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Nimbuzz Raises $15 Million in Funding2nd July 2008 6:35 pm social networking Nimbuzz, the mobile VoIP and IM provider that also brings IM and voice to social networks, has raised $15 million Second Round funding. The new round of funding was led by Naspers/MIH with Nimbuzz’s other major existing investor Mangrove Capital Partners also participating. Nimbuzz will use this latest funding to continue to develop its product offering into the most comprehensive and user friendly application for the widest range of handsets, across multiple IM and Social Network communities and in any country. Founder and CEO Evert Jaap Lugt commented: “We are actively working on strategic distribution deals with leading social networks and mobile operators. It is our aim to blend our technology with existing mobile internet access to upgrade the value chain for business and consumers alike. Operators understand the need for services like Nimbuzz which “Nimbuzz brings IM and voice to social networks,” adds Lugt. “By incorporating our applications, social networks can offer their users fully integrated real-time communication services like voice calls, chat, file sharing and access to their friends in other popular IM communities such as Skype, AIM, Yahoo, MSN and GTalk. Additionally, their online social Deals with 10 major social networks and 3 operators are already on the table. The extent of the Nimbuzz product portfolio to date has confirmed the investors’ confidence in the companies’ potential to stay on top of technology advancements and in turn become an integral part of day to day mobile and internet communication. “We are well on the way to realising this aim with more than 1, 000,000 registered mobile users and more than 5,000 joining each day. The renewed commitment from our investors, coupled with our impressive growth, gives us important additional leverage in our discussions with both operators looking for ways to generate loyalty amongst consumers and social networks The continued introduction of flat rate mobile data plans provided by operators across Europe is a sure sign of the importance of mobile internet services to the future communications industry. Analysts such as IDC (http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS21219408) suggest VoIP will lead the communication evolution and predict that there will be around half a billion worldwide personal IP communications subscribers by 2012. With the benefit of this latest funding Nimbuzz will continue to capitalise on this market opportunity and build important win-win relationships with Nimbuzz has grown rapidly and now employs 70 people. It has opened offices in Argentina and Brazil, where it has partnered with Abril, the largest media company in the country. With the benefit of this latest funding the team will work to extend Nimbuzz’s reach to other platforms including Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android and will implement additional social and presence-based features to its clients. Announcements on these and other developments are expected later this year. In 2007 Nimbuzz raised $10 million in funding, led by Mangrove Capital Partners with investments from Naspers / MIH Group and Holtzbrinck Ventures. This money was used for the development of the current product offering, which allows users who download Nimbuzz access to free mobile VoIP calling, conference calling, instant messaging, chat and group chat, as well as photo and file sending across multiple IM communities (including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo!, AIM, Jabber and ICQ). It also offers a widget which provides voice to 23 social networks, including Facebook and MySpace - all from a single application. Want to knwo whats happening online? and what a piece of the action If so, contact Hit Search on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Kiwibox launches its mobile web site30th June 2008 3:13 pm social networking Kiwibox today announced the launch of a new WAP service designed to expand their online community to mobile users. WAP, or wireless application protocol, is an open international standard for applications that use wireless communication to enable access to the Internet from a mobile phone or PDA. The extension into the mobile market will allow Kiwibox’s 1.8 million teen users the flexibility to communicate on-the-go. Kiwibox’s WAP site will translate the innovative social networking features currently found on the Web site to the mobile handset. “Our users have come to expect immediate accessibility to social networks and mobile handsets are becoming lifelines to teenagers as a means of staying in touch with their friends,” said Lin Dai, Chief Executive Officer of Kiwibox. “With the addition of this WAP site, we’ve effectively cut the cord that previously restricted users to their desktops and given Kiwibox partnered with Quattro Wireless to mobilize the existing Kiwibox.com Web site. Using Quattro’s Juicing technology, the site content rapidly develops into a dynamic format suited to a mobile presence with the layout and intuitive navigation specifically adapted for all types of handsets. This creates sophisticated new opportunities for advertisers,including special banner creatives and channel sponsorships. In addition to Kiwibox, Quattro powers hundreds of other mobile sites for a variety of toptier media brands and content companies. “Our mission at Quattro Wireless is to bring a rich internet experience that is adapted effectively for the mobile handset,” said Lars Albright, Vice President of Business Development of Quattro Wireless. “Social networks are one of the fastest rising segments of the Internet today, and through our partnership with Kiwibox.com we are truly harnessing the power The marriage of social networks and mobile technology is rapidly gaining the attention of industry experts who advocate and applaud this market innovation. “Social networks have progressed to a point where users require constant communication capabilities,” said Julien Theys, a research analyst for Screen Digest’s Mobile Media Intelligence team. “The future of social media will rely on software and services that allows a user to continually interact and contribute to social networks on-the-go. Based on our research, the marketplace is welcoming more mobile access and flexibility in how they choose to interact with their peers.” Would you like to know more about Digital Marketing? If so, contact Hit Search on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Social Network Friendster Launches Mobile Text Alerts27th June 2008 1:10 pm social networking Friendster today announced at ad:tech Singapore that its users in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines will soon be able to subscribe to Friendster Text Alerts, a full suite of alerts covering activity in their Friendster network, sent directly to their mobile devices via SMS text messages. Friendster Text Alerts is Friendster’s second mobile offering and complements Friendster’s successful mobile site, m.friendster.com, launched in May 2008. When launched, Friendster users can subscribe to receive text message alerts for friend requests, new messages, comments, bulletins and more. When such activity takes place within their network of friends on Friendster, they will receive an SMS text message on their mobile phone. Users will also be able to share and communicate on Friendster by sending a text message to Friendster to update content on their profile, such as shoutouts and bulletins, send messages, and reply to friend requests. Friendster Text Alerts will increase timely communication among users and support and encourage network activity while Friendster users are away from a computer. “Since SMS text messaging technology is universally available on over 1.2 billion mobile phones in use today in Asia, all of our 52 million users in Asia that have mobile phones can subscribe to Friendster Text Alerts and stay connected when they are on the go and away from a computer,” said David Jones, vice president of global marketing for Friendster. Friendster Text Alerts will be launched in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines in the coming weeks. Friendster will announce this feature to its users when it becomes available in each country. Friendster Text Alerts is an enhanced offering based upon a pilot program previously introduced in the Philippines. “Recent studies have shown that about 90% of Asia’s mobile phone subscribers use SMS text messaging, and some of the highest per subscriber usage of text messaging is in countries in Southeast Asia. It’s only natural to combine the most popular mobile feature — text messaging — with the most popular social network in Asia,” said Jones. Friendster users must opt-in, or register, to use Friendster Text Alerts by entering their mobile phone details and selecting which mobile text alerts they wish to receive. Friendster does not charge its users for Friendster Text Alerts, but users are subject to text messaging usage fees of their wireless service provider. Would you like to know more about Digital Marketing? If so, contact Hit Search on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Friendster, number one Social Network in Asia, now available in Malay19th June 2008 9:23 am social networking Friendster, today announced that Friendster.com is available in Malay, allowing Friendster users and visitors a greater choice of languages with which to navigate the site, enter content and use Friendster’s complete set of social networking features. The 15 million Internet users in Malaysia and Malaysians around the world can now easily join and use Friendster, the pioneer of social networking that is now the 7th largest website globally of any kind based on traffic and the #1 social network in Asia.
