A Plus (website)
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Digital media |
| Founded | January 27, 2014 |
| Founder | Ashton Kutcher, Evan Beard, Kendall Dabaghi |
| Headquarters | New York City , United States |
Key people | Ashton Kutcher (Chairman), Evan Beard (CEO), Kendall Dabaghi (President) |
| Products | Original written, social, and video content centered on uplifting journalism |
| Parent | Chicken Soup for the Soul (controlling interest since 2016) |
| Website | aplus |
A Plus is a digital media enterprise headquartered in New York City that creates original written, social, and video content centered on uplifting journalism. The company’s mission is to foster a significant influence by emphasizing shared human experiences, encouraging self-improvement, and motivating societal progress.
Founded by Ashton Kutcher, Evan Beard, and Kendall Dabaghi, A Plus officially debuted on January 27, 2015. Its editorial staff features journalists with backgrounds from publications such as the Huffington Post, Business Insider, and New York Daily News.
The platform attracts approximately 50 million unique visitors each month and generates around 100 million page views monthly. In November 2014, Quantcast placed A Plus among the top 50 websites and within the top 11 mobile sites in the United States.
History
Initially launched in late 2013 as a "product discovery service," A Plus was established by Ashton Kutcher (chairman), Evan Beard (CEO), and Kendall Dabaghi (president). Kutcher and Beard connected through Y Combinator, while Beard met Dabaghi at Duke University. The business shifted focus to become a digital media company in April 2014 based in Los Angeles, later relocating to New York by mid-2014. The official website launch occurred in January 2015.
It is important to distinguish A Plus (aplus.com) from A.plus, a desktop Twitter application created by UberMedia for Kutcher in 2011, which was discontinued before this current initiative commenced.
In September 2016, Chicken Soup for the Soul acquired a controlling interest in A Plus.
Funding
The company initially raised $300,000 via a convertible note. By March 2015, total funding reached $3.5 million from various investors.
Popularity
By August 2014, A Plus reported attracting 30 million unique visitors monthly; this number increased to 50 million unique visitors (totaling 100 million page views), with 27.5 million originating from the U.S. As of February 2015, Alexa ranked it near the 3,000th position globally, while Quantcast listed it among the top 50 U.S. websites.
A Plus has collaborated with celebrities including Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and Britney Spears to extend its content’s reach. Despite these collaborations and Ashton Kutcher’s substantial social media presence, A Plus’s own follower base remains relatively modest.
Controversy
In August 2014, A Plus faced criticism for reproducing articles from sources such as BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, and Cracked.com without proper acknowledgment. Additionally, the site used Instagram images without providing credit. The company attributed these issues to an automated content aggregation system that erroneously published original articles instead of rewritten versions. Nonetheless, slight alterations in some plagiarized content indicated manual edits prior to publication. Following this, the tool was discontinued and a plagiarism detection system was adopted to vet content.
Relationship with similar sites
While A Plus shares characteristics with viral content platforms like BuzzFeed and Upworthy, it covers a wider array of subjects beyond solely social or political themes.
Other
Kutcher has utilized A Plus as a platform to connect with fans and support charitable initiatives. In July 2014, he encouraged followers to send birthday cards to a child suffering from an untreatable brain tumor. In October of that year, he revealed his daughter’s name and posted newborn photographs on the site. November 2014 saw Kutcher share Save the Children’s "Most Shocking Second a Day" public service announcement, which amassed 10 million video views and ranked as the second most-viewed branded video on YouTube that week. On April 1, 2015, Kutcher engaged users by calling them through the site with an April Fools' joke message. Later, on April 20, he posted a Pandora advertisement featuring blindfolded children identifying their mothers by touch alone, commenting "I could watch this all day."