally are not liable for infringing content posted by third parties. However, if we receive a proper notice from a copyright owner alleging infringement of its protected works by web pages for which we provide hosting services, and we fail to expeditiously remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material, fail to post and enforce a digital rights management policy or a policy to terminate accounts of repeat infringers, or otherwise fail to meet the requirements of the safe harbor under the statute, the owner may seek to impose liability on us.

          Although established statutory law and case law in these areas to date generally have shielded us from liability for customer activities, court rulings in pending or future litigation may serve to narrow the scope of protection afforded us under these laws. In addition, laws governing these activities are unsettled in many international jurisdictions, or may prove difficult or impossible for us to comply with in some international jurisdictions. Also, notwithstanding the exculpatory language of these bodies of law, we may be embroiled in complaints and lawsuits which, even if ultimately resolved in our favor, add cost to our doing business and may divert management's time and attention. Finally, other existing bodies of law, including the criminal laws of various states, may be deemed to apply or new statutes or regulations may be adopted in the future, any of which could expose us to further liability and increase our costs of doing business.

We may face liability or become involved in disputes over registration of domain names and control over websites.

          As a domain name registrar, we regularly become involved in disputes over registration of domain names. Most of these disputes arise as a result of a third party registering a domain name that is identical or similar to another party's trademark or the name of a living person. These disputes are

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typically resolved through the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, or UDRP, ICANN's administrative process for domain name dispute resolution, or less frequently through litigation under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, or ACPA, or under general theories of trademark infringement or dilution. The UDRP generally does not impose liability on registrars, and the ACPA provides that registrars may not be held liable for registering or maintaining a domain name absent a showing of bad faith intent to profit or reckless disregard of a court order by the registrars. However, we may face liability if we fail to comply in a timely manner with procedural requirements under these rules. In addition, these processes typically require at least limited involvement by us, and therefore increase our cost of doing business. The volume of domain name registration disputes may increase in the future as the overall number of registered domain names increases.

          Domain name registrars also face potential tort law liability for their role in wrongful transfers of domain names. The safeguards and procedures we have adopted may not be successful in insulating us against liability from such claims in the future. In addition, we face potential liability for other forms of "domain name hijacking," including misappropriation by third parties of our network of customer domain names and attempts by third parties to operate websites on these domain names or to extort the customer whose domain name and website were misappropriated. Furthermore, our risk of incurring liability for a security breach on a customer website would increase if the security breach were to occur following our sale to a customer of an SSL certificate that proved ineffectual in preventing it. Finally, we are exposed to potential liability as a result of our private domain name registration service, wherein we become the domain name registrant, on a proxy basis, on behalf of our customers. While we have a policy of providing the underlying Whois information and reserve the right to cancel privacy services on domain names giving rise to domain name disputes including when we receive reasonable evidence of an actionable harm, the safeguards we have in place may not be sufficient to avoid liability in the future, which could increase our costs of doing business.

We may experience unforeseen liabilities in connection with our acquisitions of Internet domain names or arising out of third-party domain names included in our distribution network, which could negatively impact our financial results.

          We have acquired and intend to continue to acquire in the future additional previously-owned Internet domain names. While we have a policy against acquiring domain names that infringe on third-party intellectual property rights, including trademarks or confusingly similar business names, in some cases, these acquired names may have trademark significance that is not readily apparent to us or is not identified by us in the bulk purchasing process. As a result we may face demands by third-party trademark owners asserting infringement or dilution of their rights and seeking transfer of acquired Internet domain names under the UDRP administered by ICANN or actions under the ACPA. Additionally, we display paid listings on third-party domain names and third-party websites that are part of our distribution network, which also could subject us to a wide variety of civil claims including intellectual property infringement.

          We intend to review each claim or demand which may arise from time to time on a case-by-case basis with the assistance of counsel and we intend to transfer any rights acquired by us to any party that has demonstrated a valid prior right or claim. We cannot, however, guarantee that we will be able to resolve these disputes without litigation. The potential violation of third-party intellectual property rights and potential causes of action under consumer protection laws may subject us to unforeseen liabilities including injunctions and judgments for money damages.

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Our failure to register, maintain, secure, transfer or renew the domain names that we process on behalf of our customers or to provide our other services to our customers without interruption could subject us to additional expenses, claims of loss or negative publicity that have a material adverse effect on our business.

          Clerical errors and system and process failures made by us may result in inaccurate and incomplete information in our database of domain names and in our failure to properly register or to maintain, secure, transfer or renew the registration of domain names that we process on behalf of our customers. In addition, any errors of this type might result in the interruption of our other services. Our failure to properly register or to maintain, secure, transfer or renew the registration of our customers' domain names or to provide our other services without interruption, even if we are not at fault, might result in our incurring significant expenses and might subject us to claims of loss or to negative publicity, which could harm our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

Governmental and regulatory policies or claims concerning the domain name registration system, and industry reactions to those policies or claims, may cause instability in the industry, disrupt our domain name registration business and negatively impact our business.

