Pearl Raises Cash, Leads Move To Paid Answers

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What types of online information services can make money by charging fees rather than relying on advertising?

That's the sort of question that one might put to the business-oriented question-and-answer service Pearl.com.

And the answer might be ... business-oriented question-and-answer services like Pearl.com, which just raised $25 million in a new funding round led by Glynn Capital, with participation from brokerage mogul Charles Schwab, lawyer Larry Sonsini and others.

Formerly know as JustAnswers, Pearl.com already boasts more than $100 million in annual revenues, said founder Andy Kurtzig. The company is pushing forward with a fee-for-service approach in a niche populated by both free and paid service.

The category leader, Yahoo! Answers, uses the freebie model, and had 53.6 million unique visitors last month, acc