Info
Amsterdam, the Netherlands | Published on: November 29, 2011
Social media pitch
Soocial has been acquired by Paris-based professional social network powerhouse Viadeo. #soocial #goes #viadeo http://pressdoc.com/p/000np1
Summary
Amsterdam-based start-up Soocial has been acquired by Paris-based professional social network Viadeo. All Soocial services will continue independently for now for its 120.000 customer base. The team will stay in Amsterdam and become an independent business unit as part of the bigger story of Viadeo, with more resources to provide more cool stuff in the future. Contact Management is a key feature for professional networks and Soocial will be providing this added value to users of Viadeo.
Details
Amsterdam-based start-up Soocial has been acquired by Paris-based professional social network Viadeo. Soocial is an online synchronization and address book tool that was founded in 2007 by Stefan Fountain and Daniel Spronk. The service has over 120.000 users of which more than 3000 are paying users. All Soocial services will continue independently for now for its 120.000 customer base.

The team will stay in Amsterdam and become an independent business unit as part of the bigger story of Viadeo, but Soocial will have more resources to make cool stuff in the future. Contact Management is a key feature for professional networks and Soocial will be aiming to provide amazing added value to users of Viadeo.

The Soocial website will remain fully operational and independent for the foreseeable future and it's members will continue to enjoy all the address book magic that Soocial provides. Over time both services will be further integrated and Soocial will be posting regular updates about the progress and users will be notified accordingly and timely of relevant changes as they are scheduled in the months to come.

Paid subscribers of Soocial will continue to get the service they've subscribed for and on top of that Soocial's plan is to make sure they get all the cool things as premium members in Viadeo. The Soocial accounts and their corresponding data will remain to be guarded with the same vigor Soocial users are used to. For the immediate term nothing will change to the data but eventually after the full integration is done Soocial accounts will be changed into Viadeo accounts and your data will be migrated seamlessly into the Viadeo service.

The Soocial Terms of Service and the Soocial Privacy Policy will remain applicable to Soocial users. Once the integration is complete the new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy will be those of Viadeo S.A., which can be found here and here.


About Viadeo
Viadeo is a professional social network with over 40 million members. Viadeo is used by those who want to: 

  • Increase their business opportunities (to discover new clients, staff and business partners)
  • Enhance their visibility and their online reputation
  • Manage and develop their network of professional contacts. 

Viadeo’s members consist of business owners, entrepreneurs and managers from a diverse range of businesses both start-up and well-established. Every day Viadeo attracts more than 30,000 new members; 150,000 new connections are made and over 3 million profiles are viewed.

Based in Paris (head office), Viadeo also has offices and teams in the UK (London), US (San Francisco), Spain (Madrid and Barcelona), Italy (Milan), China (Beijing), India (New Delhi), Mexico (Mexico City) and Senegal (Dakar). The company employs 310 staff worldwide.

 
Quotes
This is the push that will change the professional network. Currently Soocial syncs and unifies all your address books. Becoming part of Viadeo will enable more network features within your existing address books, like automatic updates between people so that you have more accurate and updated information. It will be a huge advantage when all personal and professional address books are integrated seamlessly into your daily professional online life.

— Stefan Fountain, CEO and founder of Soocial
We are very happy with the acquisition of Soocial and the great new home for the company. The deal with Viadeo will not only expose Soocial's service to a new group of users but will also provide a great environment for further development of the service. Congratulations to Stefan and his team, we wish them all the best.

— Mark de Lange, managing director of Global Grid Capital (investor in Soocial)
Contact and synchronisation management can quickly become a nightmare for a professional who must often juggle multiple formats of business cards and various electronic devices,so we are very pleased to announce the Soocial acquisition: we will indeed be able to provide to our 40 million members worldwide the best technology to manage their contacts.

— Dan Serfaty, CEO and founder of Viadeo

About Soocial

Soocial is a simple and hassle-free online address book.
Safely store your contacts in one place and get them synced to all your devices. 

Be it your mobile phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Android or almost any other), email (Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo) or Mac Address Book, Soocial unifies and syncs right back to all of your sources to maintain the same view of your contacts anywhere.
Add a contact once and get it on any of your address books!
Connect with other Soocial users or coworkers and eficiently share updated contact information with them.

Soocial is located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and has users from all countries around the world that entrust them with over 50 million contacts' details.