PENNY-PINCHING INTERNET STARTUPS PRODUCE
BIG GAME ADS ON THE CHEAP

Wiser for the Wear, Dotcoms meebo, Meez, Multiply, Plaxo,
RockYou.com and Technorati Go the Viral Route

Mountain View, Calif. — February 1, 2007 — Priced out of the big game, internet startups meebo, Meez, Multiply, Plaxo, RockYou.com and Technorati opted this year for a more frugal approach. With marketing budgets dwarfed by their bubble-era predecessors, these dotcoms charged up their handheld video cameras and posted their “commercials” (at no charge) on the Internet for the world to view and share.

“Hiring a well-known actor or athlete isn’t the best use of our marketing dollar,” said Michael Gersh, vice president of sales and marketing at personal media-sharing site, Multiply. “Rather than a true celebrity, we elected instead to rely on someone who just thinks he’s a celebrity — Walter, our lead quality assurance engineer.”

For digital address book company Plaxo, choosing between buying a multi-million dollar advertising spot or paying salaries, rent and utilities, wasn’t really much of a choice at all. While many larger companies plan to spend millions of dollars during the big game this year, Plaxo doesn’t anticipate spending that much on advertisements, well, ever.

“All told, I think we spent less than thirty bucks on our ad,” said Jia Shen, founder and CEO, RockYou.com. “Those little videotapes are really, really expensive. It was like four dollars for a three pack. Of course, twenty five of the thirty went to sandwiches and crackers for the team.”

Web-based instant messaging service meebo was forced to spend most of its marketing resource on fulfilling strange, often creepy, requests from the star of its advertisement, a pirate emoticon, picture here. About halfway through the first (and last) day (okay, maybe it was more like “hours”) of filming, the pirate threw a tantrum over California’s grog quality and at times, refused to say his only line, “Arrr!”

Several of Technorati’s Silicon Valley veterans recalled watching championships of the late nineties when a fancy ad for a dotcom was as likely as a spot from a consumer goods company. But when they all lost their Technorati-green Rolls Royces, they realized times had changed. In San Francisco, over at consumer avatar service Meez, avatar and commercial actor Roscoe Meez was gushing over his new role.

“This ad really stretched me. You’ll see examples of my athletic prowess, an incredible love scene and even some cross-dressing” said Roscoe, the 3D avatar. “And because I’m a virtual-type guy, Meez saved a ton on talent fees.”

Advertisements from meebo, Meez, Multiply, Plaxo, RockYou and Technorati are available for viewing at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=SuperDotComAdsXLI.

About meebo Inc.

meebo is the first Web-based instant messaging service that gives users, no matter where they are, a hassle-free way to connect to every major instant messaging service using only a browser. With meebo, there is no need to download and run multiple software products. meebo’s investors include Sequoia Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and other individual investors. more than 1,300,000 meebo sessions are initiated daily. The company is based in Mountain View, CA, and offers its free service at www.meebo.com.

About Meez(TM)

Meez provides sophisticated 3D avatar services for the mainstream. At Meez.com, users can create and animate highly-customized avatars that express their personal style and passions. Meez avatars can then be exported and used all over the Internet as their 3D I.D. Meez was developed by Donnerwood Media, an online entertainment company based in San Francisco and backed by Battery Ventures, Transcosmos Partners, Allen & Co. and other individual investors.

About Multiply Inc.

Multiply provides easy-to-use, integrated tools and communication features that allow people to create and share their online presence in a controlled, private manner. Unlike other social networks that aggregate everyone's profile, photos, videos, and blogs into a public bucket, Multiply contains and delivers information, content, and communication strictly within the personal network boundaries that each user has outlined. (See guided tour: http://multiply.com/info/tour/1) The company, with offices in New York, NY and Boca Raton, FL, is privately held with backing by Transcosmos and private investors. For more information, interested parties can visit http://multiply.com.

About Plaxo

Plaxo is the creator of the "smart address book" service that now helps 15 million 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, DAG Ventures, and Cisco Systems — and by individual investors Ram Shriram and Tim Koogle. For more information, please visit http://www.plaxo.com.

About RockYou

The leader in viral widgets serves up more than 100 million embedded widgets a day to web sites around the world. As a widget platform, RockYou offers an ever growing list of widgets and services for users to customize their social network profiles. Founded in 2006, RockYou is backed by Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Partners, and First Round Capital. Check it out at www.rockyou.com.

About Technorati

Technorati is the world's leading authority on what's happening in the world of citizen media. Currently tracking nearly 65 million blogs in near real-time, Technorati also surfaces video, podcasts, games, music and other forms of citizen media published to the World Live Web. Technorati: What’s hot. Right Now. www.technorati.com.

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