Lance Armstrong Foundation and Demand Media Launch LIVESTRONG.COM
Santa Monica, CA - June 17, 2008

Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and Demand Media, Inc., the leading social media company, recently launched LIVESTRONG.COM. The new online destination is designed to inspire people to change their lives, help themselves and help others by offering online tools and relevant content from both experts and the community. The website's goal is to encourage individuals to have a daily conversation about their health, fitness and lifestyle.

A survey released today by LIVESTRONG.COM and fielded by Harris Interactive(R) reveals that although 86% of Americans attempt changes to improve their overall health, less than half of those who considered making lifestyle changes (46%) are actually successful. "This website has been a very ambitious undertaking because we want to help people take responsibility for their health and change their lives for the better," explained Lance Armstrong, LAF founder and chairman of the LIVESTRONG.COM advisory board. "The reality of changing a specific behavior is that it has to happen every day and it is almost impossible to do alone, especially without some measure of motivation. We built LIVESTRONG.COM to enable a real conversation on health and healthy living that is always evolving and where people can find support, inspiration and guidance on how to successfully make those changes."

LIVESTRONG.COM launches with 15,000 professional articles and videos, more than 350,000 nutritional food profiles and 50,000 health and fitness-related questions and answers. This site was developed on the Demand Media platform, which provides a complete and authentic online experience where users produce, consume and interact with content based around their own passions and interests.

"Working with Lance and the Foundation to launch LIVESTRONG.COM has been our most exciting and inspiring venture to date," said Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media's co-founder, chairman and CEO. "We utilized our tools, platform and broad experience in social media to develop a truly new approach to health and healthy living. Relevant and impactful content, combined with engaging social media tools, are the most important elements of building useful online communities. With LIVESTRONG.COM, we are now able to extend that experience to users seeking an active community of health-minded people."

Thousands of people previewed LIVESTRONG.COM prior to the launch, including many of the LAF Army members. These users provided the team with feedback to fine tune many of the site's features, including its MY DARES Application. Real time and user feedback will be integral to the continued evolution of the site.

Users were also granted early access to the site via Google Health as one of its initial launch partners. LIVESTRONG.COM, in cooperation with Google, provides integrated tools that deliver additional content and community features to consumers using Google Health via linking user accounts on both sites. This collaboration allows users who create a Google Health profile the ability to access and share relevant information directly related to their health conditions, medications and interests specified on LIVESTRONG.COM.

When a new user signs up to LIVESTRONG.COM, they set up their own list of goals which become DARES. These can range from simple, short-term DARES such as "Jump Rope for Ten Minutes Every Day," to inspirational, long-term DARES like "Run a Marathon." Once entered, the site dynamically serves up content and community directly related to that DARE, so the user immediately has information and real, live, people looking to take on similar challenges. The MY DARES Application can also be transferable, so users can give a DARE to a friend or family member via their email.

The LIVESTRONG.COM Advisory Board is also helping drive development of the site. Chaired by Lance, the board includes Dr. Sanjay Gupta (chief medical correspondent at CNN), Dr. Timothy S. Harlan (also known as Dr. Gourmet), Dr. Micheal A. Clark (president and CEO of National Academy of Sports Medicine), and Andy Miller (director of Survivorship Programs for the Lance Armstrong Foundation). Through ongoing blogs, articles and tips the Advisory Board members provide insight, challenges and compassion to inspire and motivate LIVESTRONG.COM members to reach their goals and celebrate their achievements.


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