The user base grew by word of mouth and by Christmas 1999, Neopets was logging 600,000 page views daily and sought investors to cover the high cost of running the site. Later in the month, American businessman Doug Dohring was introduced to the creators of the site and, along with other investors, bought a majority share in January of the following year.[18] Dohring founded Neopets, Inc. in February 2000 and began business April 28. Intellectual property that did not belong to Neopets, such as Bruce Forsyth were removed, but the site kept the British spellings.[17] The website made money from the first paying customers using an advertising method trademarked as "immersive advertising"[18] and touted as "an evolutionary step forward in the traditional marketing practice of product placement" in television and film.[19] In 2004, Neopets released a premium version and started showing advertisements on the basic site that, as a perk of premium membership, are not visible to premium members.