With over 1.3 million readers per month, Index.hu is one of the most popular Hungarian language internet portals. The editor-in-chief and founder of the site was András Nyírő. From 2000 until the 30 September 2011 the editor-in-chief was Péter Uj.
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Founding
Index was founded in 1995 under the original name, Internetto.hu. It was later renamed to Index.hu. The predecessor, Internetto, had a daily viewership of about 8,000 in the 1990s, which caused several investors to start showing interest. The leaders of Internetto at the time started the buyout talks with the IDG (International Data Group). To prevent this, András Nyírő, Gábor Gerényim and Peter Új founded a new company called Consulting URL, which in April 1999, made a HUF 15 million buyout offer towards IDG. At the next editorial meeting, István Bíró (CEO), fired the three for making the bid. As a response to this move the entire editorial board resigned. They soon founded index.hu.
Later developments
Index has free language, some consider it vulgar, and it regularly carries tabloid news on the front page. The political orientation of Index.hu is not entirely clear. Between 2002-2010 the portal has been openly critical of the incumbent socialist-liberal government on several occasions, the conservative right alleges Index.hu is merely a method of "letting off steam" in a state-safe manner. Their opinion is mostly based on the style of the site and the content of articles written by Árpád W. Tóta, who makes regular appearance on Index.hu. His controversial "Game over JPII" farewell to the late pontiff brought record site visits, but was threatened with forced close-down of the portal. He continues to publish on Index.hu with an openly critical view of the Church. Lately Tóta created his own blog, the W blog, leading to his most controversial writings no longer appearing on the index.hu main page. Index.hu's political orientation is mainly centrist, with a liberal bent on many social issues.
Among the strong points of Index.hu is its alliance with Totalcar.hu, the leading Hungarian automotive news and test portal and linking to Tékozló Homár (lit. "Prodigal Lobster"), a consumer rights blog.
The main competitor of Index.hu is the higher traffic Origo.hu webportal, which has a more established style and broader, but somewhat plain content. Index.hu is fighting an uphill battle as Origo.hu is run by the Hungarian branch of telecommunications giant Magyar Telekom (formerly known as MATÁV).
Related services
In recent years index.hu greatly expanded the range of services offered. It now hosts: