Web site ranking desirability thrives for five years WALNUT CREEK -- You walk into a club a... Web site ranking desirability th
WALNUT CREEK -- You walk into a club and, instantly, hundreds of brains begin computing where you fall on a scale of 1 to 10. No need for guilt or offense. It's as subconscious as blinking.
On a recent trip to the Bambuddha Lounge, however, this silent guilty pleasure became a bit more public. Hotornot.com, the Web site for ranking desirability, converged on the San Francisco hot spot, camera, scrolling video, and all.
"5.5?" said a less-than-pleased, svelte Asian 20-something, before spinning on her patent leather go-go boots and heading to the bar. There is no logic, for beauty is in the eye of the clicker.
While hundreds of startups rest in peace, Hotornot continues to thrive. In its five years, 11 billion votes have been cast on the site, and 20 million photos have been uploaded for judging.
The co-founders, James Hong and Jim Young, both 32, threw the all-expenses-paid bash in October at the Bambuddha Lounge to celebrate. It's been a long road for the childhood friends, from Taiwanese summer camp to write-ups in national magazines.
Their story is no different from other computer geek fairy tales. In 2000, Hong and Young were living with Young's parents. Young was pursuing the doctorate-that-would-never-end. Hong, a high-tech businessman, was unemployed.
One night, the guys, regulars on the South Bay party circuit, headed to a get-together where Young was eager to show Hong a girl he was convinced was a "10." "I didn't see any 10s that night," Hong recalls, not sure whether he ever spotted the girl. They debated it some more, and an idea was born. Back at the house, the two engineers began brainstorming. Within three days, Young had built the basic site: one page to submit photos, another one to rate them and a third to keep score.
Hong and Young sent the link to friends, and by the end of the day, 40,000 people had visited the site. By the end of the week, Hotornot received 1.8 million page views. Hong went rollerblading in the parking lots of major Silicon Valley companies. "Hey, have you heard of that Web site, Hotornot.com?" he'd ask people.
Within a few months, David Letterman was talking about the site, and articles popped up in Playboy, Business Week and Entertainment Weekly. Shortly after, Hong and Young launched Meet Me, the interactive component of the site.
The entrepreneurs are busy deciding which way to take the business: They rate people, so why not cars or movies? Whatever it is, it'll most likely be hot: It is estimated, according to Hong's market research, that more than half of America's 18-24 year-olds have been on the site.
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