Plaxo Introduces "Connected Index",
Ranks Most Connected Countries

Argentina Tops List; United States Ties with Dominican Republic for 29th Place

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—August 22, 2006—Plaxo®, Inc., creator of the smart address book, today announced the results of the company’s first Connected Index. The Connected Index ranks the level of connectedness between people, country by country, based on the average number of contacts in their Plaxo smart address book. Plaxo will issue Connected Index findings regularly to measure how "connectedness" is evolving as Internet usage and online social networking increase worldwide.

The survey, based on anonymous, aggregated data from over 10 million members, found that Argentina led the Index, with an average of 479 contacts per address book. The Argentinean average is nearly 100 contacts greater than second place Austria whose Plaxo members had an average of 384 colleagues, friends, family, or other contacts in their address book. The United States tied with the Dominican Republic for 29th place, with an average address book size of 293 contacts.

"With the explosive growth in social networking, it’s important to establish some metrics for this phenomenon, and to see how they vary by culture and change over time," said John McCrea, vice president of marketing, Plaxo. "Though it’s interesting to know how many friends-of-friends a person might connect with, the real measure of your connectedness is the size of your address book."

Currently, forty percent of Plaxo members are located outside of the United States. This percentage should rise dramatically, as Plaxo begins localization of the service later this year – and as Internet usage soars outside of the mature markets.

"Our Index suggests that South American countries may be more receptive than the U.S. to social networking and to connectivity services, like Plaxo," continued McCrea. South American countries are setting the pace for online connectedness, with tremendous growth in Internet usage. According to industry statistics, Internet usage grew 298.6% from 2000 to 2005 in South America. Plaxo’s first Connected Index results demonstrate the rapidly increasing connectedness of these countries, with Venezuela, Brazil, and Chile joining Argentina in the Index’s top ten most connected countries.

Plaxo’s Connected Index measures connectedness by counting the number of contacts in members’ address books. No other data about the Plaxo member is reviewed or considered. Country by country differences are subjective and may be a result of many factors, including predominant industries, culture, web connectedness, and comfort-level with the English language. For example, if web-savvy and English-friendly Hong Kong is measured separately from China, Hong Kong would rise to second place with an average address book of 390 contacts.

About Plaxo Inc.

Plaxo is the creator of the "smart address book" service that helps millions of people around the world stay organized, up-to-date, and in touch with their friends, family, colleagues, and customers. Founded in 2001, Plaxo is a privately held company, funded by leading investment and technology firms – Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital Platforms, Harbinger Venture Management and Cisco Systems – and by individual investors Ram Shriram and Tim Koogle.

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Plaxo is a registered trademark of Plaxo, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.