Friendster now fully supports nine languages — English, Malay, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. These languages represent over 70 percent of the world’s Internet users, or almost a billion Internet users in total. In Malaysia, Friendster has over 4 million monthly unique visitors to Friendster.com as of April 2008. Since there are over 15 million Internet users in Malaysia,(2) over 27 percent of Malaysia visited Friendster in April. A typical user spends 30 minutes a day on Friendster and visits Friendster several times a week, communicating with friends and Friendster is the most popular online social network in Malaysia according to a recent analysis of industry data.(3) “With over 4 million active users every week, Friendster is at least four times larger than Facebook or MySpace in Malaysia,” said David Jones, vice president of global marketing at Friendster. “As the second largest Web site in Malaysia (second only to Yahoo!) and the #1 social network in Malaysia, launching support for Malay will help Friendster maintain and extend its leadership position in the country as well as with Malaysians around the world.” Malay as a language choice on Friendster has been available in beta since May 22, 2008. In only a few weeks, 100,000 users per day are now using Friendster in Malay, and they are currently viewing pages on Friendster in Malay at the rate of over 40 million pages per month. “We are pleased with the level of adoption during this initial, brief beta phase,” said Jones. “Friendster has a large number of bilingual users who would like the choice to enter their content and use the site in either Englishor Malay, and countless users are looking forward to inviting their friends and family who speak Malay to join them on Friendster.” Friendster has implemented multi-language support on a single domain — Friendster.com — to promote communication and interaction among users who speak different languages. Seventy-nine percent of active Friendster users have friends in more than one country, and 23 percent of friend connections are between users in different countries. These cross-border percentages, believed to be the highest of all major social networks, require multi-language support to be implemented in a single global Web site. While other social networking sites create separate sites for different countries or languages, Friendster was the first global online social network to employ this single-site approach to allow and encourage multi-cultural exchange and communications — regardless of language — among users around the world and especially in Asia. Would you like to know more about online advertising? If so, contact Hit Search, SEMPO accredited Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Spam matters over security for Social Users9th June 2008 7:00 pm social networking Social networkers across Europe are three times more frustrated by spam and advertising (36%), than the security of their personal information (11%), according to research by Wadja, the mobile web, media and messaging service. The research of 500 social networkers across Europe into mobile living and mobile social networking also indicates that almost a fifth (19%) are frustrated by not being able to contact their friends on other social networks. Alex Christoforou, Managing Director at Wadja comments: “Most social networks are too restrictive, with applications and features designed to be used by close circles of friends.” “Users are fed up with these barriers and will soon be able to take their profile and friends from site to site to get the best tools and applications on the web.” The research also indicates irritation with the amount of applications on sites affecting usability, with social networkers citing profiles being too complicated and taking too long to load (14%). Having too many games and applications (7%) are also key concerns. Other findings from the research into the mobile trends of the future include: - 32% of social networkers believe mobiles will be used to alert users to friends or family in the vicinity. - 17% believe they will be used to take lessons and lectures. - Dating is the least popular, with only 5% saying mobiles will be used for pre-date screening. Would you like to know more about online advertising? If so, contact Hit Search, SEMPO accredited Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Netlog Joins OpenSocial30th May 2008 8:55 am social networking Netlog, Europe’s leading social networking platform, today announced at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco that it has joined Google’s OpenSocial initiative. Starting today, social networking applications developed using the OpenSocial Netlog expects to play an important role in evangelizing the OpenSocial standard throughout Europe this summer. While most applications will initially be developed in English, the social networking site intends to put a lot of effort in localisation. The majority of Netlog’s members use the website in their native language, which is one of the platform’s key In order to maintain the high quality standards its users have come to expect, Netlog won’t automatically allow all OpenSocial applications on the platform. New applications will have to pass a quality check before they are placed on a whitelist that users have access to. In addition, to avoid the so-called application spam that plagues other networks, Netlog users won’t be able to send applications to their contacts. Thus, users will remain fully in control of their profile and the applications on it. “Developers can now easily tap into the Netlog audience of 35 million users across Europe using a global open standard”, said Toon Coppens, Co-Founder and CTO of Netlog. “We are convinced OpenSocial is not only the best choice for developers and application