What Cracked.com does

Cracked.com is a digital humor and entertainment publisher that operates a free, advertising-supported web platform publishing comedic listicles, cultural commentary, trivia, and videos. Its content is organized across categories including Movies & TV, Science & History, Trivia & Jokes, Comedy, and Video Games, with named bylines (Keegan Kelly, John Summers, Jay Wells L'Ecuyer, Belen Leiva, Maria Alvarado) producing editorial at a cadence of multiple pieces per week. The company is operated by Literally Media Ltd., a privately held Israeli parent company with registered offices in Hertzelia, Israel, and US offices in Brooklyn (privacy/data protection) and Seattle (legal jurisdiction). Governing law is the State of Washington.

The underlying platform is a CDN-delivered web publishing system (ui-seo.crackedcdn.com) with subdomains including trivia.cracked.com, a user account system, and newsletter delivery infrastructure. Third-party integrations include Playwire LLC for advertising management, Google Analytics for site analytics, and Mailchimp for email marketing. The company operates two documented sub-brands: Cracked Comedy Club (live stand-up comedy shows) and the Cracked Newsletter (daily and weekly email editions). A YouTube channel extends distribution into video.

The business model is exclusively direct-to-consumer and ad-supported: all content is free, with no paid subscription tiers or premium offerings identified. Revenue is generated through display advertising managed by Playwire LLC, with secondary intent to monetize newsletter lists and live events. The customer base is a single horizontal segment of general consumers seeking humor, pop-culture commentary, and shareable trivia content. Geographic reach is primarily North America with EU compliance posture; no app store presence or marketplace distribution is in use.

Name

Cracked.com

Legal name

Literally Media Ltd.

Website

https://cracked.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Cracked.com is a free, ad-supported digital humor and entertainment publisher operating a web platform (and YouTube channel) that serves general consumers with comedic listicles, cultural commentary, trivia, and videos, complemented by live comedy shows and email newsletters.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Santa Monica

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Advertising Revenue: The primary revenue model is advertising-supported free content. The site displays display advertisements and serves online ads based on user activity data collected through cookies. Playwire LLC manages advertising on the site.
2. Newsletter Subscriptions: Users can subscribe to daily and weekly newsletters. The site collects email addresses and names for newsletter delivery, with users able to unsubscribe at any time.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Cracked.com is an online humor and entertainment publisher that produces comedic lists, non-fiction cultural commentary, trivia, and videos organized into categories including Movies & TV, Science & History, Trivia & Jokes, Comedy, and Video Games. The platform distributes content for free to general consumers, monetizing primarily through display advertising managed by Playwire LLC, email newsletters delivered via Mailchimp, and social sharing across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, and Flipboard.

Product overview

Cracked.com is a single-platform online humor and entertainment website operated by Literally Media Ltd. The platform publishes comedic lists, cultural commentary, trivia content, and videos across content categories including Movies & TV, Science & History, Trivia & Jokes, and Comedy. It also offers newsletter subscriptions for daily and weekly content roundups.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Cracked Comedy Club: Live comedy shows and performances featuring stand-up comedians.
• Cracked Newsletter

Products and services

• Cracked.com Website A free online humor and entertainment platform publishing original comedic lists, non-fiction cultural commentary, trivia, and videos. Content is organized into categories including Movies & TV, Science & History, Trivia & Jokes, Comedy, and Video Games, and is targeted at general consumers seeking entertainment and shareable content.
• Cracked Newsletter Free email newsletters delivering daily and weekly content roundups including trivia, jokes, interviews, and deep-dive articles. Users subscribe by providing an email address and can unsubscribe at any time.
• Trivia.cracked.com A subdomain of Cracked.com dedicated to trivia and jokes content, hosting an extensive archive of pop culture trivia, memes, and joke collections accessible globally at no cost.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• BuzzFeed: BuzzFeed pioneered the viral list-based humor and pop culture article format that Cracked also relies on. Both are ad-supported digital publishers targeting similar general-consumer entertainment audiences with shareable listicles and quizzes.
• The Onion: The Onion is a long-running satirical humor publication with a comparable irreverent editorial voice and a digital-first audience. Both compete for the same casual comedy-seeking audience online.
• Mental Floss: Mental Floss publishes trivia, pop culture, and history content with a humor-leaning tone — directly overlapping Cracked's Trivia & Jokes and Science & History verticals. Both monetize primarily through digital advertising.
• CollegeHumor: CollegeHumor produces comedic articles, lists, and original video content aimed at a similar online audience. It shares Cracked's mix of written humor, branded video, and YouTube distribution.
• Funny Or Die: Funny Or Die is a comedy publisher producing humor articles, sketches, and celebrity-driven video — overlapping with Cracked's mix of comedy editorial and YouTube content.
• ClickHole: ClickHole is a parody/humor site producing absurdist listicles and cultural satire — directly comparable to Cracked's comedic list format and irreverent editorial voice.
• Listverse: Listverse is a list-format publisher focused on trivia, facts, and pop culture oddities — closely mirroring Cracked's evergreen list content and SEO-driven distribution model.

Broad incumbents

• Vulture: Vulture is the pop culture and entertainment criticism vertical of New York Magazine. While broader in scope, it overlaps with Cracked's Movies & TV and pop culture commentary and represents a more established editorial competitor.

Emerging players

• McSweeney's Internet Tendency: McSweeney's publishes literary humor, satire, and lists with a smaller, niche audience. It overlaps with Cracked's cultural commentary and humor verticals but at a more literary scale.
• The Hard Times: The Hard Times is a satire site parodying culture, news, and entertainment — a smaller-scale analog to Cracked's comedic editorial with similar ad-supported digital distribution.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/Cracked
• Xx.com/Cracked
• Facebookfacebook.com/cracked
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cracked

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cracked.com