          ICANN is a private sector, not for profit corporation formed in 1998 for the express purposes of overseeing a number of Internet related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S. government, including managing the domain name registration system. ICANN has been subject to strict scrutiny by the public and by the United States government. For example, in the United States, Congress has held hearings to evaluate ICANN's selection process for new top level domains. In addition, ICANN faces significant questions regarding its financial viability and efficacy as a private sector entity. ICANN may continue to evolve both its long term structure and mission to address perceived shortcomings such as a lack of accountability to the public and a failure to maintain a diverse representation of interests on its board of directors. We continue to face the risks that:

•

the U.S. or any other government may reassess its decision to introduce competition into, or ICANN's role in overseeing, the domain name registration market;



•

the Internet community or the U.S. Department of Commerce or U.S. Congress may refuse to recognize ICANN's authority or support its policies, which could create instability in the domain name registration system;



•

some of ICANN's policies and practices, and the policies and practices adopted by registries and registrars, could be found to conflict with the laws of one or more jurisdictions;



•

the terms of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, under which we are accredited as a registrar, could change in ways that are disadvantageous to us or under certain circumstances could be terminated by ICANN preventing us from operating our Registrar;



•

ICANN and, under their registry agreements, VeriSign and other registries may impose increased fees received for each ICANN accredited registrar and/or domain name registration managed by those registries;



•

international regulatory or governing bodies, such as the International Telecommunications Union or the European Union, may gain increased influence over the management and regulation of the domain name registration system, leading to increased regulation in areas such as taxation and privacy;



•

ICANN or any registries may implement policy changes that would impact our ability to run our current business practices throughout the various stages of the lifecycle of a domain name; and

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•

foreign constituents may succeed in their efforts to have domain name registration removed from a U.S. based entity and placed in the hands of an international cooperative.

          If any of these events occur, they could create instability in the domain name registration system. These events could also disrupt or suspend portions of our domain name registration solution, which would result in reduced revenue.

The relevant domain name registry and the ICANN regulatory body impose a charge upon each registrar for the administration of each domain name registration. If these fees increase, it would have a significant impact upon our operating results.

          Each registry typically imposes a fee in association with the registration of each domain name. For example, the VeriSign registry presently charges a $7.34 fee for each .com registration. ICANN charges a $0.18 fee for each domain name registered in the generic top level domains, or gTLDs, that fall within its purview. We have no control over these agencies and cannot predict when they may increase their respective fees. In terms of the registry agreement between ICANN and VeriSign that was approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce on November 30, 2006, VeriSign will continue as the exclusive registry for the .com gTLD through at least November 30, 2012 and is entitled to increase the fee it receives for each .com domain name once in either 2011 or 2012. Any increase in these fees either must be included in the prices we charge to our service providers, imposed as a surcharge or absorbed by us. If we absorb such cost increases or if surcharges act as a deterrent to registration, we may find that our profits are adversely impacted by these third-party fees.

As the number of available domain names with commercial value diminishes over time, our domain name registration revenue and our overall business could be adversely impacted.

          As the number of domain registrations increases and the number of available domain names with commercial value diminishes over time, and if it is perceived that the more desirable domain names are generally unavailable, fewer Internet users might register domain names with us. If this occurs, it could have an adverse effect on our domain name registration revenue and our overall business.

Risks Relating to our Company

We have a history of operating losses and may not be able to operate profitably or sustain positive cash flow in future periods.

          We were founded in 2006 and have a limited operating history. We have had a net loss in every year since inception. As of June 30, 2010, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $52 million and we may incur net operating losses in the future. Moreover, we anticipate that our cash flows from operating activities in the near term will not be sufficient to fund our investments in the production of content and the purchase of property and equipment, domain names and other intangible assets and may never be. Our business strategy contemplates making substantial investments in our content creation, distribution processes and the development and launch of new products and services, each of which will require significant expenditures. In addition, as a public company, we will incur significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. Our ability to generate net income in the future will depend in large part on our ability to generate and sustain substantially increased revenue levels, while continuing to control our expenses. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including those discussed in other risk factors and factors that we cannot foresee. Our inability to generate net income and positive cash flows would materially and adversely affect our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

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We expect a number of factors to cause our operating results to fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis, which may make it difficult to predict our future performance.

          Our revenue and operating results could vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year and may fail to match our past performance because of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. In particular, our operating expenses are fixed and variable and, to the extent variable, less flexible to manage period-to-period, especially in the short-term. For example, our ability to manage our expenses in the near term period-to-period is affected by our sales and marketing expenses to refer traffic to or promote our owned and operated websites, generally a variable expense which can be managed based on operating performance in the near term. This expense has historically represented a relatively small percentage of our operating expenses. In addition, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. In addition to other risk factors discussed in this section, factors that may contribute to the variability of our quarterly and annual results include:

•

lower than anticipated levels of traffic to our owned and operated websites and to our customers' websites;



•

failure of our content to generate sufficient revenue during its useful life to recover its creation costs, or any changes in the estimated useful life our content;



•

our ability to continue to create and develop content that attracts users to our owned and operated websites and to our network of customer websites that distribute our content;



•

our ability to generate revenue from traffic to our owned and operated websites and to our network of customer websites;



•

our ability to expand our existing distribution network to include emerging and alternative channels, including complementary social media platforms such as Facebook, custom applications for mobile platforms such as the iPhone, Blackberry and Android operating systems, and new types of devices used to access the Internet such as the iPad;



•

our ability to attract and retain sufficient freelance content creators to generate content on a scale sufficient to grow our business;



•

our ability to effectively manage rapid growth in the number of our freelance content creators, direct advertising sales force, in-house personnel and operations;



•

a reduction in the number of domain names under management or in the rate at which this number grows, due to slow growth or contraction in our markets, lower renewal rates or other factors;



•

reductions in the percentage of our domain name registration customers who purchase additional services from us;



•

timing of and revenue recognition for large sales transactions such as significant new contracts for branded advertising;



•

the mix of services sold in a particular period between our Registrar and our Content & Media service offerings;



•

changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors, changes in domain name fees charged to us by Internet registries or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, or other competitive pressures on our prices;



•

the timing and success of new services and technology enhancements introduced by our competitors, which could impact both new customer growth and renewal rates;

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•

the entry of new competitors in our markets;



•

our ability to keep our platform, domain name registration services and our owned and operated websites operational at a reasonable cost and without service interruptions;



•

increased product development expenses relating to the development of new services;



•

the amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures related to the maintenance and expansion of our services, operations and infrastructure;



•

changes in generally accepted accounting principles;



•

our focus on long-term goals over short-term results;



•

federal, state or foreign regulation affecting our business; and



•

weakness or uncertainty in general economic or industry conditions.

