From IPhone reviews to rice cookers: chip.de is no longer just a tech portal. Editor-in-chief Manuel Schreiber explains how the brand has evolved into a guide for everyday digital life – and why orientation matters more…
Tonight (16 January 2026), DLD Chairmen Hubert Burda and Yossi Vardi, together with BurdaForward CEOs Lydia Rullkötter and Daniel Steil, hosted the traditional Chairmen's Dinner at the DLD Munich 26 innovation conference. The festive occasion also marked the 30th anniversary of Chip.de, Germany's largest tech and consumer portal, and Focus Online, one of the country’s leading news platform.
Focus Online looks back on three decades of digital publishing: on Sunday, 18 January 1996, the online edition of Focus - German's leading weekly news magazine - went live. Publisher Hubert Burda and Focus founder Helmut Markwort announced the launch on that day, exactly three years after the print magazine was first published. ‘We are starting to broadcast Focus Online today, and we will never stop,’ Markwort said at the time. Just one month later, on 15 February 1996, Chip.de went live. For 30 years, the platform has stood for in-depth technical expertise, reliable testing, and trusted consumer and purchasing advice. What began as a niche website for technology enthusiasts has since evolved into one of Germany's most dependable digital guides, helping millions of user navigate products, services and everyday digital challenges.
More than 300 guests attended the exclusive dinner, among them Ulrike Scharf (Bavarian Minister of State for Labour, Family and Social Affairs), Cardinal Reinhard Marx (Archbishop of Munich and Freising), Georg Eisenreich (Bavarian Minister of Justice), Regine Sixt (Sixt), Günther Thallinger (Allianz SE), Ilka Horstmeier (BMW AG), Tijen Onaran, Florian Haller (Serviceplan), Andrea Lissoni (Haus der Kunst), Solveigh Hieronimus (McKinsey & Company), Victoria Ossadnik (E.ON), Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe (Sustainable Markets Initiative), Petra Schwille (Max Planck Institute) as well as numerous other personalities from business, politics, science and culture gathered in the ballroom of Munich’s Bayerischer Hof, using the evening of the conference’s second day to exchange ideas and connect across disciplines.
Musical accompaniment for the evening was provided by the internationally acclaimed violinist Iskandar Widjaja.
DLD Munich 26 will continue until Saturday afternoon (17 January 2026) at the House of Communication.
