eFront

{{short description|Affiliate marketing network}}

{{for|the course management system|eFront (eLearning software)}}

{{Infobox company

| name = eFront

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| industry = Marketing

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| founded =

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| defunct = {{End date|2001}}

| hq_location_city =

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| key_people = Jain Shaileshkumar (CEO)

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| website = Archived at {{URL|https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.efront.com}}

}}

{{lowercase title|eFront}}

eFront was an affiliate marketing network which purchased successful websites, such as Penny Arcade, SquareGamer, and BetaNews, and pooled traffic to those sites to command higher prices for advertising during an industrywide ad revenue slowdown. In 2001, there was a scandal when ICQ instant messaging logs between the CEO Sam P. Jain and other employees were leaked onto the internet through Fuckedcompany.com.{{cite web | title=ICQ logs spark corporate nightmare | url=http://news.com/2100-1023-254173.html?legacy=cnet&tag=tp_pr | accessdate=October 20, 2005 }}{{cite web | title=eFront From Inside | url=http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/10/1626249&mode=thread | accessdate=October 20, 2005 }} The logs detailed activities such as not paying websites that had hosted their banner ads, sending legal threats to websites that spoke poorly of eFront, and threatening to "rape her and spit on her" (referring to a female webmaster angry about not receiving her check from the company). The logs also detailed how eFront attempted to hire, though never ended up paying, Something Awful founder and webmaster Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, ostensibly to have him generate a positive buzz for the company.{{cite web | title=This is long and boring | url=http://penny-arcade.com/2005/05/09/this-is-long-and-boring | accessdate=October 20, 2005 }}

Richard Kyanka stated during a presentation at the University of Illinois in October 2005 that he was still owed $40,000 by eFront, and that the company ran a number of competitions to attract clients, yet the prizes were awarded to employees.[http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=3318 Lowtax speaks at the University of Illinois], at Something Awful; published October 31, 2005; retrieved August 13, 2013

As of July 2006, the company's former efront.com domain is owned by an unrelated French software firm, eFront Alternative Investment Solutions.{{cite web |url=http://www.efront.com/ |title=Home |website=efront.com}}