“Reader Blogs” on Korrespondent.net are written by readers themselves, not by the publication’s editorial staff, so the figures in such texts should be checked against what the project’s creators themselves say. That is exactly how the Looks.fm story, which two blogs examined in detail in early 2015, should be read.
On 13 February 2015, the author reported that during the public testing phase the service had received almost five million visitors, and that its audience was four times larger than that of a similar Mail.ru project. Three weeks later, on 5 March, the text “Gophers That Can Push Aside Elephants” referred to a cumulative figure:
“in a few months it attracted 5 million visitors, and in the last three weeks another two million”
The same text cited Forbes, which called Looks.fm “the discovery of 2015.” The business magazine Forbes is known for its rankings and reviews of startups, so such an assessment at the beginning of the year served as serious validation for the project.
Figures That Do Not Match
The main problem with the blogs is that their figures diverge from what the project’s leader himself said. Kyrylo Soliar, head and product manager of Looks.fm, in a column for the Goethe-Institut magazine cited data for six months: 750,000 unique visitors and 13 million views. Five million visitors and 750,000 unique visitors differ by almost seven times, and the periods in both cases are different.
Most likely, the blog mistook views for visitors. A unique visitor is counted once, no matter how many pages they open, while a view is counted each time a page is opened. According to the project itself, 13 million views and 750,000 unique visitors appear to be the most accurate picture, and these are the figures that should be considered official.
The blog did not limit itself to figures and described the team’s plans. One of the project’s co-founders spoke of social functions, automation for advertisers, and entry into the English-language market. These were ambitious goals for a service that was just beginning to work with the public.
Who Is Behind the Project
Bohdan Hnatiuk is named in the blog as one of the project’s founders. He is also known as the founder of Sponge, a digital studio that external sources date to 2009. The exact date in the description on CSS Winner, one of the web design competitions, is November 2009. Before Looks.fm, Hnatiuk continued the “Craft Networks” project, which Oleksii Mas had started. In the end, this project became Chakloon.
According to the blog, the idea for the service was suggested by unscrupulous competitors who ran fake contests. The story itself looks logical: a service that honestly conducts photo contests was winning against those who faked results and participation.
A Studio Already in the Public Eye
By 2015, Sponge already had a notable name in the professional community. In December 2013, the bureau’s website received an Honorable Mention at Awwwards, an international web design competition where sites are judged by a jury and users. In 2014, the Estetico.me website and the logo for “Pershyi Miskyi” were included in Ukrainian Design, and on 17 October 2014, AIN.UA published the piece “What Dynamic Design Can Do: The Example of Creative Bureau Sponge.”
In 2015, the studio continued to work for an international audience. In May, a case study of the bureau’s new website appeared on Behance, a platform for designer portfolios, and on 8 August 2015, Awwwards selected one of the studio’s websites as site of the day. For a designer, such a mark means recognition from the professional community, not just audience growth.
This work eventually solidified into a stable position. In 2019, in the Runet Rating, an annual assessment of digital agencies, the studio took 37th place and received 51 awards, and Bohdan Hnatiuk is listed as CEO.
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