Doug Dohring is owner of the
Dohring Company, a marketing research firm based in
Glendale, California.
Holdings
Some of the websites owned by the Dohring Company include:
- MarketSurveys.com
- RestaurantSurveys.com
- SatisfactionSurveys.com
From 2000 to 2005 Dohring was CEO and a major shareholder of NeoPets, which quickly became a leading youth-targeted online community. NeoPets was sold to Viacom in 2005 for $160 million (USD).
The Dohring Company
Dohring formed The Dohring Company in 1986, with his wife serving as president. Customers for the company's market research services have included retail chains including
Baskin-Robbins and
House of Fabrics, and entertainment firms including
Capitol Records. However, automotive surveys comprised up to 80% of the firm's business in 1995. At that time, the company was ranked 55th on the
Advertising Age list of the nation's largest market research firms. It was 92nd on the
Business Journal 's recent List of fastest growing private companies in Los Angeles County.
Neopets
In December, 1999, Dohring was introduced by a mutual friend to the two British college students who had created a web site which allowed users to adopt “virtual pets” -- creatures from cartoon species -- personalize them with names and traits they choose, and care for their pets in the virtual world of “Neopia”. Seeing the potential for an entertainment venture extending well beyond the web, Dohring “took one look at Neopets and instantly decided to invest”.
In April, 2000, he brought in his first paying customers for a concept that he called immersive advertising.
Two years after its creation, in December 2001, Neopets had attracted more than 20 million accounts, more than 80% of them under the age of 17. While the "tech bubble" was bursting and large percentages of new web sites were folding, Neopets was signing up 50,000 new accounts per day, with members spending an average of four hours or more per month on the site. Business Week cited Neopets as “one of the top three entertainment sites on the Web, according to Jupiter Media Metrix”.
Advertising Age listed Dohring and Neopets in their 2001 “Roster of Marketing 100s”, noting that in July 2001 the site was ranked the “stickiest” at-home web site by Nielsen/Net Ratings.
By 2002 Neopets had 24 million accounts, and people spending more time on the site than at major services such as America Online. It was cited by Stacey Herron at Jupiter Media Metrix as “one of the most usage-intensive sites on the Web.”
Dohring sold the Neopets site to Viacom's MTV Network in June 2005 for $160 million. At the time, approximately 140 million Neopets had been created. Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks, stated that ""Neopets is a smart, creative and innovative company that with Doug Dohring's leadership has become one of the most popular and fastest growing sites on the Web."
Other Business Ventures
From March until October 1996, he was an executive at
Digital Lightwave, a
Clearwater, Florida maker of fiber-optic testing equipment. The company was later accused of numerous financial misdealings. He was also a major shareholder, and profited from the IPO.
Mr. Dohring was also a principal shareholder in Speedyclick.com circa 1999-2001, an organization linked with spamvertising. He was quoted in a December 2005 Wired Magazine article as having "also invested in the Web-based game developer Speedyclick, which he later sold for $50 million." ($3 million in cash and $47 million in ShopNow stock 
, later renamed as "Network Commerce", deemed worthless in 2001.
Personal life
A 47-year-old
California native, Dohring is the youngest son of a car dealer and a homemaker. He has been married to Laurie Dohring since 1979. They have five children including two sets of
identical twins. His son, actor
Jason Dohring, previously starred as
Logan Echolls in the now-canceled
CW Television series,
Veronica Mars. Jason has since been tapped by 'Mars' producer
Joel Silver to play Josef, a 400-year old vampire on the
CBS show '
Moonlight'.
Doug Dohring and Scientology
Doug Dohring has attended the
Scientology-related
Hubbard College of Administration, which quotes him "...Mr.
Hubbard's organizational concepts are always with me". According to the Church of Scientology's magazine
Source, Mr. Dohring completed the course
OT VI, which, according to Scientology, means that he is progressing on a program to become "essentially a being able to operate free of the encumbrances of the material universe".
References
External links
