Number
Astrology.com has made $10M+ a year for ~30 years off ad arbitrage
Sam breaks down how astrology.com and horoscope.com quietly do low-to-mid eight figures in revenue, mostly via cheap programmatic ad arbitrage (Taboola/Outbrain) plus subscriptions, and have done so since the late '90s.
$10M
Annual revenue · USD/year
“So astrology.com, have you heard of astrology.com? Of course you have. Of course you have. So they do low 8 figures in revenue. And the way that they make money is they do a lot of programmatic advertising. So they do low-cost advertising, like the bottom of Taboola and Outbrain. They get you to come to their website and they make a little bit of money off advertising.”
Number
Taboola: $1B revenue, keeps 35%, ~$2.5B valuation
Sam breaks down Taboola's pre-SPAC numbers: it does ~$1 billion in revenue, pays ~$650M out to publishers and keeps ~35% (~$350M), with $100M+ EBITDA, yet was valued at only ~$2.5 billion.
$2500M
Company valuation · USD
“And so they do about $1 billion in revenue, $350 million of which they actually get to keep. So they pay out $1 billion to the publishers and they get to keep 35% of that. So they have $35 million in revenue. $100-something million in EBITDA. So these are crazy profitable businesses, only valued at $2.5 billion, I think.”
Number
Golden Hippo: ~$1B/yr selling supplements via long-form copy ads
Sam profiles Golden Hippo, a low-profile company that builds doctor-fronted DTC brands (Dr. Marty pet food, Dr. Gundry gut supplements) and drives sales with Outbrain/Taboola native ads and long-form copywriting. He estimates it does about $1 billion a year in sales with ~800 employees.
$1000M
Annual sales · USD/year
“they buy all these outbrains. Ads and they use long-form copywriting to get people to buy pet food and things like that. And they do about $1 billion a year in sales.”