          It is possible that in one or more future quarters, due to any of the factors listed above, a combination of those factors or other reasons, our operating results may be below our expectations and the expectations of public market analysts and investors. In that event, the price of our shares of common stock could decline substantially.

Changes in our business model or external developments in our industry could negatively impact our operating margins.

          Our operating margins may experience downward pressure as a result of increasing competition and increased expenditures for many aspects of our business, including expenses related to content creation. For example, historically, we have paid substantially all of our freelance content creators upon the creation of text articles and videos, rather than on a revenue share basis, and we capitalize these payments. However, if we increase the use of revenue sharing arrangements to compensate our freelance content creators, our operating margins may suffer if such revenue-share payments exceed our amortization expense on comparably performing content. In addition, we intend to enter into additional revenue sharing arrangements with our customers which could cause our operating margins to experience downward pressure if a greater percentage of our revenue comes from advertisements placed on our network of customer websites compared to advertisements placed on our owned and operated websites. Additionally, the percentage of advertising fees that we pay to our customers may increase, which would reduce the margin we earn on revenue generated from those customers.

Our recent revenue growth rate may not be sustainable.

          Our revenue increased rapidly in each of the fiscal years ended December 31, 2007 through December 31, 2009. However, our revenue growth rate could decline in the future as a result of a number of factors, including increasing competition and the decline in growth rates as our revenue increases to higher levels. We may not be able to sustain our revenue growth rate in future periods and you should not rely on the revenue growth of any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future performance. If our future growth fails to meet investor or analyst expectations, it could have a materially negative effect on our stock price. If our growth rate were to decline significantly or become negative, it would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we do not effectively manage our growth, our operating performance will suffer and we may lose consumers, advertisers, customers and freelance content creators.

          We have experienced rapid growth in our operations, and we expect to experience continued growth in our business, both through internal growth and potential acquisitions. For example, our employee headcount has grown from approximately 360 to approximately 550 in the thirty months

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ended June 30, 2010. During this same period, the number of freelance content creators affiliated with us has grown to over 10,000. This growth has placed, and will continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. In particular, continued rapid growth may make it more difficult for us to accomplish the following:

•

successfully scale our technology and infrastructure to support a larger business;



•

continue to grow our platform at scale and distribute through our new and existing properties while successfully monetizing our content;



•

maintain our standing with key advertisers as well as Internet search companies and our network of customer websites;



•

maintain our customer service standards;



•

develop and improve our operational, financial and management controls and maintain adequate reporting systems and procedures;



•

acquire and integrate websites and other businesses;



•

successfully expand our footprint in our existing areas of consumer interest and enter new areas of consumer interest; and



•

respond effectively to competition and potential negative effects of competition on profit margins.

          In addition, our personnel, systems, procedures and controls may be inadequate to support our current and future operations. The improvements required to manage our growth will require us to make significant expenditures, expand, train and manage our employee base and allocate valuable management resources. If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our operating performance will suffer and we may lose our advertisers, customers and key personnel.

If we do not continue to innovate and provide products and services that are useful to our customers, we may not remain competitive, and our revenue and operating results could suffer.

          Our success depends on our ability to innovate and provide products and services useful to our customers in both our Content & Media and Registrar service offerings. Our competitors are constantly developing innovations in content creation and distribution as well as in domain name registration and related services, such as web hosting, email and website creation solutions. As a result, we must continue to invest significant resources in product development in order to maintain and enhance our existing products and services and introduce new products and services that deliver a sufficient return on investment and that our customers can easily and effectively use. If we are unable to provide quality products and services, we may lose consumers, advertisers, customers and freelance content creators, and our revenue and operating results would suffer. Our operating results would also suffer if our innovations are not responsive to the needs of our customers and our advertisers, are not appropriately timed with market opportunities or are not effectively brought to market.

We may have difficulty scaling and adapting our existing technology and network infrastructure to accommodate increased traffic and technology advances or changing business requirements, which could lead to the loss of consumers, advertisers, customers and freelance content creators, and cause us to incur expenses to make architectural changes.

          To be successful, our network infrastructure has to perform well and be reliable. The greater the user traffic and the greater the complexity of our products and services, the more computing power we will need. In the future, we may spend substantial amounts to purchase or lease data centers and equipment, upgrade our technology and network infrastructure to handle increased traffic on our

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owned and operated websites and roll out new products and services. This expansion could be expensive and complex and could result in inefficiencies or operational failures. If we do not implement this expansion successfully, or if we experience inefficiencies and operational failures during its implementation, the quality of our products and services and our users' experience could decline. This could damage our reputation and lead us to lose current and potential consumers, advertisers, customers and freelance content creators. The costs associated with these adjustments to our architecture could harm our operating results. Cost increases, loss of traffic or failure to accommodate new technologies or changing business requirements could harm our business, revenue and financial condition.

We rely on technology infrastructure and a failure to update or maintain this technology infrastructure could adversely affect our business.

          Significant portions of our content, products and services are dependent on technology infrastructure that was developed over multiple years. Updating and replacing our technology infrastructure may be challenging to implement and manage, may take time to test and deploy, may cause us to incur substantial costs and may cause us to suffer data loss or delays or interruptions in service. These delays or interruptions in our service may cause our consumers, advertisers, customers and freelance content creators to become dissatisfied with our offerings and could adversely affect our business. Failure to update our technology infrastructure as new technologies become available may also put us in a weaker position relative to a number of our key competitors. Competitors with newer technology infrastructure may have greater flexibility and be in a position to respond more quickly than us to new opportunities, which may impact our competitive position in certain markets and adversely affect our business.

