The Jigsaw Data Revolution Marches On: 10 Million Business and Company Contacts Contributed by 600,000 Community Members

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--When Jigsaw, the largest online directory of business contact and company information built by and for its global membership, launched in 2004 with the mission to map every business contact on the planet, its contacts numbered 200,000, which were contributed by a community made up primarily of sales professionals. As the community has broadened over the years to include recruiters, marketers, entrepreneurs and more, so too has the volume and breadth of the contacts entered in Jigsaw. Today Jigsaw celebrates the contribution of 10 million contacts, representing 1.5 million companies and the growth of its business-to-business (B2B) community to 600,000 members, increasing 50 percent during the past six months. Evidenced by this fast-paced growth and rise in adoption, Jigsaw’s community model fuels an improved approach to data and list management processes.

“Sales people were the springboard to growth, now our community-contributed content model has inspired a collective movement embraced by the B2B community and beyond.”

“As veteran sales professionals, we founded Jigsaw to help sales people spend less time searching for leads and more time connecting with accurate targets. Turns out it is not just sales people who need this help, it’s the entire B2B community,” said Jim Fowler, CEO and co-founder of Jigsaw. “Sales people were the springboard to growth, now our community-contributed content model has inspired a collective movement embraced by the B2B community and beyond.”

Currently members are adding new contacts in the Jigsaw directory at a rate of 20,000 - 30,000 per day; in addition, the community generates 1 million “hygiene” actions or contact information updates each month. The utilization of these actions and contacts is far-reaching, with more than 1 billion downloads since 2004 and more than 600 enterprise clients seeding their CRM systems, databases or lists for marketing campaigns with on-demand access to Jigsaw contacts.

To maintain an active community of content contributors, Jigsaw has focused on creating incentive programs, encouraging members to go beyond their initial sign-in and action. The Jigsaw Royalty Program offers members the opportunity to accrue Jigsaw points every time the data they contributed is acquired by other members; they can also assume royalty rights to a contact when they add more up-to-date information to the record. The Jigsaw Leader Board and Contest Board similarly encourage dynamic updates by providing recognition and prizes for outstanding actions.

“Unlike traditional data vendors that rely on the companies themselves to update contact lists, Jigsaw engages a passionate community of professionals to chip in,” said Garth Moulton, co-founder and VP of community at Jigsaw. “For data companies, CRM operators or sales professionals, the act of updating or removing outdated contacts one at a time is a chore. In Jigsaw, people are inspired by the collective accomplishment of creating and sharing this massive database of useful, quality information—the power is in the people and the community as a whole.”

Last month, Jigsaw called on its B2B community to help drive to the 10 million milestone by announcing the contest, Jigsaw 10 Million Contacts Contest: Enter 10 to Win One of 10. Contest winners for 10 prizes will be unveiled later this month on: www.jigsaw.com.

About Jigsaw

Jigsaw (www.jigsaw.com) is a leading provider of business information and data services that uniquely leverages user-generated content contributed by its global membership. Today, the Jigsaw business-to-business community and more than 600 enterprises use the Jigsaw directory to access information for 10 million business contacts and 1 million companies. Jigsaw delivers low-cost and easy access to high-value business information that can be used to identify key decision makers and people for purposes such as sales, marketing, recruiting and customer service. Founded in 2004, Jigsaw is located in San Mateo, Calif. and is funded by Austin Ventures, El Dorado Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners.