Warren Miller’s Owner Buys Millennial-Focused Outdoor App

The two companies announced their union early last week via their websites and social media accounts. Yonder photo. 

Yonder is far more than an app for your smart phone. It is a community. And this community is about to get a little bit bigger. The Vermont-started, Boulder-based app has just been bought by Active Interest Media (AIM), a publisher that specializes in outdoor magazines.

“Our mission has always been to inspire people to get out more and share their passion for the outdoors, so we’re thrilled to unveil Yonder as our newest offering,” says Kent Ebersole, Vice President and General Manager of the Outdoor Group at AIM. “This acquisition is a natural fit with many of our properties including Backpacker, Ski, Warren Miller, Climbing, National Park Trips, and Skiing – and will enable us to interact with an even broader and younger social audience.”

Yonder has already engaged with over one million users since their launch in 2013, but the reach of AIM will hopefully help to bring Yonder to those who may not yet be aware of all the app has to offer. As one of the world’s largest enthusiast media companies, AIM produces materials that reach 40 million readers, fans, and attendees in 85 countries.

The geo-tagged locations make is easy for users to prioritize where they care about viewing, and keeping out pictures of places like New Jersey. Yonder photo via Yonder.it.

For those who don't know, Yonder is a social media platform with an emphasis on outdoor engagement. Think Instagram meets TripAdvisor for the outdoor enthusiast. Through the app users are encouraged to share photographs and experiences, which are then categorized by location and activity.

"Yonder is an app purpose-built for sharing your red point, single track, pow shot, dawn patrol adventures with a community that's just as psyched about the outdoors as you are." AKA with Yonder you can share as many awe-inspiring pictures of your insane adventures as you'd like, without the risk of personally offending your followers on other social media platforms. Yonder also allows a large amount of interactivity among its constituents; users are encouraged to ask questions, write reviews and comment on their experiences about the places they have gone in order to enhance the experience of those who hope to follow in a similar, more enlightened, fashion.

Yonder's user-friendly set-up makes it so that even the most technologically impaired can interact with grace, ease and minimal questions for millennials. Yonder photo via Yonder.it.

Yonder also contains an exploration aspect that allows users to look at the shared images and take advantage of the features of the social network by sharing, favoriting, commenting and more. Yonder-ers can also follow other users and see where they are exploring.

Not only does Yonder allow users to only view what they are truly interested in, but individuals can additionally filter their content based on activity and location. For example, if your prerogative is to only see kayaking snaps from Alaska's Prince William Sound, or free-climbing shots from Yosemite, Yonder can make that happen.

“In a very short time, Yonder resonated with hundreds of thousands of young, active adventure seekers who love to post and devour content,” said Jonathan Dorn, SVP, Digital & Creative Services with AIM. “Unlike mass-market social apps, Yonder provides a very curated experience for outdoor-minded users – no wading through irrelevant posts to find compelling content about hiking, skiing, climbing, and biking. That focus, plus best-in-class user ratings, have led to extraordinary engagement and more than a half-million unique content uploads.”

Yonder has joined up with some pretty cool partners historically: Burton, The North Face and the U.S. Forest Service to name a few. So, although Yonder is doing pretty well on their own, this acquisition from AIM could be paramount in bringing Yonder to the front of the social media world stage, and sparking a revolution of bringing technology into the backcountry to better one's experience like never before. 

Download Yonder now (oh, yeah– it's free) from the App Store or from Google Play and begin sharing your story.