Classmates.com

Classmates.com is a social network service created in 1995 by Randy Conrads who founded Classmates Online, Inc. The social media website helps members find, connect and keep in touch with friends and acquaintances from throughout their lives — including kindergarten, primary school, high school, college, work and the United States military. Classmates.com has more than 40 million active members in the United States and Canada. Nielsen Online ranks Classmates as number three in unique monthly visitors (U.S. home, work) among social networking sites.

Business model

The company’s business model is based on user generated content and revenue from paid subscriptions and advertising sales. No. 2 Internet service provider buying Classmates Online. In the first quarter of 2008, Classmates added 322,000 net pay accounts for a total of more than 3.5 million paid subscribers. Classmates Media revenues for Q1 of 2008 were $51.9 million, an increase of 22% compared to $42.4 million in Q1 2007. The Online Publishers Association Paid Content U.S. Market Spending Report, Classmates.com was Number 4 among the Top 25 Web Destinations Ranked by Consumer Content Revenue in both 2002 and 2003 (the last years that individual site rankings were broken out).

Privacy

Classmates.com members use real names, not screen names. Member privacy is protected through a double-blind email system, so email addresses and contact information are never revealed unless self-disclosed by members one-on-one.

Registering and networking

It is free for people to register as a Basic member of Classmates.com. Basic members can create profiles, view other members' profiles, photos, biographies, interests and announcements, as well as search the entire social network for friends. Basic members may also post to and read community message boards and view information about upcoming reunions. Gold members, who pay a fee, can send email to and receive email from any member, view notes posted on their profile bulletin board, see the names of others who have visited their profile and signed their guest book, access and use tools for planning reunions and create their own private groups.

Ownership

Classmates International, Inc., a subsidiary of Classmates Online, owns and operates StayFriends.de, the number one website in Germany for reconnecting with school friends. It also owns and operates StayFriends.se, the largest site in Sweden for reconnecting with school friends. and Trombi.com, the second largest French site for reconnecting with school friends.

United Online, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNTD) acquired Classmates Online in 2004 and continues to own and operate the company as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Controversial business practices

Some of Classmates.com's business practices are controversial.

It is standard practice for Classmates.com and many online subscription services to auto-renew memberships at the end of each billing period. When PC World magazine field tested several companies to determine how easy or difficult it was to cancel their service, Classmates.com was one of the companies that received their worst rating.

See also

• List of social networking websites

References

External links

• Classmates.com official website
• Classmates Online, Inc. Privacy Policy
• http://www.consumeraffairs.com/dating_services/classmates.html
• http://paulbeard.org/wordpress/index.php/archives/2006/11/18/classmatescom-spam-scam/
• http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/09/04/seeing-through-the-classmates-com-ipo/