DriveTribe
 | |
Type of site | Automotive enthusiast social media |
|---|---|
| Owner | W. Chump & Sons |
| URL | drivetribe |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Required |
DriveTribe is an automotive online community platform founded by, and featuring content from The Grand Tour presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.
The platform features different automotive-themed 'tribes' which people can join, post to, live chat with members of and share content on. The idea of the platform is to have one site for all automotive enthusiasts to share their passions.[1]
Tribes
Tribes are categorisations and themes, allowing users to find content most relevant to their area of interest. These range from Tribes dedicated to particular makes and models, to Tribes about road trips, engineering and even remote controlled cars. The website launched in November 2016 with several selected tribe leaders to get things started. These early adopters started their tribes a week ahead of the full release to allow new fan made tribes to reach maturity before the masses are allowed entry. Each tribe has a specific theme and members join whichever tribe fits their personal tastes. Some Tribes are run by automotive celebrities such as Mark Webber, Damon Hill, and many others. [2]
Leadership and investors
DriveTribe's CEO is Jonathan Morris, notable for his previous roles in fin-tech and with other start-ups. The CMO is Jim Murray-Jones (formerly of AutoTrader), the CPO is Tom Pugh (formerly of eBay) and the CCO is Richard Beech (formerly of BuzzFeed).
Serial tech entrepreneur Ernesto Schmitt is a Co-Founder and former CEO of the platform. Financing for DriveTribe came from, among others, The Grand Tour producer Andy Wilman, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. 21st Century Fox and Breyer Capital have invested respectively $6.5 and $5.5 million in the platform.[3][4] Since launch, DriveTribe has partnered with organisations including Shifting Lanes,[5][6] Playbuzz, Audi, Renault, Shell and Grand Tour Nation.
DriveTribe has released an app called 'Joyride' which has been dubbed the "Tinder for cars" by the Sun [7] In the app, users submit photos of their cars, and get a Tinder-esque response of hot or not. This section has so far had over 4 million votes since its launch.
References
- ^ Fane Saunders, Tristram. "What is DriveTribe? All you need to know about Jeremy Clarkson's 'YouPorn for cars'". the Telegraph. The Telegraph. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ Davis, Ben. "We take a spin through Clarkson, May & Hammond's DriveTribe network". Econsultancy. Econsultancy media. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
- ^ Lee, Kristen. "DriveTribe Just Got $6.5 Million From Fox And We Don't Know For What". jalopnik. Gawker Media. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
- ^ "Drivetribe raises $12m Series A from Breyer Capital and Fox". Tech City News. 6 September 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
- ^ "About Us". Shifting Lanes. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
- ^ "Homepage". DriveTribe. Shifting Lanes. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
- ^ Finnerty, Joe. "New 'Tinder for cars' Joyride app launched by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May lets petrolheads vote on your pride and joy". the Sun. The Sun. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
