Can you imagine, it was just a year ago that AOL Canada launched Huffington Post Canada, we were there to cover its introduction to the marketplace, subsequent growth, and continued growth. Last night, we also had the opportunity to attend their one year anniversary party. Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder of Huffington Post was there to help celebrate the milestone along with a packed room of attendees, and a few surprising guest appearances. The full AOL Canada & Huffington Post Canada crew was in town from their Toronto and Montreal offices, all led by AOL Canada’s General Manager, Graham “Turn Around King” Moysey, as they welcome a mix of attendees representing the advertising and marketing community. So who were som of the surprises guests, well none other than Conrad Black and Canada’s Finance Ministry Jim Flaherty, both you would not typically see at an advertising event but when you consider the power of the pen and the empire that Arianna has built up over the year we shouldn’t be too surprised. Nor should we be surprised to expect a visit from Steven Harper himself (yes, we was on his way but got caught with Prince Charles who has been in Canada for the last 3 days). Even George Stroumboulopoulos sent over a video greeting to wish them continued success. Be sure to check out the photos from the event:
So how is Huffington post Canada doing, here are some stats from their first year:
- 2.9M monthly unique visitors (as of April 2012)
- 415M page views
- 800+ bloggers added
- 5,000+ blog posts
- 340,922 comments to date
- 12,000 comments per week on average (as of April 2012)
- 14M+ social referrals
So what is next for AOL Canada/ Huffington Post Canada, well plans are in the works.