Static Media Inc., the business name of 7Hops.com Inc., is an American internet company established in 2012, incorporated in Delaware, and based in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

. It operates ZergNet, a content recommendation business that promotes paid content across their network of brands. Most sites that the company owns use the same website model and design, sometimes dubbed "

infinite scroll Infinite scrolling, also known as endless scrolling, is an approach to web design where new material is continually dynamically added to the bottom of the page as the user scrolls downward, leading to the apparent ability to scroll forever. This i ...

", whereby content is loaded continuously as the user scrolls down. For example, scrolling down on the homepage loads more articles in perpetuity (until the user reaches the very first article written for the site). Scrolling down on individual articles also does not reach the page footer, instead loading a different, related article, so the user can continue reading content from the site indefinitely without needing to click a new link. This is also called "infinite-content pages" or "endless pages". The title of one of the brands, Looper, refers to this design.

ZergNet

Established around 2011, ZergNet's business model, being paid to place links in third-party online articles at the bottom of ZergNet pages, has been compared to the business model of

Outbrain Outbrain is a web recommendation platform founded in 2006 by co-founder and Co-CEO Yaron Galai and co-founder, Chief Technology Officer and General Manager, Ori Lahav. The company is headquartered in New York City. In February 2024, Yaron Gala ...

Taboola Taboola, Inc. is a Public company, publicly traded advertising and technology company headquartered in New York City. It provides "content recommendation" adverts on its partner websites. History Taboola was founded in 2007 by Adam Singolda. The ...

, and others. The company's investors include

Mark Cuban Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American businessman and television personality. He is the former principal owner and current minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and co-owner of 2929 Entertain ...

and

Greycroft Partners Greycroft LP is an American venture capital firm. It manages over $3 billion in capital with investments in companies such as Bird, Bumble, HuffPost, Goop, Scopely, The RealReal, and Venmo. Greycroft was founded in 2006 by Alan Patricof, Dan ...

Owned or associated websites

Static Media owns and promotes the following entertainment websites: *

Chowhound Chowhound (or chowhound.com) is an American based food website launched in 1997. It changed ownership in 2006 and 2020, with its third owner suspending the website in March 2022. In October 2023, Static Media purchased the operation, reactivatin ...

– food history, recipes, and cooking tips * Cuteness – pet information and tips * Explore – travel news and tips * ''

/Film ''/Film'', also spelled ''SlashFilm'', is a blog that covers movie news, reviews, interviews, and trailers. It was founded by Peter Sciretta in August 2005. The site's reviews appear on Rotten Tomatoes, and as of 2024, two of its leading film cr ...

'' – film news and reviews * Food Republic – food news, recipes, tips, and reviews * Foodie – food news and cooking tips * Glam.com – beauty, fashion, wellness, and women's lifestyle * Grunge – history, entertainment, science, and sports * Health Digest – health news * House Digest – home improvement, decor, DIY, and tips * Hunker – home improvement, cleaning, lifestyle, and decor * Islands – travel news and tips * Jalopnik – automotive news and opinion * Looper – film, television, and video game news and reviews * Mashed – food discussion * ''Money Digest'' – finance * Nicki Swift – celebrity gossip * Outdoor Guide – outdoor living guides * Sciencing – science, math, and technology * SlashGear – personal technology and digital lifestyle trends * SVG – video game news and discussion *

Tasting Table Tasting Table (incorporated as TDT Media Inc.) is an American digital media company focused on food and drink. The brand's website and email newsletter report on food and drink trends in the categories of dining, wine, cocktails, cooking, and fo ...

– food and recipes *

The Daily Meal The Daily Meal is a food and drinks website. Launched in October 2010, it was the first site launched by Spanfeller Media Group, founded by former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller. In 2016, The Daily Meal, along with Spanfeller Media Group, was ac ...