We are currently expanding and improving our information technology systems. If these implementations are not successful, our business and operations could be disrupted and our operating results could suffer.

          We recently deployed the first phase of our enterprise reporting system, Oracle Applications ERP and Platform, to assist us in the management of our financial data and reporting, as well as to automate certain business wide processes and internal controls. We anticipate that this system will be a long-term investment and that the addition of future build-outs, customizations and/or applications associated with this system will require significant management time, support and cost. Moreover, there are inherent risks associated with developing, improving and expanding information systems. We cannot be sure that the expansion of any of our systems, including our Oracle system, will be fully or effectively implemented on a timely basis, if at all. If we do not successfully implement informational systems on a timely basis or at all, our operations may be disrupted and or our operating results could suffer. In addition, any new information system deployments may not operate as we expect them to, and we may be required to expend significant resources to correct problems or find alternative sources for performing these functions.

Changes in regulations or user concerns regarding privacy and protection of user data, or any failure to comply with such laws, could diminish the value of our services and cause us to lose customers and revenue.

          When a user visits our websites or certain pages of our customers' websites, we use technologies, including "cookies," to collect information related to the user, such as the user's Internet Protocol, or IP, address, demographic information, and history of the user's interactions with advertisements previously delivered by us. The information that we collect about users helps us deliver appropriate content and targeted advertising to the user. A variety of federal, state and international laws and regulations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of data that we receive from and about our users. The existing privacy-related laws and regulations are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations. We post privacy policies on all of our owned and operated websites

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which set forth our policies and practices related to the collection and use of consumer data. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or with industry standards or laws or regulations could result in a loss of consumer confidence in us, or result in actions against us by governmental entities or others, all of which could potentially cause us to lose consumers and revenues.

          In addition, various federal, state and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies may expand current or enact new laws regarding privacy matters. Recent developments related to "instant personalization" and similar technologies potentially allow us and other publishers access to even broader and more detailed information about users. These developments have led to greater scrutiny of industry data collection practices by regulators and privacy advocates. New laws may be enacted, or existing laws may be amended or re-interpreted, in a manner which limits our ability to analyze user data. If our access to user data is limited through legislation or any industry development, we may be unable to provide effective technologies and services to customers and we may lose customers and revenue.

We depend on key personnel to operate our business, and if we are unable to retain our current personnel or hire additional personnel, our ability to develop and successfully market our business could be harmed.

          We believe that our future success is highly dependent on the contributions of our executive officers, in particular the contributions of our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Richard M. Rosenblatt, as well as our ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, sales, technical and finance personnel. We do not maintain "key person" life insurance policies for our Chief Executive Officer or any of our executive officers. Qualified individuals are in high demand, and we may incur significant costs to attract them. All of our officers and other employees are at-will employees, which means they may terminate their employment relationship with us at any time, and their knowledge of our business and industry would be extremely difficult to replace. If we are unable to attract and retain our executive officers and key employees, our business, operating results and financial condition will be harmed.

          Volatility or lack of performance in our stock price may also affect our ability to attract employees and retain our key employees. Our executive officers have become, or will soon become, vested in a substantial amount of stock or stock options. Employees may be more likely to leave us if the shares they own or the shares underlying their options have significantly appreciated in value relative to the original purchase prices of the shares or the exercise prices of the options, or if the exercise prices of the options that they hold are significantly above the market price of our common stock.

Our industry is undergoing rapid change, and our business model is also evolving, which makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects and may increase the risk of your investment.

          We derive a significant portion of our revenue from the sale of advertising on the Internet, which is an evolving industry that, in its short history, has undergone rapid and dramatic changes in industry standards and consumer and customer demands. For example, devices through which consumers are accessing information, the types of information being delivered and the types of websites through which consumers access information are all in a rapid state of change. Our business model is also evolving and is distinct from many other companies in our industry, and it may not be successful. In addition, the ways in which online advertisements are delivered are also rapidly changing. For example, an increasing percentage of advertisements are being delivered through social media websites such as Facebook. While we sell social media tools, we currently do not operate any properties that are solely social media sites. If advertisers determine that their yields on such social media sites significantly outstrip their return on other types of websites, such as eHow, our results could be impacted. We need

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to continually evolve our services and the way we deliver them to keep up with such changes to remain relevant to our customers. We may not be able to do so.

The interruption or failure of our information technology and communications systems, or those of third parties that we rely upon, may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

          The availability of our products and services depends on the continuing operation of our information technology and communications systems. Any damage to or failure of our systems, or those of third parties that we rely upon (co-location providers for data servers, storage devices, and network access) could result in interruptions in our service, which could reduce our revenue and profits, and damage our brand. Our systems are also vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, terrorist attacks, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses or other attempts to harm our systems. We, and in particular our Registrar, have experienced an increasing number of computer distributed denial of service attacks which have forced us to shut down certain of our websites, including eNom.com. We have implemented certain defenses against these attacks, but we may continue to be subject to such attacks, and future denial of service attacks may cause all or portions of our websites to become unavailable. In addition, some of our data centers are located in areas with a high risk of major earthquakes. Our data centers are also subject to break-ins, sabotage and intentional acts of vandalism, and to potential disruptions if the operators of these facilities have financial difficulties. Some of our systems are not fully redundant, and our disaster recovery planning is currently underdeveloped and does not account for all eventualities. The occurrence of a natural disaster, a decision to close a facility we are using without adequate notice for financial reasons or other unanticipated problems at our data centers could result in lengthy interruptions in our service.

