Demand Media Buys ExpertVillage

Demand Media has acquired ExpertVillage for an undisclosed amount, according to Reuters.

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ExpertVillage commissions how-to videos, with more than 17,000 of them currently in stock. It has a strong open distribution strategy, gaining more total views for any single video on YouTube (more than 350,000 for “How to Get Away from a Carjacker“) than it has on its own site (nearly 60,000 for “The Floating Card Trick Explained: Learn Free Magic“.

The acquisition makes sense for Demand Media, which is pursuing a strategy of applying cheap content to underused domains. CEO Richard Rosenblatt couldn’t stop raving about how popular a post he slapped together called “How to Make a Great Margarita” had become when we talked to him in April. Now he can do it with video.

The well-funded Demand Media, founded just over a year ago, has made short order of picking up acquisitions, including eNom, Answerbag, and Rosenblatt’s former company Intermix (parent of MySpace)’s white-label social networking tools. Its most recent initiative was the launch of .tv domain registrations bundled with such social networking tools.

According to ExpertVillage’s site, it was owned by PageWise — operator of HappyNews.com and Essortment.com among other sites — and it’s not clear if Demand Media has acquired the parent as well. ExpertVillage is a competitor of the well-funded VideoJug, which launched in the U.S. last week.

Update: Rosenblatt emails to say, “Yes, we bought the whole company but Expert Village was the asset we wanted.” He contends the acquired site is significantly different from VideoJug because its videos are produced by outside filmmakers rather than internal ones — “We are truly Web 2.0.”