Future Publishing has closed Gadget Candy.com, a blog offering technology and gadget news for females, after two years. A spin-off from T3, the printed tech magazine that often features scantily-clad ladies on the cover, Gadget Candy opened in October 2005 to give a more feminine perspective, citing research that showed young women were spending increasing amounts on technology.
Writers updated the site throughout the day with news of gadgets and pink tech but this is a niche already well stocked by the likes of Popgadget and, closer to home, Shiny Shiny, the “girl’s guide to gadgets” from British blog publishing house Shiny Media that launched in March 2004 and on which Gadget Candy appeared to have been modeled. A Future spokesperson told paidContent:UK Gadget Candy was always an extension of T3.co.uk, will now be reintroduced as a column at the site and may eventually become a full channel of the property, which is being relaunched to include a more female-friendly touch. Gadget Candy.com has not disappeared but will no longer be updated.
Future is otherwise making further investments after online ad revenue ballooned by two third in the first half of the year. This may either suggest a win for Shiny Shiny or that women don’t need their gadget news sugar-coated in pink. Future’s ad info says Gadget Candy got 37,447 unique visitors per month, but Shiny Shiny got 312,000 in August, Shiny Media co-founder Ashley Norris told paidContent:UK. Shiny Media took $4.5 million in funding from Bright Station Ventures in January, giving up a 50 percent stake in the process.