Leading European Social Networking Site Unveils New Brand in Nine Countries
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Netlog secures €5 million in venture capital funding
London April 25, 2007 — As of today, brands wishing to target the lucrative 14 - 24 year old market across Europe can do so by advertising on Netlog, Europe’s fastest growing social network. Netlog operates a number of local-language social networking sites reaching 17 million users across Europe. These sites, which have grown rapidly in popularity in recent months, allow users to connect with people of similar ages and from the same region, in their own language. Netlog previously operated under a range of brands, including Facebox in the UK.
Lorenz Bogaert, CEO and co-founder of Netlog said, “We have been thrilled with the rapid adoption of our localised European sites. Europe is all too often treated as a homogenous market. Our service recognises the diversity across Europe and is the only social networking site catering to a variety of languages and cultures.”
The creation of the first truly pan-European social networking environment gives advertisers an extremely flexible way to target specific demographics and countries.
The launch of Netlog coincides with the company raising €5 million of funding from leading European venture capital firm Index Ventures. Index has an excellent track record of investing in successful consumer Internet companies such as Betfair and Skype. Skype’s founders, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom of Atomico, are among a select number of co-investors in Netlog.
The funding and venture capital support will allow the company to accelerate the roll-out of additional sites in more languages and territories and to further build up its commercial operations. The company already operates profitably under a dual model of user payment and advertising.
Within six months of its launch in autumn 2006, Netlog (then Facebox) became a Top 100 site in the Alexa internet listings, a database of information about web sites that includes traffic rankings. The website now receives over 2 billion page views per month.
Sites currently operate in the UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Romania. Further expansion is planned in the near future.
About Netlog
Netlog was founded in 2003 and operates online community platform specifically targeted at the European youth. Netlog has more than 17 million members throughout Europe with sites currently available in eight languages - English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian and Romanian. The Company is headquartered in Aalst, Belgium where it has 20 employees and leverages a network of translators and community managers across Europe. The Company was a Red Herring Europe 100 award winner in 2007. For more information, please visit corporate.netlog.com
About Index Ventures
Index Ventures has been active in technology venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping great entrepreneurial teams in the information technology and life science sectors build their companies into market-defining global leaders. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey. Index Ventures is an active investor in the consumer internet sector and investments of note include Last.fm, the online social music revolution and Stardoll, the celebrity doll dress up site for girls. Other landmark investments include Betfair, the world’s largest betting exchange, Skype, recently sold to eBay and Genmab, one of the largest antibody companies in the world. For more information, please visit www.indexventures.com
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