UNILAD

UNILAD is a British Internet media company and website owned by LADbible Group.[2] The company provides "social news" and entertainment to their 60 million followers,[3] and has offices in London and Manchester, UK.[4] UNILAD was shut down in 2012, but it relaunched in 2014 under new owners Liam Harrington and Sam Bentley. The company has since developed into a media network that creates and licenses original content.[5] In 2016, UNILAD was named the top Facebook page and online video channel in the world. The company comprises its primary channel as well as eight sub-channels that specialize in technology, travel, and other topics.[6][7] The page had 17 million followers in 2016, with 2.7 billion monthly video views, second to BuzzFeed's "Tasty" channel in views and are first in global engagement.[8] In October 2018 UNILAD was bought out by LADbible, making LADbible Group "the largest social video publisher ever” with more than 120 million followers.[9]

UNILAD
Type of site
Viral internet media content
Available inEnglish
OwnerThe LADbible Group Ltd
Founder(s)Alex Partridge
URLhttps://www.unilad.co.uk/
Alexa rank 472 in the UK, 3,271 (Globally)[1]
LaunchedApril 2, 2010 (2010-04-02)
2014 (2014) (relaunch)
Current statusOnline

Site creation and ownership

Alex Partridge from Eastbourne and Jamie Street, a student at the University of Plymouth, created the original website.[10] According to an FAQ on the website in 2010, the site was "created, designed and written by Alex Partridge", then a 21-year-old student at Oxford Brookes University.[11] Jamie Street, then a web design student at the University of Plymouth, managed technical aspects of the site, claiming that he was "not responsible for writing or checking the content that gets published".[10]

In 2014, Liam Harrington and Sam Bentley acquired ownership of the brand name and inherited its Facebook page.[6]

Content

The 2010 website described itself as being "for when you are bored in the library" and "the 'tongue in cheek', article based solution to library boredom".[12] The site also set up a "Uni Ladette" page with "debauched disasters" from a "borderline alcoholic" female writer that they supposedly found in "a gutter, muttering something about needing to get laid and nursing her broken stilettos".[13]

The site attracted considerable critical comment in the press and on Twitter due to perceived promotion of rape in some of the articles on the website. Articles that have been reported on in the press include:

  • Sexual Mathematics – said that 75% of women aged 18–25 were "sluts" and advised readers that if a woman did not display any interest in having sex (which they described as "spreading for your head"), "think about this mathematical statistic: 85 per cent of rape cases go unreported. That seems to be fairly good odds."[10][14] The article concluded with a mock disclaimer: "Uni Lad does not condone rape without saying 'surprise'."[15]
  • The Zebra Abortion – described how, following sex, the writer told his sexual partner to take the morning-after pill. After saying she wanted to keep the pregnancy, the writer considers "performing an elbow drop on her vagina right there and then", but decides instead to "look around the room for a chair or table I can smash onto her stomach".[16]
  • How to Pull a Fresher – gave advice on how to sleep with a freshman, noting that they are "especially vulnerable".[14]
  • The Angry Shag – described the story of a man who, during sex, smashes a woman's face into a wall "to knock some sense into her".[17]

The website also contained a shop section that sold T-shirts with a variety of slogans, including a rape-themed T-shirt in the style of the World War II-era Keep Calm and Carry On propaganda posters reading "Keep Calm – It Won't Take Long".[18]

Criticism

Estelle Hart from the National Union of Students said that articles on the website promoted a "casual trivialisation of rape". Hart argued that "a website referring to women as wenches and slags isn’t simply the harmless ‘banter’ the writers want us to believe".[19]

A number of student newspapers published editorials condemning Uni Lad including those at the University of Bristol,[20] the University of Birmingham,[21] the University of Liverpool,[15] and Newcastle University.[19]

The BBC Radio 4 magazine show Woman's Hour interviewed a number of female students in Brighton who described the 'Sexual Mathematics' article as "vulgar" and were very critical of sexist comments and 'banter' on Facebook.[22]

Sarah McAlpine wrote an article for The F-Word, a UK feminist blog, which argued that Uni Lad was "an entire culture summed up in one hideous website".[17] The website TechRadar listed it as one of the "10 most hated websites of all time".[23]

Reaction

Following the public reaction, Alex Partridge from Uni Lad said that the site "overstepped the mark" and "took things too far", and claimed that he was taking the site down until they "greatly improved" their editorial policies.[10]

