Welcome to Plaxo
| John McCrea Plaxo, Inc. 650-218-4502 |
November 24, 2003 (MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.) — Plaxo, Inc. announced today that, in the six months following the launch of their flagship product in May 2003, more than 800,000 members in over 200 countries have downloaded and used Plaxo Contacts, which provides a simple and secure way to keep individuals' contact information up-to-date and complete. In addition, more than 10 million individuals have used the Plaxo Contacts service to update their information, having also discovered that Plaxo takes the hassle out of keeping in touch with others around the block or around the world. The company expects that by January 2004, more than 1 million people will have downloaded and used Plaxo Contacts.
In the last year, the company has worked to make significant product and policy improvements and announced noteworthy company developments:
"Since we launched Plaxo Contacts, we have been listening carefully to user feedback and working to improve the product to make it even easier for people to stay connected with friends, colleagues and family members securely and effortlessly," said Rikk Carey, vice president of engineering for Plaxo. "The tremendous growth of the user base both in the United States and internationally indicates that we are providing unique features that individuals need and want, and we will continue to work to make Plaxo Contacts even better."
Plaxo Contacts, which seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express and devices such as PDAs using the Outlook platform, works by enabling members to choose people from whom they want to get updated contact information. It then sends a simple email message on the person's behalf, allowing the contact to reply either by email or via a secure website. Plaxo Contacts processes the replies and integrates updated information into the person's address book. If the contact becomes a member of the Plaxo Contacts service, they are connected and their address book is automatically updated whenever contact information changes. At all times, members of the Plaxo Contacts service control how their information is used and with whom it is shared. Plaxo Contacts also provides web-based access to an individual's address book information, as well as synchronization and backup.
"I recently discovered that the backup and synchronization features are truly lifesavers," said Gérard de la Vallée Poussin, director, Bugeco S.A., Belgium. "My Outlook Express address book was wiped out from my hard disk following an attempt to reload Windows 98 onto a corrupted system. Because I had Plaxo to fall back on, I was able to quickly restore all my contacts with up-to-the minute information."
Plaxo offers several ways for non-members to participate and opt-out. If an individual doesn't use Outlook or Outlook Express, Plaxo offers two web versions of the service: one that offers the full set of Plaxo Contacts features including a web-based address book; and one called Auto-Reply that simply allows people to handle Plaxo update requests automatically. If an individual receives an update message from a member of the Plaxo Contacts service that he or she doesn't know or simply doesn't wish to communicate with, he or she can choose to opt-out of receiving future messages from that specific person. If an individual does not wish to receive messages from any member of the Plaxo Contacts service he or she can out-out of receiving messages from all Plaxo members.
Plaxo currently counts members in 219 countries, with the most in the United States, followed by Australia, the United Kingdom, and Brazil as the largest non-English speaking country. News of the service is spreading rapidly by word of mouth, and Plaxo Contacts has achieved significant popularity in both large cities such as New York, and counties, including some that might not typically be considered "wired," such as: Pitkin, Colorado; Moore, Tennessee; and Daggett, Utah. Plaxo's data shows that half of the individuals using Plaxo Contacts do so to stay in touch with personal contacts such as friends and family, while others use it to update and maintain business contacts such as clients and colleagues.
"I try to stay in touch with hundreds of people from across the world and used to have a rough time staying current with everybody. This frustration was compounded by the fact that I also move a lot. I am glad that Plaxo has created a software and service so that my friends, colleagues and I now have a hassle-free way to update one another," said Gopi Kallayil, director of strategic marketing, Nextance USA.
Plaxo uses state-of-the-art, financial strength technologies and systems to protect members' information and does not share that information with anyone without permission. To download a free copy of Plaxo Contacts, review the privacy and security policy or take a tour, visit http://www.plaxo.com
About Plaxo
Plaxo, Inc. is a company that eliminates the frustration, wasted time and lost opportunities caused by having inaccurate contact information for friends, family, colleagues and customers. Plaxo Contacts, the company's flagship product, is the easiest and most effective way for individuals to securely update, maintain and access their contact lists. Plaxo Contacts is accessible via the Web and works closely with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. It is used in more than 200 countries.
The company was founded by Sean Parker, a co-founder of Napster, and two Stanford engineers Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Plaxo's Board of Directors includes Tim Koogle, former chairman and CEO of Yahoo, Ram Shriram, formerly of Netscape, Amazon and Junglee and a director of Google, Jon Callaghan, Globespan Capital Partners managing director, and Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital partner. For more information about Plaxo, visit the company's web site at www.plaxo.com.
# # #
See Also: Plaxo Fun Facts (PDF) as of 11/24/2003
