its affordable style is worn by everyone from samantha cameron to rihanna   and in 2012 it became the most visited fashion website in the world for 18 to 34 year olds but as the duchess of cambridge   who is one of the most emulated women in the world   stepped out in a dress by asos this week, it proved how far the e tailer has come from its humble beginnings in 2000 the duchess dressed her bump in a spotty £35 wrap dress from the virtual high street on a visit to the brookhill children's centre in london's woolwich on wednesday in the past year, asos’s share value has doubled  with millions of fashion fans rushing online to snap up its daily new drops so where did it all begin for the booming brand? scroll down for video  the royal seal of approval: the duchess of cambridge dressed her bump in a spotty £35 wrap dress from asos on a visit to the brookhill children's centre in london's woolwich on wednesday, so how did the e tailer take off so quickly? the site was founded in 2000 by nick robertson and quentin griffiths under the name as seen on screen with the founder of austin reed for a grandfather, it seems that nick was always destined for a career in fashion nick, who attended private school, canford, got two ds and an f in his a levels   which he confessed were 'diabolical'   and spent a brief period as a ‘ski bum’ in meribel, france, before joining advertising firm young & rubicam and carat how things started: it was founded in 2000 by nick robertson, and quentin griffiths under the name as seen on screen and they poached buyer lorri penn, centre, from sir philip green's arcadia to help them get in touch with what customers wanted  entrepeneur: nick, who attended private school, canford, got two ds and an f in his a levels and spent a brief period as a 'ski bum' in meribel, france, before launching the site  in 1996, he and friend quentin griffiths set up entertainment marketing, which made money by getting brands featured on soaps four years later, they launched asos with £24million, mostly borrowed from friends and family the duo's original idea was to help customers track down the clothes and furniture seen on tv nick explained: 'we read a stat back in 1999 that when the programme friends aired, nbc got 4,000 calls about some standard lamp in one of their apartments asking where it could be purchased so that was the real idea behind the business' they poached buyer lorri penn from sir philip green’s arcadia to help them get in touch with what customers wanted and focused solely on celebrity fashion by selling near matches of what stars were wearing by 2003, asos was already in profit and had launched its own label early days: nick robertson, ceo of internet based fashion retailer asos, is flanked by models gia, left, and alice at the company's north london office prior to the announcement of preliminary results back in the early 2000's  star seller: nick robertson was awarded an obe for services to the fashion industry during an investiture ceremony at buckingham palace and sales for the financial year ending 31 august 2013 were £7538m  it went on to expand into beauty and big brands started getting on board after it became the first uk fashion retailer to launch a moving images ‘catwalk’ in 2007, asos magazine launched with 400,000 copies sent out to customers a month and cover stars including the likes of taylor swift then, the e tailer branched out into menswear and the following year, retail sales jumped 90 per cent while profits leapt 117 per cent sales started pouring in after the site offered next day delivery, and it widened its target audience by introducing designer brands at asos with a new range of high end labels on board just like us: samantha cameron wore a £42 asos on the final day of the conservative party conference with her husband, prime minister david cameron, in 2013  from digital to print: in 2007, asos magazine launched, with 400,000 copies sent out to customers a month with cover stars including the likes of taylor swift  most visited fashion site in the world: today, the site still sells its own label and 850 other brands and is visited by nearly 100m people a month  by 2011, asos  went multi channel, multi lingual and  joined forces with social networks as international sales soared by 142 per cent, with dedicated sites for countries all over the world in 2012, offices were opened in new york and sydney and later in berlin and shanghai today, the site still sells its own label alongside 850 other brands, and gives boutiques the chance to sell new and pre worn fashion through its marketplace channel writing about the e tailer's success on its site, asos say: 'when we said we wanted to be 'truly global', we meant it in the year when we took over as the number one most visited fashion website in the world, per day, by 18 34 year olds, we opened our first international offices   and we have plans for more' sales for the financial year ending 31 august 2013 were £7538m and asos plc had an estimated net worth of £159m its  website attracted 98m visits during december 2014 it seems that the rise of asos really is unstoppable in the past month alone, stars including kimberley walsh, left, and charli xcx, right, have worn designs that cost under £50 from the site 
nick robertson december 2014 samantha cameron seen on screen asos plc quentin griffiths £24m £159m the financial year ending 31 august 2013 taylor swift £7538m kate 2000
founded in 2000 by nick robertson and quentin griffiths  originally called as seen on screen and launched with £24m  sales for the financial year ending 31 august 2013 were £7538m  asos plc had an estimated net worth of £159m  its website attracted 98m visits during december 2014  worn by likes of kate, samantha cameron and taylor swift 