– food and drinks * The List – women's lifestyle * The Takeout – food news and reviews * Women.com – women's lifestyle * Wrestling Inc – pro wrestling and combat sports

Company history

Looper was the first site acquired by Static Media, in 2015. Mashed, Nicki Swift, Grunge, and the List are original Static Media brands, and all four launched in 2016. The next site Static Media added was SVG, an original brand, in 2017. SlashGear was launched in 2005 and was acquired by Static Media sometime after the company's debut, in 2015. Health Digest is a Static Media original site, and it debuted in the third quarter of 2020. Alongside general health reporting, many of the brand's early articles covered the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

was launched in 2008 and was acquired by Static Media in 2021, the same year as ''

'', which began in 2005. House Digest is one of the site's newer homegrown brands, launching as a Static original site in 2021. Wrestling Inc. is the second-oldest of Static Media's branded sites, founded in 1996. Wrestling Inc. and Glam, the latter of which was started in 2003, were both acquired in 2022.

launched in 2011 and was acquired by Static in 2022. Explore, a travel-focused brand, launched as a Static Media original site in November 2022. Women.com is the oldest brand that Static Media owns, having been founded in 1995, but it wasn't acquired by Static until early 2023. Also acquired in 2023 is Food Republic, founded in 2010 but launched in 2011. In September 2023, Static Media launched another food site, Foodie, bringing its total food brands to four. On October 3, 2023, Static Media launched its first

financial journalism Business journalism is the part of journalism that tracks, records, analyzes, and interprets the business, economic and financial activities and changes that take place in societies. Topics widely cover the entire purview of all commercial act ...

site, ''Money Digest''. On October 26, 2023, the company launched its second homegrown travel and outdoors brand, titled Outdoor Guide and focused on outdoor living, including camping, gear, travel, and wildlife. The company followed this several days later with the relaunch of Chowhound, in early November 2023; the site was originally founded in 1997 and had been shut down in 2022. In early 2024, the company launched its third travel and outdoor brand, titled Islands and more focused on exotic destinations, cruises, and travel than Outdoor Guide. The print publication of Islands had been around since 1981, owned by Bonnier LLC alongside ''

Outdoor Life ''Outdoor Life'' is an outdoors magazine about camping, fishing, hunting, and survival. For years, it was a sister magazine of '' Field & Stream''. Together with '' Sports Afield'', they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publish ...

'', ''

Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

'', ''

Marlin Marlins are fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes between 9 and 11 species, depending on the taxonomic authority. Name The family's common name is thought to derive from their resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike. Taxonomy T ...

'', and '' Salt Water Sportsman''. The website was originally launched in 2000. Though the print publication shuttered in 2014 and the publication shifted exclusively to digital, the site continued operating through the

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

, growing to include its own Islands-brand "All-Inclusive Awards" for resorts. These annual awards ran in 2019 and 2020 and recognized resorts that had the best food, bar, rooms, pool, overwater bungalow, spa, butler service, and amenities, among other categories. The award system was not brought back in 2021, and it has not returned to the brand under Static Media's purview, either. Editor Allaya Cooks-Campbell, who previously worked at Health Digest, was appointed lead editor of Islands and Explore in 2023 and led Islands through its acquisition and relaunch under Static ownership. In 2024, Static Media acquired its sixth food brand, The Takeout, which originally launched in 2016. Later that year, the company acquired Jalopnik, an automotive blog that was a sister site to the Takeout. In October 2024, Static Media announced Hunker, a home brand it had acquired that same year, with a focus on cleaning, home improvement, garden, and lifestyle reporting. The same month, Static launched Cuteness, a website geared toward pet owners, which it had also purchased that year. On November 3, 2024, the company officially launched Sciencing, its first site oriented around science, math, and technology, which had been operating since 2006.

References

External links

* {{official website Mass media companies established in 2012 Technology companies established in 2012 American companies established in 2012 Contextual advertising Online advertising methods Online advertising services and affiliate networks Companies based in Indianapolis Online mass media companies of the United States Recommender systems