London - A website created by a teenage boy in his bedroom could be about to make him a multi-millionaire.
Peter Cashmore started an online blog called Mashable, in which he reports on and discusses developments on the internet and in computer technology and gadgets, when he was 19.
It has proved a major hit, with 20 million visitors a month, bringing in enough advertising revenue for Mr Cashmore to lead a glamorous lifestyle.
Coupled with his good looks, and a girlfriend who happens to be a model, the transformation from geek to guru has seen Mr Cashmore dubbed the “Brad Pitt of the blogosphere”.
Now, at only 26, it seems he is about to see his website bought for £127-million if reports of a bid by media giant CNN prove to be accurate.
It was a bout of appendicitis when he was 13 that eventually led to Mr Cashmore starting his blog in his bedroom at his parents’ home in Banchory, near Aberdeen. “I had an operation and ended up with complications, so I was in and out of the hospital,” he said. “The internet was something I could do in bed and feel like I was achieving something.”
By the age of 19 he had started Mashable and before long was selling enough advertising on the website to bring in £2,000 (about R24 000) a month. He decided to build on the business instead of going to university.
Because so many of his 20 million web visitors a month are young adults with money to spend on new technology, investors believe it could prove a great money spinner.
As the website took off, he relocated to New York, where he now has around 40 staff, but he still regularly flies back to Britain to see his parents, Colin and Julia, and work from the bedroom where it all started. - Daily Mail