DriveTribe
Top speed welcomes Richard Hammond (L), Jeremy Clarkson (M) and James May (R). “>
This week has brought sad news to the online automotive world. DriveTribe, a community platform for car enthusiasts, will close at the end of January after only five years.
In an article announcing the shutdown, DriveTribe highlights the continued shortage of chips that has caused the new car market to contract, with an associated reduction in the marketing budgets of automakers. “This has created an incredibly difficult operating environment for businesses like ours that depend on advertising,” he says.
DriveTribe was started in 2016 by a tech entrepreneur named Ernesto Schmitt, together with automotive television personalities Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. Hammond sold the concept to Clarkson as “like YouPorn, only with cars.”
Despite an internet already cluttered with automotive communities, web forums, and captions, DriveTribe found an audience and managed to build an following. But that never really challenged more established sites like Jalopnik or PistonHeads in terms of reach or community size, and he struggled financially.
As of next month, it’s all over, although the announcement of the shutdown indicates Hammond will continue to post on DriveTribe’s social media accounts.
“It’s such a shame that we have to drop this,” said James May. “DriveTribe and FoodTribe are awesome platforms that have inspired many new writers and bloggers to come up with great stuff. the absolute end, however. We always have an outlet for food and auto nonsense, so the world economy can whistle dixie out of its ass. “
Members of the DriveTribe community can download their content in PDF format until the end of January.
