AOL gets (slighty) more serious about Australia with Lemondrop and Asylum
AOL is ramping up its activity in Australia with localised versions of its female focused site Lemondrop and male oriented destination Asylum.
Although both sites now have .com.au domains, so far they appear to mainly consist of content recycled from the US-based sites. Early evidence is that the signs are yet to see much traffic – Mumbrella was unable to find any local comments posted on recent articles.
Asylum uses a Sydney-based stringer, who will also now contribute to the Australian edition.
AOL says that Lemondrop is aimed at 18-34-year-old women.
What ugly sites.. I know aesthetic and design is ‘apparently not as important as content’… but this is just plain wrong!
Just lifting what comes from the US and dropping here is poor and users are not stupid. A much better localisation can be seen by the folks at Allure: look at Gizmodo which claims 850k users or Kotaku with over 500k. These are serious numbers that show that they can take great content from overseas but provide it in a relevant way for an Australian audience. They run a lean business but also deliver a quality product. I don’t see the folks over at Zoo, Ralph, FHM or other men’s sites quaking in their boots just yet or their compatriots on the women’s lifestyle side.
Check out Flossie – it’s definitely not *ugly* and it will hold Australian content – some good stories written about it:
http://www.bandt.com.au/news/00/0c05f200.asp
http://deborahrobinson.blogspo.....ralia.html