Dropzone.com merges with Rockclimbing.com
Cape Town (South Africa), September 26, 2005. Dropzone.com and Rockclimbing.com, dominant websites for the global skydiving and rock climbing communities, announced today that they have entered into an agreement to merge their operations. With a combined membership in excess of 80,000 registered users and approximately 20 million page views per month, the merger will result in one of the largest adventure sports communities on the Internet.
According to Daniel Du Toit of Dropzone.com, there is a considerable overlap in the lifestyles of people who participate in different adventure sports. "People who take up rock climbing and skydiving have a lot in common, and they generally have very similar interests and needs. This merger positions us to bring our expertise in building online communities to a larger audience, and provide online lifestyle experiences that are more integrated and transparent to users. We can make better use of technology and provide superior information to adventure enthusiasts planning their activities around the world."
Dropzone.com and Rockclimbing.com will continue to function primarily as individual and separate sites, with some integration points and common technology. Du Toit, an avid rock climber himself, will be responsible for leading the existing Rockclimbing.com management team who will continue to run the day-to-day operations of the site.
Trevor Allred, founder of Rockclimbing.com, says this change will greatly benefit the users of both sites. "In our discussions with the Dropzone.com team over the past year or so, we discovered that considerable synergies could be unlocked by applying the same solution to both websites. By combining our strengths we can bring more content, more features, and a more stable platform for users on both sites."
The merger will not only be beneficial to users, but advertisers will benefit from access to a larger potential market. Products that interest both communities can now be promoted through integrated, effective marketing campaigns.
Willem Grobler, founder of Dropzone.com, says this brings together two great sites with common values and complementary offerings. "Dropzone.com and Rockclimbing.com have very similar histories. Both started as grass-roots adventure sport sites, providing an online home for people who love these activities. While some things may change for the better, both of these sites will continue to be first and foremost about the communities, the sport, and our passion for doing it."
About Dropzone.com
Dropzone.com is the single best source for skydiving information and has more than 44,000 registered users. It serves as a community destination site for skydivers all over the world. Dropzone.com has established a personal relationship with the skydiving community and offers a wide range of skydiving features and services. These include an active discussion forum with more than 1.8 million posts, an extensive gear database with thousands of member-submitted reviews, a unique drop zone finder and database to help locate places to jump, safety and training information and articles, classified ads, an events calendar and more than 15,000 skydiving photos and images. More information about Dropzone.com can be found at www.dropzone.com.About Rockclimbing.com
Rockclimbing.com is the premier rock climbing destination on the internet, with a unique offering of global rock climbing information. It is home to a global community of approximately 39,000 registered users. The site boasts the internet's most active rock climbing discussion forum, with approximately 1.2 million posts, as well as the most comprehensive route database with information on climbing destinations and routes around the globe. There is also an extensive gear review database, as well as a large gallery of rock climbing photos. More information about Rockclimbing.com can be found at www.rockclimbing.com.