providers, but also for our users who will have access to a white listed range of the most useful applications.” Netlog also believes that joining OpenSocial will make its platform more compelling for advertisers. “The development of quality applications, in combination with advertising and Netlog’s unique credit eco-system, offers an unprecedented opportunity for companies to engage directly with their customers”, Coppens continued. The social networking site particularly expects an interest in applications that focus on communication, music, video and sharing photos, themes that are very popular among its users. “We’re really happy that Netlog supports OpenSocial, and that Netlog users will now be able to take advantage of OpenSocial applications,” said Eric Tholome, Group Product Manager at Google. “OpenSocial is all about helping the internet become more social. Netlog’s participation is a great step in that direction.” OpenSocial is a set of common application programming interfaces for developing applications that can be deployed across multiple social networking platforms. The specifications have originally been developed by Google and were released to the market in November 2007. For more information on Netlog’s support for OpenSocial, please visit http://en.netlog.com/go/developer. Would you like to know more about online advertising? If so, contact Hit Search, SEMPO accredited Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Friendster launches new mobile social network site20th May 2008 2:19 pm social networking Friendster, the 8th largest website in the world and the #1 social network in Asia, today announced that its 70 million users and the over 1 billion Internet-ready mobile phone users globally can now stay in touch anywhere via Friendster’s new mobile site, accessible at m.friendster.com from any web-enabled mobile device. The new mobile site is the first in a suite of forthcoming mobile offerings referred to as Friendster Mobile. Using m.friendster.com from any Internet-ready mobile device, Friendster users can retrieve updates on their friends’ activities, check messages, review friend requests, post shoutouts, browse photos, browse user profiles and Fan Profiles, search for users by name or email, view birthdays, read horoscopes, post bulletins and much more. This enables more m.friendster.com is free for all users. Users are still subject to their particular carrier data plan or wireless Internet service provider plan. In the coming weeks, the site will be available in multiple languages. Indonesian will be the first additional language, given Friendster’s large and highly mobile user base in Indonesia where Friendster has over 8 million registered users and 4 million monthly unique visitors to Friendster.com, as of March 2008. Shortly, users will be able to also register directly on m.friendster.com, create an account and instantly begin participating in the Friendster global community. In Asia, where Friendster is the #1 social network, there are currently over 1.2 billion mobile phone users and over 315 million PC-based Internet users. The introduction of Friendster Mobile in Asia will allow hundreds of millions of people who have Internet-ready mobile devices, but may not have their own PC or access to a PC on a regular basis, to use Friendster. “As the 8th largest website in the world, Friendster is pleased to offer our 70 million users around the globe the opportunity to access Friendster from their mobile phones,” said David Jones, vice president of global marketing for Friendster. “Our users have asked for a mobile site that makes staying in touch with friends while on the go even easier. We’ve taken our most popular core social networking features and made them easy to use via mobile devices at m.friendster.com,” he said. Users should bookmark m.friendster.com on their mobile browser of choice to make it even easier to access their Friendster networks while on the go and tell their friends about how easy it is to stay in touch via Friendster Mobile. Friendster is the #1 social network in Asia, with over 50 million registered users and 34 million monthly unique visitors from Asia.* In Asia, Friendster is more than twice the size of any other social network. While Friendster has over 34 million monthly unique visitors in Asia, Facebook has 16 million, MySpace.com and MySpace.cn have only 15 million combined, Mixi (Japan) has 14 million, CyWorld (Korea) has 13 million, Hi5 has 12 million, Orkut has 10 million, Xiaonei (China) has 7 million, 51.com (China) has 7 million, and Bebo has 4 million.* Friendster is the 8th largest Web site and the 3rd largest social network in the world in terms of traffic, and #1 in user engagement (time spent on site) among top social networks. Friendster now has 68 million registered users and 39 million monthly unique visitors. Friendster continued its healthy growth by adding another 2 million monthly unique visitors in March 2008 and 9 million monthly unique visitors in the last 3 months. Would you like to know more about Digital Marketing? If so, contact Hit Search on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Subscribe To Our RSS Feed! 
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