The Meet Group

Last updated
The Meet Group, Inc.
Meetme Logo.png
Type of business Public
Type of site
Social networking service
Available inEnglish, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Turkish, Malay, Indonesian.
Traded as Nasdaq: MEET (2014–2020)
FoundedApril 2005;18 years ago (2005-04) (as MyYearbook)
Headquarters,
Owner ProSiebenSat.1 Media
Founder(s) Geoff Cook
David Cook
Catherine Cook
Parent ParshipMeet Group
URL www.themeetgroup.com
Advertising Banner ads, custom ads
RegistrationRequired
Current statusActive
Written in PHP

The Meet Group, Inc. (formerly MeetMe) owns several dating app networking services including MeetMe, hi5, LOVOO, Growlr, Skout, and Tagged. The company has offices in New Hope, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dresden, and Berlin.

Contents

History

The myYearbook logo, which was used from 2005 to 2012 MyYearbook Logo with Tag.jpg
The myYearbook logo, which was used from 2005 to 2012

Two siblings, Dave and Catherine Cook, created myYearbook during their Spring break of 2005. They persuaded their older brother Geoff, who had founded EssayEdge and ResumeEdge from his Harvard dorm room, to invest in their project. At the launch of the site, Dave was a junior in high school and Catherine was a sophomore; the project was initially activated at Montgomery High School, in suburban New Jersey where they attended. The site was created entirely by workers in India. [1]

In 2006, myYearbook raised $4.1 million from U.S. Venture Partners and First Round Capital. In 2008, it raised $13 million in a Series B round. [2]

In July 2011, myYearbook announced it had agreed to be acquired by Latino social networking site Quepasa. [3] [4] [5] In June 2012, the company formed from the combination of myYearbook and Quepasa was renamed MeetMe. [6]

In October 2016, MeetMe acquired Skout for $55 million. [7] [8]

On April 3, 2017, the company acquired if(we) and rebranded to The Meet Group. [9]

In September 2017, Meet Group acquired German dating app Lovoo [10] [11] for $70 million USD.

In 2020, The Meet Group was acquired by ProSiebenSat.1 Media with a parent company, ParshipMeet Group, being formed to manage both The Meet Group and Parship. [12] [13]

In 2022, Tumblr announced its livestreaming service Tumblr Live, based on The Meet Group's product Livebox. [14] In 2024, Tumblr announced that they would be discontinuing Tumblr Live as of January 24th, with options for users to migrate to MeetMe. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

Dotdash Meredith is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and education. It operates brands including Verywell, Investopedia, People, The Balance, Byrdie, MyDomaine, Brides, The Spruce, Simply Recipes, Serious Eats, Liquor.com, Lifewire, TripSavvy, TreeHugger, and ThoughtCo. In August 2012, About.com became a property of IAC, owner of Ask.com and numerous other online brands, and its revenue is generated by advertising. In addition to its Manhattan headquarters, Dotdash Meredith maintains offices elsewhere in the New York metropolitan area, as well as in Des Moines, Iowa, and Birmingham, Alabama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salesforce</span> American software company

Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development.

Quepasa Corporation was a US-based social media technology company catering to Latino Audiences worldwide. Quepasa owned and operated Quepasa.com, a social network, Quepasa Games, a social game development studio, and Quepasa Contests, a social media advertising solution. Initially founded as a Hispanic web portal and later revived by its founder as a social network that grew to over 30 million users, Quepasa was the first publicly traded company focused on the bilingual English/Spanish language U.S. Hispanic internet demographic.

Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company which was founded in August 2005 and is most notable for WordPress.com, as well as its contributions to WordPress. The company's name is a play on founder Matt Mullenweg's first name and automatic.

hi5 American social networking service

hi5 is an American social networking service based in San Francisco, California. It is owned by The Meet Group.

MyHeritage is an online genealogy platform with web, mobile, and software products and services, introduced by the Israeli company MyHeritage in 2003. Users of the platform can obtain their family trees, upload and browse through photos, and search through over 19.4 billion historical records, among other features.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tumblr</span> Microblogging and social networking website

Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.

