Since January 2020, online business aggregators have been a hot topic. Most namely, Amazon FBA aggregators like Thrasio have made headlines and turned investors’ heads after the digital aggregation market as a whole reached USD 14 billion, according to Entrepreneur. Industry leaders speculate that growing competition amongst digital businesses will drive more need for these aggregator firms.
While ecommerce aggregators buy profitable businesses with consistent customers, other types of aggregators have joined the scene. Corporations known as digital demand aggregators claim a slightly different concept and are pushing forward to acquire, operate, and grow content websites. Buying blogs is lucrative because these online entities receive massive organic search and generate passive ad revenue. Interested aggregators buy with the intention to scale-up, develop, and further monetize these digital assets.
In 2021, TreasureHunter hit the “business roll-up” industry with this sort of aggregator approach. Currently, the team is purchasing content websites in various industries from thought leaders and content creators.
“With TreasureHunter, we want to revolutionize the digital content segment and give small websites and blogs the exact tools, resources, and partners we could have only dreamed of back when we established our first blogs in 2013,” said Benjamin Schardt the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of TreasureHunter who started his entrepreneurial experience with his own blog.
What’s Going On with Digital Asset Aggregation
As ecommerce went gangbusters during the pandemic, everything else went digital too–from shopping and learning, to communication and work. While the COVID-19 storm spun, conglomerates like Berlin Brands Group, Thrasio, and Razor Group began to acquire and aggregate ecommerce businesses.
This business model’s success has kept investors’ money flowing to other digital aggregators—especially those that work on Amazon’s marketplace. Just last year, 41% of all US ecommerce sales occurred via Amazon.
One startup, known as TreasureHunter, is promoting their team who plans to differentiate themselves from Amazon FBA aggregators. Their concept is similar: Instead of Amazon sellers, TreasureHunter’s crew will be buying content websites and blogs. The company leaders have goals to buy digital equity in areas where ecommerce is influenced.
Aggregation… Now Loading
Large corporations have been buying up smaller entities for years–this describes business as usual. Yet, amidst the new world order, several large digital aggregators have come to the forefront in one short timespan.
These digital roll-ups “are the aggregation of smaller companies into larger firms, creating a potentially compelling path for equity value,” according to TechCrunch. “…roll-ups often achieve much greater exit multiples, known as ‘multiple arbitrage,’ so it’s no surprise that the trend is making its way online.”
For example, the professionals at TreasureHunter aim to acquire content websites that work in certain niches–think about sports content portals and foodie blogs. Such sites were created and have been maintained by entrepreneurs who are also passionate “doers” in their field.
After acquiring websites from big sports fans or professional chefs, TreasureHunter’s team hopes to increase the site’s output by streamlining tasks that blog owners and their smaller teams currently struggle with. Aggregators like TreasureHunter possess larger teams of professionals who can cut operating costs of these blogs, increase advertising revenue, and create more quality content (while still preserving the site’s “DNA”).
“We are leveraging the strong collaborations with respect to marketing, advertising, content management, and creating synergies between technology our teams are using to enable massive growth,” continued Schardt. “This is growth that would not be possible for the asset, stand-alone.”
The Future of Digital Business Aggregation
Many companies have goals to take over the highly-influential Amazon-sphere. In that same way, digital aggregators are also buying up online property where ecommerce is driven and influenced via digital content. With this in mind and investor funding secured, the TreasureHunter crew is hard at work onboarding recently-acquired assets. The startup’s leadership is betting on their differentiated aggregator model to find success well into the future.
Currently, there are 32 million (and counting) active content portals with audiences across the US and Central Europe. As a result, aggregators like TreasureHunter are predicting greater competition and a growing need for online assets with loyal audiences. If aggregation is indeed the future for digital businesses, individuals using the web will begin to see a new landscape unfold.
