EHow

History
eHow was founded in 1999 and acquired by Demand Media  in 2006. Originally it was a source of written articles and step-by-step instructions. At the time of its acquisition it had 17,000 articles and 5.8 million visitors a month. A year after purchasing the website Demand Media introduced the video format. In 2009 eHow was noted as having changed its method of identifying content to contract for creation. The company moved from human-identified lists of potential content to the use of a computer-based algorithm , a move that increased revenue by a factor of 4.9 times per article or video created. Getting rid of the human editors who formerly identified and approved content to be produced increased profits for the company by a factor of 20-25 times. The automated program combines search data, internet traffic patterns and the rates of keyword use and uses this information to determine what internet users want to know and also calculates how much money advertisers will pay to appear on the same page content created. Another algorithm, called the Knowledge Engine, then works out what exactly internet users want to know about the subjects identified and details exactly how to approach profitable subjects and what its potential subject longevity is. The machine-created subjects are then proofread by freelance proofreaders for 8 cents each, to ensure that they are clear enough for bidding on by freelance article and video producers. Content producers are then paid about US$15 per article or US$20 per video to produce the product. This change resulted in the Demand Media making an estimated US$ 200 million in revenue in 2009, including from Google 's advertising income .In 2011, the site received a reorganization and overhaul of its look, consolidating its now three million articles and videos into six categories: Home, Health, Food, Style, Money and Family. In 2012 a seventh category was added, entitled Mom, focusing on parenting and family issues.

Audience
The eHow site has a very broad audience with all age ranges.

Platform uses
eHow is an online how-to guide with more than 1 million <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times;mso-fareast-font-family: "ＭＳ明朝";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-bidi-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">articles <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"> and 170,000 videos offering step-by-step instructions. eHow articles and videos are created by freelancers and cover a wide variety of topics organized into a hierarchy of categories. Any eHow user can leave comments or responses, but only contracted writers can contribute changes to articles. The writers work on a freelance basis, being paid by article. eHow is frequently called a <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times;mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-bidi-font-family:"TimesNewRoman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">content mill <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;">.

Number of users/other statistics
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;">In 2011 the site was adding more than 5,000 articles and videos a day while employing 13,000 freelance writers, editors and producers.

In the news/interesting facts
<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-fareast-font-family: "ＭＳ明朝";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-bidi-font-family:"TimesNewRoman"; color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Highly criticized for low-quality content and not paying contributors enough.

Similar platforms
Similar platforms include: Yahoo answers, The WELL.