Healthline.com Secures 21 Million in Funding - Where's the Beef?

Article Submitted by: LikeItIs
Technology


Health website Healthline just secured 21 million from several prestigious investors. I took a look at the site and was not very impressed. What does it take to secure such funding and high valuation - apparently not that much.

 

Submitted: Jul 16, 2007    Views: 544    Comments: 1    Likes: 6   


I just read that website Healthline had secured 21 million in funding.  I congratulate them.  I'm generally pretty happy when a small company raises a substantial amount of capital and this is no exception.  But, I have to ask, what has the company done to justify this valuation.

First, let's examine the site.  I took a look and thought it was generally well laid out.  But, it wasn't anything better than WebMD or the Mayo clinic or the plethora of other medical sites and resources on the Web.  I then did a search on irritable bowel, a fairly common malady.  The results that came back were relatively generic and certainly no better than what I would find via Google or WebMD.  If anything, Google offers more options and choice and deeper search results.  I also found the results page to be cluttered and a bit confusing to read.

I then looked them up on Alexa.  The results show their traffic rank at 6,130.  Not bad but not great either.  I have a friend who has spent around $6,000 on his site and his traffic rank isn't much lower.  Based on calculations from Statbrain, the site pulls in about 100,000 visitors per day.  Once again, not bad numbers, but not huge either.

Lastly, despite their claims in the press release about traffic doubling over the last year, it's not supported in the Alexa numbers.  If anything, the site's traffic has peaked and come down over the last 4-5 months.

I don't think Healthline is a bad site.  I'm just not sure about the valuation placed on it with a Series B round of 21 million.  Then again, what do I know?




Related Articles:



6

Email this story Email to someone | Print Story Print Content | Add to reading list

Comments Received:

DanS

You know a lot. Many people are putting big money behind "new" health sites, including people like Steve Case from AOL. They are all trying to be the "trusted" site, mainly taking aim at WebMD. The one to watch in all this is Google. They are moving agressively and have some very good people working with them. Even more important, they command the numbers needed to make the business work.

Posted: Jul 17, 2007



Add Your Comments:

Your Name:

Spam protection control:


© Copyright 2008 LikeItIs All rights reserved. LikeItIs has granted BestCashCow.com, LLC non-exclusive rights to display this work on Bestcashcow.com.

Financial products of all nature bear inherent risks and this website is not a financial advisory service; it is a forum for users to share and to compare notes and observations on financial publications. The website provides, free of charge, the technical and logistical apparatus and the medium for users to share and to publish financial information and to comment on publications. As such, the website’s operator can not and does not take responsibility for information, observations or opinions of any sort or nature provided by third parties with whom it is not affiliated who use the website to publish, to comment or as a means of solicitation. Users are specifically warned against following any advice related to specific instruments, including, but not limited to, equity securities, that may be provided by other users directly on this site or on web pages to which other users have provided links on this site. BestCashCow.com can not and does not check or verify the qualifications and credentials of users who publish or comment on this site or on linked pages. Users should seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding all personal financial issues and evaluate the risks and applicability to their own circumstances of each financial product discussed regardless of who the publisher is or purports to be. Should you, through your use of this site, identify an individual or organization purporting to offer personalized advice, you bear all responsibility to ensure that the individual or organization has the qualifications that they may represent on the website, and that their advice is appropriate for your circumstances. On certain webpages, BestCashCow.com provides information related to rates on US-based savings accounts, CDs, short-term government bonds, and other US cash equivalent securities, also free of charge to internet users for their independent use. The accuracy of this information is not guaranteed, and the information, like all other information on this website, should not be construed to provide investment advice, nor to endorse a financial product of any sort.

© 2007 BestCashCow.com, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy.