STEVE LAIDLAW

At the tail end of the 1990s, while many people were still discovering the possibilities of the internet, Steve Laidlaw was quietly acquiring domain names. What began as a hobby turned into a long-term digital strategy that would eventually position him as the founder of Digital24, a press release syndication agency with global ambitions.

In 1999, domain trading was an obscure corner of the internet economy. For Laidlaw, however, the opportunity was clear: digital real estate would only become more valuable. Over the next two decades, he built out a network of websites that generated consistent advertising income, mainly through Google AdSense and sponsored placements. The returns from those early assets were reinvested into buying more domains and expanding his online footprint.

“I wasn’t chasing unicorns. It was about building small, steady projects that worked quietly in the background. Those assets created residual revenue streams that gave me freedom to keep experimenting.”

The unexpected twist came when Laidlaw noticed that content from some of his websites was being picked up by news syndication platforms, reaching audiences far beyond their original scope. That discovery reshaped his focus: rather than only running his own projects, he saw an opportunity to create an agency that would provide this kind of reach for other businesses.

The result is Digital24, a Dubai-based distribution platform set to roll out worldwide. Promising guaranteed placement on outlets like Yahoo Finance, MSN News and Google News, Digital24 is designed to give small and mid-sized companies a direct path to global exposure.