University investigation

The University of Plymouth launched a disciplinary investigation against Jamie Street who claims to be the designer of the site but not involved in the content.[10][17] The University of Plymouth Students' Union released a statement saying that there "can be no question that some of the content published on the UNILAD website is completely unacceptable and offensive in nature", but stating that they would not make any further comment on the matter due to the investigation that the university was leading.[24]

New ownership

The brand was acquired by entrepreneurs Liam Harrington and Sam Bentley in 2014. The rebranded UNILAD launched in 2014 at unilad.co.uk. The UNILAD Facebook page, inherited in 2014 with 300,000 fans, grew to have 11.5 million Facebook likes by 2016, with a web presence at unilad.co.uk.[6]

Harrington and Bentley stated that they decline to publish some submitted content due to backlash,[8] and The Guardian notes that its content differs significantly from that of the previous iteration of the website.[6] The site is described as having a reputation for "trivial lad-focused videos", with titles such as "5 On 5 Fighting Is Back And It’s F*cking Brutal."[7]

Administration

In October 2018, the company that owned UNILAD went into administration, with owners Liam Harrington and Sam Bentley having incurred debts of £6.5 million and owing taxes of £1.5 million.[25] A day later, Managing Director John Quinlan denied reports that it had gone into administration, saying the brand is "doing better than ever" and that he was "confident" that a buyer would be found.[26]

LADbible ownership

In October 2018, a few days later after it went into administration, UNILAD was bought by LADbible for an undisclosed fee.[27]

gollark: It talked about out of memory.
gollark: We have 7000 so far.
gollark: Yes, since we're on the lobby.
gollark: OR CAN WE?
gollark: Actually, two.

References
  1. "Unilad.co.uk Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". www.alexa.com.
  2. "Unilad web publisher bought by LADbible". 2018-10-16. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
  3. "UNILAD Group". UNILAD Group. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
  4. "Unilad beats the Daily Mail and BuzzFeed's Tasty to become 2016's most popular Facebook publisher". The Drum.
  5. "Unilad is using Facebook Live to stream mixed martial arts". Digiday.
  6. Jackson, Jasper (31 January 2016). "Unilad's Liam Harrington: 'We are absolutely not a lads' mag'". The Guardian.
  7. "Unilad Brings In Manifest London To Help Build More 'Mature' Brand". Holmes Report. 19 March 2017.
  8. Sportelli, Natalie (19 March 2017). "How The 24-Year-Olds Behind UNILAD Reach Billions With Viral Online Videos". Forbes.
  9. editor, Jim Waterson Media (2018-10-16). "LadBible takes over social media rival UniLad". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-01-18.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  10. "Uni Lad website creator 'appalled' over rape comment". BBC News. 2 February 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  11. "FAQ". Uni Lad. Archived from the original on 2010-06-08.
  12. "Uni Lad – Home". Uni Lad. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011.
  13. "Uni Ladette". Uni Lad. Archived from the original on 2010-06-08.
  14. "Twitter fury over 'surprise rape' article gets UniLad suspended". The Week. 1 February 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  15. Kidson, Millie. "UniLad: When 'banter' becomes dangerous?". LSMedia. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  16. Morris, Rachel (2 February 2012). "UniLad shuts down over 'rape' article". TheNationalStudent. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  17. McAlpine, Sarah (5 February 2012). "Unilad: an entire culture summed up in one hideous website". The F-Word. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  18. McAuliffe, Naomi (1 February 2012). "Slogan T-shirts that help you spot a moronic misogynist, from Uni Lad". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  19. Bernhardt, Lisa (13 February 2012). "UniLad.com goes temporarily offline after public outrage over rape jokes and misogynistic humour". The Courier Online. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  20. Burley, Patrick (20 February 2012). "Why UniLad wasn't just a problem for women". Epigram. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  21. Balcombe, Alex (17 February 2012). "UniLad under scrutiny". Redbrick. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  22. "Unilad and Lad's banter". Woman's Hour. BBC Radio 4. 21 February 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  23. Marshall, Gary (8 June 2012). "10 most hated websites of all time". TechRadar. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  24. "UPSU Uni Lad Statement". University of Plymouth Students' Union. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  25. "Unilad viral publisher goes into administration". BBC News. 4 October 2018.
  26. "Unilad: Boss says the brand is 'doing better than ever'". BBC News. 5 October 2018.
  27. "Unilad web publisher bought by LADbible". BBC News. 16 October 2018.
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