Almost 20 years after its launch, the web chess platform Chess.com notched a significant milestone in February, crossing 250 million registered customers. Now, the freemium model has set its sights on one other aim: rising its direct promoting enterprise. 

Promoting presently makes up round 10% of Chess.com’s $150 million income, with round 88% coming from its enterprise subscription enterprise, in keeping with cofounder and chief govt Danny Rensch. The corporate has been worthwhile since its inception. 

Chess.com has practically 2 million paying subscribers throughout its three tiers of paid plans. Subscriptions to the annual model of its most premium providing, the $119 Diamond tier, accounted for greater than half of that base. Though the corporate has monetized its free customers with promoting since 2011 the enterprise has at all times been a secondary concern, in keeping with Rensch.

“We’d by no means do something that disrupts the sanctity of the sport expertise,” Rensch stated. “That may be a tremendous vital a part of our ethos.”

Whereas the platform nonetheless plans to prioritize the person expertise, its posture on promoting is evolving. 

Starting this yr, Chess.com started an formidable initiative to scale its direct advert gross sales enterprise, construct out its first-party information infrastructure, and introduce unique stock and viewers focusing on for manufacturers. As a part of this reorientation, the 600-person firm hopes to scale back its reliance on the open programmatic market citing an absence of high quality management and a frustration with its volatility.