Andrey Andreev is a multinational tech entrepreneur. He is known for founding the dating and social networking apps Bumble and Badoo, amongst others. In 2019, Andreev sold the apps' holding company, MagicLab, to Blackstone at a $3 billion valuation. In 2020, he founded social audio app Stereo. His previous ventures include SpyLog, Begun, and Mamba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Facebook</span>

Facebook is a social networking service originally launched as TheFacebook on February 4, 2004, before changing its name to simply Facebook in August 2005. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and college roommates and fellow Harvard University students, in particular Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and gradually most universities in the United States and Canada, corporations, and by September 2006, to everyone with a valid email address along with an age requirement of being 13 or older.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">500 Global</span> U.S. startup accelerator

500 Global is an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai. The fund admitted a first "class" of twelve startups to its incubator office in Mountain View, California in February 2011. They expanded to a second class of 21 in June 2011 and a third class of 34 in October 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skout</span> Social networking website

SKOUT is the developer of a location-based social networking and dating application and website. SKOUT was one of the first dating and mobile people discovery applications to emphasize generalized user location. SKOUT is available on both iOS and Android operating systems. Other SKOUT properties include Nixter, a nightlife app, and Fuse, an ephemeral group messaging app. SKOUT reported that over 500 million connections were made using its app in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">If(we)</span> American technology company

if(we) is a social and mobile technology company based in San Francisco, California. and owned by The Meet Group. It was originally known as Tagged Inc. and owns and operates social networks Tagged.com and Hi5.com and animated iOS messaging app Nod.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Handy (company)</span> American home services marketplace company

Handy is an online two-sided marketplace for residential cleaning, installation, and other home services. Founded in 2012 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the now New York–based company operates services in United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The company was acquired by ANGI Homeservices in October 2018.

Match Group is an American internet and technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It owns and operates the largest global portfolio of popular online dating services including Tinder, Match.com, Meetic, OkCupid, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, OurTime, and other dating global brands. The company was owned by IAC until July 2020 when Match Group was spun off as a separate, public company. As of 2019, the company had 9.3 million subscribers, of which 4.6 million were in North America. Japan is the company's second largest market, after the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paktor</span> Dating and networking mobile application

Paktor is a location-based dating and networking mobile application that connects mutually interested users and allows them to chat individually or as a group. Founded in Singapore, the app was launched in June 2013, and has over 5 billion swipes to date. In late 2013, Paktor launched a subsidiary called GaiGai, an offline dating service that focuses on match-making and dating events. The word 'Paktor' originates from the Cantonese word for 'dating'.

Crashlytics was a Boston, Massachusetts-based software company founded in May 2011 by entrepreneurs Wayne Chang and Jeff Seibert. Crashlytics helps collecting, analyzing and organizing app crash reports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gogobot</span> Online travel service

Gogobot was an online travel business headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company was rebranded Trip.com in November 2016 and acquired by the Ctrip Group in 2017. Founded in 2010, by Travis Katz and Ori Zaltzman, by 2014 the company was the fifth most visited travel-planning site in the United States.

References

  1. Olsen, Stefanie (16 August 2007). "The secrets of a teen's Internet success". CNET .
  2. Kincaid, Jason (July 30, 2008). "Teen Social Network myYearbook Gets $13 Million". TechCrunch .
  3. "MyYearbook bought by Latino social network Quepasa". TechCrunch. 20 July 2011.
  4. Kim, Ryan (July 20, 2011). "Latino social network Quepasa swallows MyYearbook". Reuters .
  5. KIRPALANI, RESHMA (July 21, 2011). "New Jersey Siblings Net $100 Million for myYearbook Sale". ABC News .
  6. Ha, Anthony (June 5, 2012). "Quepasa, MyYearbook Complete Rebranding As MeetMe, Will Start Trading Today As MEET". TechCrunch .
  7. "MeetMe Announces Closing of Skout Acquisition" (Press release). Business Wire. October 4, 2016.
  8. Yeung, Ken (June 27, 2016). "MeetMe acquires mobile flirting app Skout for $55 million in cash and stock". VentureBeat .
  9. "MeetMe Announces Closing of if(we) Acquisition and Rebrands to The Meet Group" (Press release). Business Wire. April 3, 2017.
  10. Lovoo
  11. Butcher, Mike (September 20, 2017). "German dating app Lovoo is acquired for $70M by The Meet Group". TechCrunch .
  12. Nicola, Stefan (March 5, 2020). "ProSieben to Buy Dating Firm Meet Group in Tough TV Market". Bloomberg News .
  13. "The Meet Group Announces Closing of Acquisition by eharmony Parent Company Parship Group" (Press release). Business Wire. September 4, 2020.
  14. King, Ashley (2022-12-21). "Tumblr Joins Livestreaming Band Wagon with New Service". Digital Music News. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
  15. "Tumblr Live Is Shutting Down - Help Center". Tumblr Help Center. Retrieved 11 January 2024.