          Furthermore, third-party service providers may experience an interruption in operations or cease operations for any reason. If we are unable to agree on satisfactory terms for continued data center hosting relationships, we would be forced to enter into a relationship with other service providers or assume hosting responsibilities ourselves. If we are forced to switch hosting facilities, we may not be successful in finding an alternative service provider on acceptable terms or in hosting the computer servers ourselves. We may also be limited in our remedies against these providers in the event of a failure of service. We also rely on third-party providers for components of our technology platform, such as hardware and software providers. A failure or limitation of service or available capacity by any of these third-party providers could adversely affect our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

If our security measures are breached and unauthorized access is obtained to a user's or freelance content creator's data, our service may be perceived as not being secure and customers may curtail or stop using our service.

          Our Content & Media and Registrar service offerings involve the storage and transmission of users', Registrar customers' and our freelance content creators' personal information, such as names, social security numbers, addresses, email addresses and credit card and bank account numbers, and security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss of this information, litigation and possible liability. Our payment services may be susceptible to credit card and other payment fraud schemes, including unauthorized use of credit cards, debit cards or bank account information, identity theft or merchant fraud.

          As nearly all of our products and services are Internet based, the amount of data we store for our users on our servers (including personal information) has increased. If our security measures are breached or our systems fail in the future as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, and as a result, someone obtains unauthorized access to our users' and our freelance content creators' data, our reputation and brands will be damaged, the adoption of our products and services could be severely limited, our business may suffer and we could incur significant liability.

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Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. We may also need to expend significant resources to protect against security breaches, including encrypting personal information, or remedy breaches after they occur, including notifying each person whose personal data may have been compromised. The risk that these types of events could seriously harm our business is likely to increase as we expand the number of Internet-based products and services we offer as well as increase the number of countries where we operate. If an actual or perceived breach of our security measures occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures and our reputation could be harmed and we could lose sales, advertisers, freelance content creators and customers and potentially face costly litigation.

If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property rights, our competitive position and business may suffer.

          Our intellectual property, consisting of trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights and patents, is, in the aggregate, important to our business. We rely on a combination of trade secret, trademark, copyright and patent laws in the United States and other jurisdictions together with confidentiality agreements and technical measures to protect our proprietary rights. As of August 31, 2010, we have been granted eight patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, and we have 16 patent applications pending in the United States and other jurisdictions. Our patents expire between 2021 and 2027. We rely more heavily on trade secret protection than patent protection. To protect our trade secrets, we control access to our proprietary systems and technology and enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and confidentiality agreements with other third parties. Effective trade secret, copyright, trademark and patent protection may not be available in all countries where we currently operate or in which we may operate in the future. Some of our systems and technologies are not covered by any copyright, patent or patent application and, because of the relatively high cost we would experience in registering all of our copyrights with the United States Copyright Office, we generally do not register the copyrights associated with our content. We cannot guarantee that:

•

our intellectual property rights will provide competitive advantages to us;



•

our ability to assert our intellectual property rights against potential competitors or to settle current or future disputes will not be limited by our agreements with third parties;



•

our intellectual property rights will be enforced in jurisdictions where competition may be intense or where legal protection may be weak;



•

any of the patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets or other intellectual property rights that we presently employ in our business will not lapse or be invalidated, circumvented, challenged or abandoned;



•

competitors will not design around our protected systems and technology; or



•

we will not lose the ability to assert our intellectual property rights against others.

          We have from time to time become aware of third parties who we believe may have infringed or are infringing on our intellectual property rights. The use of our intellectual property rights by others could reduce any competitive advantage we have developed and cause us to lose advertisers and website publishers or otherwise cause harm to our business. Policing unauthorized use of our proprietary rights can be difficult and costly. In addition, it may be necessary to enforce or protect our intellectual property rights through litigation or to defend litigation brought against us, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention and could adversely affect our business, even if we are successful on the merits.

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Confidentiality agreements with employees, consultants and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary information.

          We have devoted substantial resources to the development of our proprietary systems and technology. Although we enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, independent contractors and other advisors, these agreements may not effectively prevent or provide remedies for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information or unauthorized parties from copying aspects of our services or obtaining and using information that we regard as proprietary. Others may independently discover or develop trade secrets and proprietary information, and in such cases we may not be able to assert any trade secret rights against such parties. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could reduce any competitive advantage we have and cause us to lose customers and advertisers, or otherwise cause harm to our business.

Third parties may sue us for intellectual property infringement or misappropriation which, if successful, could require us to pay significant damages or curtail our offerings.

          We cannot be certain that our internally-developed or acquired systems and technologies do not and will not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. In addition, we license content, software and other intellectual property rights from third parties and may be subject to claims of infringement or misappropriation if such parties do not possess the necessary intellectual property rights to the products or services they license to us. We have in the past and may in the future be subject to legal proceedings and claims that we have infringed the patent or other intellectual property rights of a third party. These claims sometimes involve patent holding companies or other patent owners who have no relevant product revenue and against whom our own patents may provide little or no deterrence. In addition, third parties may in the future assert intellectual property infringement claims against our customers, which we have agreed in certain circumstances to indemnify and defend against such claims. Any intellectual property-related infringement or misappropriation claims, whether or not meritorious, could result in costly litigation and could divert management resources and attention. Moreover, should we be found liable for infringement or misappropriation, we may be required to enter into licensing agreements, if available on acceptable terms or at all, pay substantial damages or limit or curtail our systems and technologies. Also, any successful lawsuit against us could subject us to the invalidation of our proprietary rights. Moreover, we may need to redesign some of our systems and technologies to avoid future infringement liability. Any of the foregoing could prevent us from competing effectively and increase our costs.

