Ben Huh tells Michelle Waldorf how he lost his leg
Ben Huh spoke informally at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco on May 5. About 40 attendees got to ask Ben questions about his super popular website business, the Cheezburger Network, which owns Icanhascheezburger and the FAIL blog. According to Quantcast, the Cheezburger Network’s blogs get 11.9M global visitors a month.
Ben explained that his staff does not create the content of his sites. Everything is user submitted, from the uploaded photos to the captions created by the LOL builder feature.
He starts with a popular internet meme and builds a site around the meme. Users popularize the content through social media. When asked by the audience if he had any trouble with copyright infringement, he replied, “No one owns a meme. It’s owned by the public.”
His staff continues to explore new memes. What he thought would be a huge hit, failed immediately. But the “stupid idea” for If Shoes Could Kill started with a million hits.
It was great to hear Ben’s thoughts on his business. I hope he can find a better leg prosthetic soon. … Well, maybe someone with an LOL builder can help me create a funny ending to this post. 
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