bdnews24.com is one of Bangladesh's leading newspaper/media groups. With an Alexa ranking placing it consistently among the world's top websites. It has also persisted as the country's leading English language as well as bilingual English and Bengali website. bdnews24.com ranks among the top 10 of all websites consulted by Bangladeshis. bdnews24.com is Bangladesh's first 24/7 news service in any medium and relies on nearly 500 journalists and photographers around the country. In 2005, the company launched initially as the country's first exclusively web-based news agency, and was known as BDNEWS. Following a take-over in mid-2006 at the agency's holding company, Bangladesh News 24 Hours Ltd, ownership is vested between two sole Board Directors: Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi, and Chair of the company Asif Mahmood. In October 2006, bdnews24.com re-launched as Bangladesh's first free and exclusively online newspaper, and was rebranded as bdnews24.com. bdnews24.com features content in both Bangla and English, and was opened to public free of charge on 23 Oct 2006, creating what has since been called Bangladesh's first online newspaper. Toufique Imrose Khalidi, the Managing Director of the company and Chief Editor, is a journalist and former BBC broadcaster. His goal was to make bdnews24.com the world's window on Bangladesh, and has now arguably become the largest news provider in the country by reach. In an intensely polarized society that is Bangladesh, bdnews24.com draws bipartisan support to its brand of journalism, including arch-rivals Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.