CelebrityNetWorth
CelebrityNetWorth is a website which reports estimates of the total assets and financial activities of celebrities. It is operated by the company Corte Lodato LLC, founded by CEO Brian Warner in 2008.[2][3]
Type of site | Private |
---|---|
Founded | October 2008[1] |
Headquarters | |
Founder(s) | Brian Warner |
Key people | Alex Chan |
Employees | 11-50 (See LinkedIn entry) |
URL | www |
Alexa rank | 696 (March 2018) |
Current status | Online |
The site has been criticized for a lack of transparency for its calculations, with no way to verify the accuracy what CelebrityNetWorth reports.[4] Most content is written by freelance writers, rather than journalists or computer scientists to analyze data.[4]
Activities
CelebrityNetWorth creates web pages that list a celebrity's name, biography, and estimates of net worth and salary. The site calculates net worth by "applying a proprietary algorithm" based on publicly available information and using financial analysts to review such results.
Warner has said of their estimates that "If we end up too far off, there is always some kind of backlash. There have been a handful cases when we’ve been proved to be off, and we’ve corrected it."[5]
The site provides news articles on financial transactions of celebrities such as the purchase of a home or lawsuits.[2]
CelebrityNetWorth creates lists ranking wealthy individuals based upon their wealth. In 2012 the company compiled a list of the 25 richest people in history, adjusted for inflation, naming King Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire at the top of the list.[6][7][8][9] That same year, it created a list of the world's richest DJs,[10] and a survey which named Ringo Starr as the world's richest drummer.[11]
Interactions with Google
In 2014, Google requested permission from Warner to include CelebrityNetWorth's data in its Knowledge Graph. Warner declined. However, in February 2016, Google began using information from its search index of CelebrityNetWorth to display featured snippets with net worths at the top of their search result pages for relevant queries. The featured snippets were positioned above the search results, including results for CelebrityNetWorth. As a result, CelebrityNetWorth's web traffic declined by 65 percent from January 2016 to January 2017.[3]
In July 2019 CelebrityNetWorth was asked to submit on-the-record testimony to the House Subcommittee on Antitrust as part of its investigation into Google's anti-competitive behavior. The testimony provided a timeline detailing Google's encroachment into CelebrityNetWorth's business through the use of scraped content and "Featured Snippet" answer boxes. The testimony made three primary arguments; 1) That Google used its market power as a monopoly to benefit itself while hurting competitors; 2) That Google's actions have had negative impacts on the open internet; and 3) That these actions harm everyday Internet consumers.[12]
References
- "CelebrityNetWorth.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-09-20.
- "Celebrity Net Worth". CelebrityNetWorth. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
- Jeffries, Adrianne (17 Apr 2017). "How Google eats a business whole". The Outline. Retrieved 12 Jul 2018.
- "The Big Secret of Celebrity Wealth (Is That No One Knows Anything)". Retrieved 2018-09-25.
- meredithqz (March 18, 2015). "Seven questions with the CEO who gets paid to know what every celebrity is worth". Quartz. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
- "Who's The Richest Person In History?". NPR. October 16, 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
- Erik Ortiz (October 18, 2012). "King Mansa Musa of Mali named richest person of all time". New York Daily News. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
- "Mansa Musa of Mali Named World's Richest Man of All Time; Gates And Buffet Also Make List". Huffington Post. October 17, 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
- "Website names obscure 14th century African king the richest person in history". FOX News. October 17, 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
- Tom Breihan (June 12, 2012). "The 30 Richest DJs In The World". StereoGum. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
- Steve Chagollan (January 28, 2014). "Ringo Starr Talks Paul, Meditation and Why He Loves L.A." Variety. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
- Warner, Brian (21 Jul 2019). "CelebrityNetWorth's Statement Submitted to the House Subcommittee on Antitrust". Medium. Retrieved 21 Aug 2019.