Certain U.S. and foreign laws could subject us to claims or otherwise harm our business.

          We are subject to a variety of laws in the U.S. and abroad that may subject us to claims or other remedies. Our failure to comply with applicable laws may subject us to additional liabilities, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Laws and regulations that are particularly relevant to our business address:

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privacy;



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freedom of expression;



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information security;



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pricing, fees and taxes;



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content and the distribution of content, including liability for user reliance on such content;



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intellectual property rights, including secondary liability for infringement by others;



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taxation;

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•

domain name registration; and



•

online advertising and marketing, including email marketing and unsolicited commercial email.

          Many applicable laws were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet and do not contemplate or address the unique issues of the Internet. Moreover, the applicability and scope of the laws that do address the Internet remain uncertain. For example, the laws relating to the liability of providers of online services are evolving. Claims have been either threatened or filed against us under both U.S. and foreign laws for defamation, copyright infringement, cybersquatting and trademark infringement. In the future, claims may also be alleged against us based on tort claims and other theories based on our content, products and services or content generated by our users.

          We receive, process and store large amounts of personal data of users on our owned and operated websites and from our freelance content creators. Our privacy and data security policies govern the collection, use, sharing, disclosure and protection of this data. The storing, sharing, use, disclosure and protection of personal information and user data are subject to federal, state and international privacy laws, the purpose of which is to protect the privacy of personal information that is collected, processed and transmitted in or from the governing jurisdiction. If requirements regarding the manner in which certain personal information and other user data are processed and stored change significantly, our business may be adversely affected, impacting our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we may be exposed to potential liabilities as a result of differing views on the level of privacy required for consumer and other user data we collect. We may also need to expend significant resources to protect against security breaches, including encrypting personal information, or remedy breaches after they occur, including notifying each person whose personal data may have been compromised. Our failure or the failure of various third-party vendors and service providers to comply with applicable privacy policies or applicable laws and regulations or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release of personal information or other user data could adversely affect our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

          Our business operations in countries outside the United States are subject to a number of United States federal laws and regulations, including restrictions imposed by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, as well as trade sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, and the Commerce Department. The FCPA is intended to prohibit bribery of foreign officials or parties and requires public companies in the United States to keep books and records that accurately and fairly reflect those companies' transactions. OFAC and the Commerce Department administer and enforce economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign states, organizations and individuals.

          If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we could be exposed to claims for damages, financial penalties, reputational harm, incarceration of our employees or restrictions on our operations, which could increase our costs of operations, reduce our profits or cause us to forgo opportunities that would otherwise support our growth.

We are subject to a number of risks related to credit card payments we accept. If we fail to be in compliance with applicable credit card rules and regulations, we may incur additional fees, fines and ultimately the revocation of the right to accept credit card payments, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

          Many of the customers of our Content & Media and Registrar service offerings pay amounts owed to us using a credit card or debit card. For credit and debit card payments, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating expenses and adversely affect our net income. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules, certification requirements and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. We believe we are compliant with the Payment Card Industry

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Data Security Standard, which incorporates Visa's Cardholder Information Security Program and MasterCard's Site Data Protection standard. However, there is no guarantee that we will maintain such compliance or that compliance will prevent illegal or improper use of our payment system. If we fail to comply with these rules or requirements, we may be subject to fines and higher transaction fees and lose our ability to accept credit and debit card payments from our customers. A failure to adequately control fraudulent credit card transactions would result in significantly higher credit card-related costs and could have a material adverse effect on our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

New tax treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce may adversely affect the commercial use of our marketing services and our financial results.

          Due to the global nature of the Internet, it is possible that, although our services and the Internet transmissions related to them originate in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia and the Netherlands, governments of other states or foreign countries might attempt to regulate our transmissions or levy sales, income or other taxes relating to our activities. Tax authorities at the international, federal, state and local levels are currently reviewing the appropriate treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce. New or revised international, federal, state or local tax regulations may subject us or our customers to additional sales, income and other taxes. We cannot predict the effect of current attempts to impose sales, income or other taxes on commerce over the Internet. New or revised taxes and, in particular, sales taxes, would likely increase the cost of doing business online and decrease the attractiveness of advertising and selling goods and services over the Internet. New taxes could also create significant increases in internal costs necessary to capture data, and collect and remit taxes. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

A reclassification of our freelance content creators from independent contractors to employees by tax authorities could require us to pay retroactive taxes and penalties and significantly increase our cost of operations.

          As of June 30, 2010, we contracted with over 10,000 freelance content creators as independent contractors to create content for our owned and operated websites and for our network of customer websites. Because we consider our freelance content creators with whom we contract to be independent contractors, as opposed to employees, we do not withhold federal or state income or other employment related taxes, make federal or state unemployment tax or Federal Insurance Contributions Act payments, or provide workers' compensation insurance with respect to such freelance content creators. Our contracts with our independent contractor freelance content creators obligate these freelance content creators to pay these taxes. The classification of freelance content creators as independent contractors depends on the facts and circumstances of the relationship. In the event of a determination by federal or state taxing authorities that the freelance content creators engaged as independent contractors are employees, we may be adversely affected and subject to retroactive taxes and penalties. In addition, if it was determined that our content creators were employees, the costs associated with content creation would increase significantly and our financial results would be adversely affected.

We rely on outside providers for our billing, collection, payment processing and payroll. If these outside service providers are not able to fulfill their service obligations, our business and operations could be disrupted, and our operating results could be harmed.

