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Peter Cheales sells HelloPeter.com

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 25 Nov 2014
Peter Cheales will continue to watch HelloPeter from the side-lines.
Peter Cheales will continue to watch HelloPeter from the side-lines.

HelloPeter founder Peter Cheales is handing over control of the popular consumer complaint site to an unnamed "dynamic" team of entrepreneurs.

In bidding farewell to a site he founded 14 years ago, Cheales wrote an emotive letter to subscribers, saying "this is a bitter-sweet time for me".

Cheales started HelloPeter in 2000, and has worked at it constantly since it initially began as "just an idea". He notes, at the time of launch, there was no other model to replicate because Facebook and Twitter had yet to hit the world, and the word blog had yet to be invented.

Since then, Cheales claims "HelloPeter has become the biggest customer service site in the world". According to Alexa, the popular portal is the 158th most visited site in SA, and ranks 21 292 globally.

Alexa's statistics show most people visit 4.6 pages while on the site, and spend just over four minutes browsing. The bulk of users, 96.8%, are located in SA, with most navigating to the site via Google after searching for company names.

Cheales says it is now "time for me to say goodbye. It's time for fresh blood, more energy and new life." His team will remain on board, and details about the new team of entrepreneurs will be released shortly. "I know that my baby will continue to grow from strength to strength."

As for Cheales, he will continue to follow his twin writing and speaking passions, and has urged site users to interact on social media, and to continue to greet him by saying "hello Peter".

"I will continue to watch from the side-lines. The site will always be a part of me."

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