Lighting.com Closes Down Website And Moves To Philips

Those of you who have visited the lighting.com website recently will see that it has been closed down. It is such a pity that all the great content, newsletters and stories built up over the years have disappeared. The address will now take you directly to the Philips Lighting LED Licensing Program of their Intellectual Property & Standards group.

Philips Lighting acquired the lighting.com domain and operated the website at arms length via a third party, paid from the advertising revenue.  Philips wanted to support the industry’s efforts to professionalize the lighting industry and be a trusted voice for people seeking lighting information and advice. For this reason, the identity of the owner was kept secret.

It truly was an independent and knowledgeable member of the lighting community, however, over the years as people moved around and changed jobs in the lighting industry, many people guessed or knew of its true provenance. But that wasn’t a real problem since Philips didn’t run the site or dictate the editorial direction. Stories were written and news posted without any prior discussion. It didn’t matter if the company concerned was a competitor or customer. As a former lighting.com Editor myself, I know this for a fact.

But now the cat is well and truly out of the bag and the ownership of lighting.com is a matter of public record. Following the announcement by Royal Philips that it will sell off Lumileds and Automotive, and make Lighting a separate legal structure (through an initial public offering, although other options will continue to be reviewed,) it was thought that the original intention of lighting.com was no longer valid. All lighting companies, magazines and industry associations have their own websites these days and sophisticated search engines can deliver very specific lighting information in an instant. It will be interesting to see if Philips keep redirecting the domain to their licensing programme, or if a new lighting website will be born. I for one, hope it is the latter.

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Written by Julie Allen

22 Jun