          Outside providers perform various functions for us, such as billing, collection, payment processing and payroll. These functions are critical to our operations and involve sensitive interactions between us and our advertisers, customers and employees. Although in some instances we have implemented service level agreements and have established monitoring controls, if we do not successfully manage our service providers or if the service providers do not perform satisfactorily to agreed-upon service levels,

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our operations could be disrupted resulting in advertiser, customer or employee dissatisfaction. In addition, our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our credit facility with a syndicate of commercial banks contains financial and other restrictive covenants which, if breached, could result in the acceleration of our outstanding indebtedness.

          Our existing credit facility with a syndicate of commercial banks contains financial covenants that require, among other things, that we maintain a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio and a maximum net senior leverage ratio. In addition, our credit facility with a syndicate of commercial banks contains covenants restricting our ability to, among other things:

•

incur additional debt or incur or permit to exist certain liens;



•

pay dividends or make other distributions or payments on capital stock;



•

make investments and acquisitions;



•

enter into transactions with affiliates; and



•

transfer or sell our assets.

          These covenants could adversely affect our ability to finance our future operations or capital needs or to pursue available business opportunities, including acquisitions. A breach of any of these covenants could result in a default and acceleration of our indebtedness. Furthermore, if the syndicate is unwilling to waive certain covenants, we may be forced to amend our credit facility on terms less favorable than current terms or enter into new financing arrangements. As of June 30, 2010, we had no indebtedness outstanding under this facility.

We may need additional funding to meet our obligations and to pursue our business strategy. Additional funding may not be available to us and our financial condition could therefore be adversely affected.

          We may require additional funding to meet our ongoing obligations and to pursue our business strategy, which may include the selective acquisition of businesses and technologies. There can be no assurance that if we were to need additional funds that additional financing arrangements would be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Furthermore, if adequate additional funds are not available, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate material parts of the implementation of our business strategy, including potential additional acquisitions or internally-developed businesses.

We have made and may make additional acquisitions that could entail significant execution, integration and operational risks.

          We have made numerous acquisitions in the past and our future growth may depend, in part, on acquisitions of complementary websites, businesses, solutions or technologies rather than internal development. We may consider making acquisitions in the future to increase the scope of our business domestically and internationally. The identification of suitable acquisition candidates can be difficult, time-consuming and costly, and we may not be able to successfully complete identified acquisitions. If we are unable to identify suitable future acquisition opportunities, reach agreement with such parties or obtain the financing necessary to make such acquisitions, we could lose market share to competitors who are able to make such acquisitions. This loss of market share could negatively impact our business, revenue and future growth.

          Furthermore, even if we successfully complete an acquisition, we may not be able to successfully assimilate and integrate the websites, business, technologies, solutions, personnel or operations of the company that we acquired, particularly if key personnel of an acquired company decide not to work for

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us. In addition, we may incur indebtedness to complete an acquisition, which would increase our costs and impose operational limitations, or issue equity securities, which would dilute our stockholders' ownership and could adversely affect the price of our common stock. We may also unknowingly inherit liabilities from previous or future acquisitions that arise after the acquisition and are not adequately covered by indemnities.

Impairment in the carrying value of goodwill or long-lived assets could negatively impact our consolidated results of operations and net worth.

          Goodwill represents the excess of cost of an acquired entity over the fair value of the acquired net assets. Goodwill is not amortized, but is reviewed for impairment at least annually or more frequently if impairment indicators are present. In general, long-lived assets are only reviewed for impairment if impairment indicators are present. In assessing goodwill and long-lived assets for impairment, we make significant estimates and assumptions, including estimates and assumptions about market penetration, anticipated growth rates and risk-adjusted discount rates based on our budgets, business plans, economic projections, anticipated future cash flows and industry data. Some of the estimates and assumptions used by management have a high degree of subjectivity and require significant judgment on the part of management. Changes in estimates and assumptions in the context of our impairment testing may have a material impact on us, and any potential impairment charges could substantially affect our financial results in the periods of such charges.

The impact of worldwide economic conditions may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

          Our performance is subject to worldwide economic conditions. We believe that the current recession has adversely affected our business. To the extent that the current economic recession continues, or worldwide economic conditions materially deteriorate, our existing and potential advertisers and customers may no longer use our content or register domain names through our Registrar service offering, or our advertisers may elect to reduce advertising budgets. Historically, economic downturns have resulted in overall reductions in advertising spending. In particular, online advertising may be viewed by some of our existing and potential advertisers and customers as a lower priority and may be among the first expenditures reduced as a result of unfavorable economic conditions. These developments could have an adverse effect on our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Relating to Owning Our Common Stock

An active, liquid and orderly market for our common stock may not develop or be sustained, and the trading price of our common stock is likely to be volatile.

          Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for shares of our common stock. An active trading market for our common stock may not develop or be sustained, which could depress the market price of our common stock and could affect your ability to sell your shares. The initial public offering price will be determined through negotiations between us and the representatives of the underwriters and may bear no relationship to the price at which our common stock will trade following the completion of this offering. The trading price of our common stock following this offering is likely to be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. In addition to the factors discussed in this "Risk Factors" section and elsewhere in this prospectus, these factors include:

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our operating performance and the operating performance of similar companies;



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the overall performance of the equity markets;

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the number of shares of our common stock publicly owned and available for trading;



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threatened or actual litigation;



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changes in laws or regulations relating to our solutions;



•

any major change in our board of directors or management;



•

publication of research reports about us or our industry or changes in recommendations or withdrawal of research coverage by securities analysts;



•

large volumes of sales of our shares of common stock by existing stockholders; and



•

general political and economic conditions.

          In addition, the stock market in general, and the market for Internet-related companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. These fluctuations may be even more pronounced in the trading market for our stock shortly following this offering. Securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the overall market and in the market price of a company's securities. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in very substantial costs, divert our management's attention and resources and harm our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, the recent distress in the financial markets has also resulted in extreme volatility in security prices.

