OPW - Global Christian Network was the world's first and largest Christian Social Media network that dates back to 1995. What started as simple online chat rooms turned into one of the top trafficked sites with 4M subscribers and a $400M valuation. The site was launched by David Fritsche, a former NASA engineer, and his brother Bob. David was also a youth pastor and youth sports coach at the time. The Global Christian Network was launched in 1995 with new services being added over the next couple of years, such as Classifieds, Prayer web, Studio – online chats with celebrities, Newsletters, Instant Homepage, and Singles - The world's first and largest Christian focused dating service. In the late '90s, there was only one online dating service of note, Match.com. ~300 couples were married through the site. In 2000, GCN raised $45M. Then in June 2000, Microsoft lost the antitrust lawsuit and the US Congress voted to break up the software company. That day, the market crashed and so did the value of every internet-based company, including GCN which went from $400M to $40M in just one week. In 2001, GCN was sold to a public company called iExalt. iExalt was later sold to Salem Media Group, a public company that still owns the domain and the rights.
Read the full story here
| |
Comments