iVillage Unveils 'App Network'

RedCarpetMobileApp

iVillage has app fever. On the heels of launching its "Red Carpet Fever" app in connection with the Academy Awards, the NBC Universal-owned women's site has announced plans to roll out a series of mobile applications this year aimed at its core audience.  

The iVillage App Network will introduce two new branded apps per quarter for various platforms, including the iPhone, Android-powered phones and tablets linked to content verticals on the flagship site. In the works are a pair of apps for chronicling milestones through pregnancy and early childhood and health-related apps tied to iVillage's "Community Challenge" franchise that motivate people to get fit.

Later this month, the company will also expand its original "iVillage" app with a collection of women-focused original content, including inspirational stories and photo galleries taken from the most popular offerings on the site. It will also provide full social-networking capability.

Leading the mobile effort will be Douglas Gottlieb, who has joined iVillage as vice president, user experience, from BN.com, where he oversaw Barnes & Noble's software applications, including its Nook eBook apps. Before that, Gottlieb was senior director of interactive media for Sony/BMG Music.

An iVillage spokesperson said the company would sell advertising within its apps on an individual basis, as well as across the nascent app network.

Women make up about 40% of U.S. smartphone owners, and a study by the Pew Research Center on mobile apps last September found that about the same percentage of women had recently downloaded an app. However, women were more likely than men to have used a social-networking app in the past 30 days (53% v. 42%).

An estimated 78 million American women overall are mobile users.

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