The large number of shares eligible for public sale or subject to rights requiring us to register them for public sale could depress the market price of our common stock.

          The market price of our common stock could decline as a result of sales of a large number of shares of our common stock in the market after this offering, and the perception that these sales could occur may also depress the market price of our common stock. Based on shares outstanding as of June 30, 2010, we will have             shares of common stock outstanding after this offering. This number is comprised of all the shares of our common stock that we are selling in this offering, which may be resold immediately in the public market. The holders of            shares of outstanding common stock have agreed with the underwriters, subject to certain exceptions, not to dispose of or hedge any of their common stock until 180-days following the date of this prospectus, except with the prior written consent each of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated. After the expiration of the 180-day restricted period, these shares may be sold in the public market in the United States, subject to prior registration in the United States, if required, or reliance upon an exemption from U.S. registration, including, in the case of shares held by affiliates or control persons, compliance with the volume restrictions of Rule 144.

          Any of the participants in the directed share program will also be subject to a lock-up period for 180 days following the date of this prospectus.

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          Following the date that is 180 days after the completion of this offering, stockholders owning an aggregate of                        shares will be entitled, under contracts providing for registration rights, to require us to register shares of our common stock owned by them for public sale in the United States, subject to the restrictions of Rule 144. In addition, we intend to file a registration statement to register the approximately                        shares previously issued or reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans and agreements. Upon effectiveness of that registration statement, subject to the satisfaction of applicable exercise periods and, in certain cases, lock-up agreements with the representatives of the underwriters referred to above, the shares of common stock issued upon exercise of outstanding options will be available for immediate resale in the United States in the open market.

          Sales of our common stock as restrictions end or pursuant to registration rights may make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. These sales also could cause our stock price to fall and make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our common stock.

          We also may issue our shares of common stock from time to time as consideration for future acquisitions and investments. If any such acquisition or investment is significant, the number of shares that we may issue may in turn be significant. In addition, we may also grant registration rights covering those shares in connection with any such acquisitions and investments.

Investors purchasing common stock in this offering will experience immediate and substantial dilution.

          The assumed initial public offering price of our common stock is substantially higher than the net tangible book value per outstanding share of our common stock immediately after this offering. As a result, you will pay a price per share that substantially exceeds the book value of our tangible assets after subtracting our liabilities. Purchasers of our common stock in this offering will incur immediate and substantial dilution of $        per share in the net tangible book value of our common stock based upon an assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, which is the mid-point of the range set forth on the cover of this prospectus. If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares, there will be an additional dilution of $        per share in the net tangible book value of our common stock, assuming the same public offering price.

As a result of becoming a public company, we will be obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting and will be subject to other requirements that will be burdensome and costly. We may not complete our analysis of our internal controls over financial reporting in a timely manner, or these internal controls may not be determined to be effective, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common stock.

          We will be required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for the first fiscal year beginning after the effective date of this offering. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting, as well as a statement that our auditors have issued an attestation report on our management's assessment of our internal controls.

          We are just beginning the costly and challenging process of compiling the system and processing documentation before we perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404. We may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion. During the evaluation and testing process, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control is effective. If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our auditors are unable to attest that our management's report is fairly stated or they are unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and

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completeness of our financial reports, which would have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Failure to comply with the new rules might make it more difficult for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we might be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage and/or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. The impact of these events could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, on committees of our board of directors, or as executive officers.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

          The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on our company. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price for our stock would likely be negatively impacted. In the event securities or industry analysts initiate coverage, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends, and accordingly, stockholders must rely on stock appreciation for any return on their investment.

          The terms of our credit agreement currently prohibit us from paying cash dividends on our common stock. In addition, we do not anticipate paying cash dividends in the future. As a result, only appreciation of the price of our common stock, which may never occur, will provide a return to stockholders. Investors seeking cash dividends should not invest in our common stock.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of the proceeds we receive in this offering and might not apply the proceeds in ways that increase the value of your investment.

          Our management will generally have broad discretion to use the net proceeds to us from this offering, and you will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of these proceeds. Our management might not apply the net proceeds from this offering in ways that increase the value of your investment. We expect that we will use the net proceeds of this offering for investments in content, working capital, product development, sales and marketing activities, general and administrative matters, capital expenditures and international expansion. We have not otherwise allocated the net proceeds from this offering for any specific purposes. Until we use the net proceeds to us from this offering, we plan to invest them, and these investments may not yield a favorable rate of return. If we do not invest or apply the net proceeds from this offering in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Certain provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage takeover attempts and lead to management entrenchment.

          Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will contain provisions that could have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of our board of directors, including, among other things:

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a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, which may delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our board of directors;

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•

no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;



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the ability of our board of directors to determine to issue shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;



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the exclusive right of our board of directors to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of our board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;



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a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders;



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the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by the chairman of our board of directors, the Chief Executive Officer, the president (in absence of a Chief Executive Officer) or our board of directors, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;



•

the requirement for the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 ² / 3 % of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of the voting stock, voting together as a single class, to amend the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation relating to the issuance of preferred stock and management of our business or our amended and restated bylaws, which may inhibit the ability of an acquiror from amending our certificate of incorporation or bylaws to facilitate a hostile acquisition;



•

the ability of our board of directors, by majority vote, to amend the bylaws, which may allow our board of directors to take additional actions to prevent a hostile acquisition and inhibit the ability of an acquiror from amending the bylaws to facilitate a hostile acquisition; and



•

advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders' meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquiror from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquiror's own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.

          We are also subject to certain anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law. Under Delaware law, a corporation may not, in general, engage in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other things, our board of directors has approved the transaction.

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