The eCRUSH network comprises three major sites: eCRUSH.com, eSPINtheBottle.com an HighSchoolStyleBoard.com. The network was acquired by Hearst Media on December 31, 2006 . The original eCRUSH site was launched on Valentine's Day, 1999 in Chicago by Clark Benson and Karen DeMars Pillsbury. It pre-dates the social networking phenomena of Friendster.com, MySpace.com and Facebook.com .