Ajax IM Service Meebo Continues Growth, Secures $9M Funding

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Thursday, January 18, 2007; 03:06 AM

meebo, Inc., the popular web-based instant messaging (IM) provider, today announced that over the past three months the company doubled registered users to more than one million, collaborated with leading platforms for distribution and secured $9 million in funding from venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). The investment is a Series “B” round of funding for meebo and includes previous investor Sequoia Capital. Tim Draper, DFJ Founder and Managing Director, joins meebo’s board of directors.

meebo continues to catch on with new users across the globe. After announcing 500,000 user-accounts just three months ago, meebo doubled its registered users to 1 million; including 4.5 million unique screen names signing-in monthly. Additionally, meebo has more than 1.2 million daily logins and exchanges 75 million messages per day with average sessions of 70 minutes. On the business development front, meebo continues to collaborate with leading web platforms including Windows Live Spaces, netvibes, WordPress and SixApart as well as social networks Amie Street, Traineo, ChickAdvisor and Schmedley.

“It’s been an incredible year for meebo. In addition to securing this new round of funding and forming some great distribution relationships, we’ve also expanded our user base. With more than a million daily logins and users spending more than 165 years with us every day, meebo is quickly becoming the place to be for instant communication on the web,” said Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder, meebo. “We are thrilled to have Tim and DFJ on board, and with past successes like Hotmail and Skype, they have shown a knack for building disruptive communications companies.”

meebo is a web-based instant messaging service that allows users to access all of their IM buddies from any computer with a web browser, anytime, anywhere. Using AJAX technology, meebo creates a “software-like” experience on the web, requiring no software downloads or installs. Known for engaging their large user base in site development and refinement, meebo encourages feedback from users and built a simple and highly-robust platform to address changing IM needs.

“We see in meebo the same qualities we’ve seen in our past successful investments: viral growth, passionate users, defendable technology and a super-dedicated team,” said Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director, Draper Fischer Jurvetson. “meebo is positioned to completely change the communications game on the web.”

meebo Expands its Platform

Since launching in September 2005, the company has expanded and built upon its core platform. Some recent highlights include:

• August 2006: The meebo me^TM widget—extends meebo’s IM communications platform beyond meebo.com and into any web page. The meebo me widget has two main features: it enables site-owners to privately chat with anyone visiting their website; and it offers real-time presence information for site-owners to see visitors on their page. The meebo me^TM widget is easily integrated with social networking sites, blogs, commerce sites and more.
• November 2006: meebo 1.0 “full release”—crossed off several major requests from meebo’s users. With this release, upgrades and features included: new visual design, pop outs, optimized performance, skinning, updated chat logs, buddy list management, individual account management, improved localized UI and AIM profiles.
• February 2007: meebo will shortly support a meebo me application programming interface (API)—a simple mechanism for partners to seamlessly push meebo me to their users. Partners are able to use all of the functionalities of meebo me, but customized for their sites, i.e. setting the size and colors of the widgets to match their website design.

meebo and the meebo me^TM widget work with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and almost any other web browser. The meebo services are free. For more information visit www.meebo.com.