Yahoo Autos Clarkson, Hammond, and May Are Creating a New Website For Car Enthusiasts
Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond aren't just busy filming a new, yet-to-be-named TV show for Amazon. The former Top Gear trio has been hard at work developing (and funding) DriveTribe, a new website that wants to be an online home for car enthusiasts of all shapes and sizes. Clarkson, Hammond, May, along with their longtime producer Andy Wiman have partnered with entrepreneur Ernesto Schmitt, who is DriveTribe's CEO.
The Verge reports that DriveTribe has been in development since December last year, but only officially entered the public eye this week. The site consists of various so-called "Tribes," centered around a particular automotive interest, with original content produced by Clarkson, Hammond, and May, along with a full-time editorial staff that's yet to be hired.
There will be tribes led by the former Top Gear presenters, as well as tribes dedicated to specific makes and models of cars. Any DriveTribe user can create their own tribe for others to follow.
It's being pitched as sort of an automotive equivalent to video game site Twitch and travel site TripAdvisor. The Verge describes it as "a sort of SB Nation for car nuts," drawing a comparison to the Vox Media-owned site which has a dedicated editorial team covering general sports news, in addition to smaller blogs for specific teams.
Speaking to Variety, Richard Hammond sounded excited about the project:
"Bearing in mind that we are editorial-led people, we saw an opportunity. Because we know and love our subject, we are probably more aware than most of the breadth and the depth of it, the different passions that it ignites in different people in different ways, because we have been exposed to that for many years. And we figured now is the time when technology in the media is allowing us to pull the thing together in a whole new way"
While DriveTribe certainly has star power in Clarkson, Hammond, and May, and no lack of capital, this sounds like a difficult venture. In order for this to work (make money), you'd have to attract a significant audience, which means getting people away from social media like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, as well as automotive websites as a whole.
In order to attract that audience away from their source of choice, you'd need a lot of talented people consistently creating good content. Clarkson, Hammond, and May are obviously huge gets as content creators go, but it's hard to imagine them cranking out multiple stories per day. Other talented creators also won't likely want to abandon their audiences for a new, unproven platform, short of being offered a significant amount of money.
Per Variety, DriveTribe notes that there are 400 million "motoring fans" on Facebook alone, but how many will actually come to DriveTribe?
Plus, DriveTribe will rely on advertising, but potential advertisers would no doubt be wary of such sprawling communities, potentially operating with little editorial oversight. That's a problem Reddit has faced, which has a huge audience, but a tough time monitoring its many vast communities. Advertisers don't want to be associated with sites that represent values they don't agree with, even if only a small part of the site holds that value.
It's not a direct comparison, but one can't help but think of Jay Z's music streaming service Tidal. Jay Z brought out some of the biggest pop stars right now to launch the service, and has had a number of exclusive albums by Beyoncé, Rhianna, and others, but it's hard to see Tidal as anything but a chaotic mess.
Clarkson, Hammond, and May might be the biggest stars in the automotive world right now, but will that be enough to make DriveTribe a hit? It could be a runaway success, but given today's fractured media landscape, it might be harder than anyone thinks.
