GBee
 | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
Type of site |
|
| Available in |
|
| Founded | April 24, 2014 |
| Headquarters | Hunza , Pakistan |
| Founder(s) | Imran Ahmed Hunzai |
| Employees | 4 (July 2019) |
| Website | www |
| Advertising | Google Adsense, Native |
| Registration | Optional |
| Current status | Active |
GBee (Urdu: جی بی) is a Pakistani internet media, news and entertainment company founded in 2014. The company started as an experiment by a team of bloggers from Gilgit-Baltistan[1] at Peace Tech Exchange[2] held in Islamabad, Pakistan, as part of innovation for social justice campaign by BytesForAll.
GBee is a member of Association of All Pakistan Citizen Journalists (AAPCJ)[3], Pakistan, which is an initiative of PakVoices[4].
History[edit]
During the early days of foundation, GBee published BuzzFeed like listicles but soon a blog section was introduced that covered more serious matters related to Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral regions of Pakistan. Due to focus on a small audience, GBee struggled to attract visitors.
GBee initially raised an internal seed-fund of $1500 in 2014[5]. The company continues to generate income from sponsored stories, display ads (Google Adsense) and limited native ad campaigns.
In December 2015, GBee News[6] was introduced as a separate sub-domain. However, the sub-domain was merged and made part of the main website. GBee News curates news stories from twelve districts in the north of Pakistan. Many stories from GBee News have been aggregated in mainstream news outlets like Dawn[7], Express Tribune, etc.+
In September, 2015, GBee Urdu[8] (Urdu:جی بی اردو) was introduced to expand viewership in Urdu speaking parts of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. Selected stories in English are translated into Urdu as published on GBee Urdu, a practice that has earned GBee some praise from its readers.
In 2016, GBee News introduced its 24/7 News[9] initiative to strengthen citizen journalism in the mountainous regions of Pakistan. Around 42 citizen journalists and bloggers are registered with GBee News who contribute local stories through a network of Facebook groups and Facebook pages.
In early 2017, GBee was given early bird access to popular commenting system Spot.im, also being used by companies like HuffPost and Refinery29. The platform continues to use Spot.im as its core commenting system for both English and Urdu websites.
A forum feature that was introduced in 2016 was discontinued in June, 2019.
In July 2019, GBee moved its servers[10] from the United States to Pakistan. GBee is currently hosted by COMSATS Internet Services and managed by Hostober.
Content[edit]
GBee produces daily content, a huge part of which is curated on Facebook. Only limited news stories are published on the main website. The content is in both English and Urdu languages. GBee produces original listicles and curates video posts, news stories and publishes blogs written by its volunteer contributors.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Prioritize communication rights of people in FATA region". Bytesforall.
- ↑ "About GBee". GBee.
- ↑ "PakVoices launches AAPCJ". Bytesforall.
- ↑ "PROMOTING CITIZEN JOURNALISM AND ENDING INFORMATION DARKNESS IS THE KEY TO DEVELOPMENT". PakVoices.
- ↑ "GBee 2.0 is live". GBee on WordPress.
- ↑ "GBee News". GBee.
- ↑ "Gilgit Baltistan's most prominent flutist Imtiaz Karim passes away". Dawn.
- ↑ "جی بی اردو". جی بی اردو.
- ↑ "Hunza 24/7". Facebook.
- ↑ "GBee News". Twitter.
External links[edit]
This article "GBee" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:GBee. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
