LIVESTRONG.COM Marks One Year Anniversary: 1.5 Million People Make Positive Changes By Taking Advantage of the Content, Tools and its Active, Health-Minded Community

source:Demand Media
subhead:Survey Reveals Positive Trends Among Users with More Than 90 Percent of People Using Health and Fitness Sites Report Being Successful in Improving Health and Achieving Personal Goals

SANTA MONICA, Calif. June 29, 2009 – One year after its official launch, LIVESTRONG.COM, the definitive online destination for health and fitness information, today announced that more than 1.5 million people made healthy changes in their lives using the LIVESTRONG.COM website’s tools, unique content and active, supportive community. Recently, the site also polled an excess of 1200 visitors regarding their health behaviors and attitudes. The results reveal that more than 90 percent of respondents are succeeding in improving health and achieving goals since engaging in health and fitness sites, including LIVESTRONG.COM. Additionally, 67 percent of those surveyed depend on their virtual community for inspiration, tools and as a primary means of attaining diet and fitness objectives; more than the gym, cookbooks or personal trainers.

Developed by Demand Media, Inc., the leader in distributed social media, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), LIVESTRONG.COM hosts a unique combination of original, expert-produced content, interactive Web 2.0 tools and an active community of 1.5 million registered users that has enabled it to emerge as a key player in the online health space. As LIVESTRONG.COM reaches its one-year anniversary, the site has more than 4.2 million unique monthly visitors interested in improving their lives.

“We have always felt that social media is a transformative force in today’s culture with the ability to impact people both in the online and offline world. The fact that so many people have had their lives changed for the better with LIVESTRONG.COM is a testament to the vision our team shares with Lance Armstrong, and the more than a million people committed to living an active, healthy life who power the site,” said Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media’s co-founder, chairman and CEO. “The community continues to be the destination’s single, most valuable asset; and combined with our award-winning platform, quality applications and expert content, users can truly leverage this new approach to healthy living.”

Much of the success of LIVESTRONG.COM in its first year can be attributed to its popular features, such as The Daily Plate^TM. The Daily Plate is an interactive tool allowing users to calculate their nutritional intake by tracking the foods they consume and the activities they perform. To date, more than 776,000 LIVESTRONG.COM members, who use The Daily Plate, lost more than 5 million pounds, and burned almost 2 billion calories by tracking their exercise and food using The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.COM

As an extension of The Daily Plate, LIVESTRONG.COM recently released two Calorie Tracker applications for mobile devices, enabling LIVESTRONG.COM users to manage their health via iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry smart-phones. Since their rollout, 25 percent of all food and fitness tracking is now originating from these mobile applications.

Additionally, the LIVESTRONG.COM Dare To^TM application provides motivation, goal-setting and community support by enabling users to challenge themselves, and others, to take on actionable objectives and track their progress. The Dare To application connects users with similar goals, provides forums for discussion, and offers guidance from expert leaders. Since the site’s launch, more than 166,000 thousand Dare To challenges have been taken ranging from walking 20 minutes a day, to quitting smoking, to getting more sleep and many others.

“LIVESTRONG.COM was designed to provide people with the information and resources they need to stay positive and reach their ongoing health goals,” said Lance Armstrong Foundation founder and chairman, cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong. “In just one year the site inspired a movement of 1.5 million people who were 90 percent successful in improving their health. While it is a milestone worth celebrating, we want the site to continue to have that kind of impact year after year.”

Utilizing the tools and applications offered, collectively, LIVESTRONG.COM users have made the following achievements in the past 12 months.

• 1,900,000,000 calories burned from 5,860,000 tracked exercises
• 340,000,000 minutes spent exercising
• 2,300,000 miles walked
• 1,160,000 miles ran
• 2,300,000 miles biked
• 1,600,000 miles on the elliptical
• 22,000 inches lost from waistlines
• 14,000 inches lost from hips
• 160,000,000 ounces of water consumed
• 500,000 pounds of coffee consumed
• 39,000 pounds of eggs eaten
• 1,400,000 ounces of chicken breast consumed

LIVESTRONG.COM provides unparalleled access to trainers, dieticians, athletes and doctors, and the community at large benefits from their unique insight into the business of healthy living. The site’s experts create original articles, blog posts and videos, and lead challenges, Dares and healthy living initiatives. This level of expert engagement is unmatched by any other major health site. Adding to this growing library of tools, LIVESTRONG.COM most recently introduced LIVESTRONG.COM Loops. The application enables users to map exercise routes in their local areas and beyond. The tool is complimentary to The Daily Plate; also allowing members to track distance completed and match that against their nutritional intake.

Methodology

Survey is based on more than 1200 online responses from LIVESTRONG.COM anonymous users over a period of four weeks.

About LIVESTRONG.COM
The LIVESTRONG™ brand has become a global movement dedicated to changing the world through living well. Demand Media, Inc., in alliance with The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), created LIVESTRONG.COM as the definitive online social conversation for health, fitness and lifestyle. Through relevant and useful content, interactive tools and an engaged community, LIVESTRONG.COM is designed to inspire people to change their lives, help themselves and help others. For additional information about LIVESTRONG.COM, please visit: www.livestrong.com

About Demand Media
As the leader in distributed social media, Demand Media™ makes possible more than 3 billion conversations every month. The Demand Media platform harnesses the creativity of individuals to deliver valuable content and help websites grow by providing content and community features that consumers truly want. The privately held company was founded in May 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, CA, with offices in Bellevue, WA, Austin, TX, New York, NY and London, UK. For more information about Demand Media, Inc., please visit: www.demandmedia.com

LIVESTRONG is a trademark and/or registered trademark of the Lance Armstrong Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. Dare To, The Daily Plate and Demand Media are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Demand Media, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

© 2009 Demand Media, Inc. All rights reserved.