NEW HOPE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MeetMe, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEET), the public market leader for social discovery, has released a new standalone iPhone application called Advice Chat as part of a relationship with Affinity Networks. MeetMe has licensed the Affinity mobile platform to publish three new custom mobile applications. The first app, Advice Chat, is available now; an Android version will be available in the coming months.
“We are impressed by the Affinity platform, and we are excited to work with Affinity Networks to bring these applications to market quickly and cost effectively,” notes Geoff Cook, CEO of MeetMe. “We continue to view standalone app development as a cost effective way to gather user feedback quickly. In the past, we’ve built new features into the core MeetMe app after first testing their viability as a standalone app, as was the case with our app Choosy. We believe the Advice Chat app will appeal to the MeetMe audience and help attract new users. It will also enable us to gather data on group chat and engagement within a niche community. Most important of all, we believe Advice Chat can become a supportive, thriving community. We’re happy to have ReachOut.com involved in providing information to help build a supportive environment for our users.”
“We are thrilled to work with MeetMe on the Advice Chat app,” says Meredith Sires of ReachOut.com, a mental health support and information service run by the Inspire USA Foundation. “We believe the ReachOut.com channel of the Advice Chat app will be an important mobile resource for young people who are facing tough times. In an increasingly mobile world, it's important that there is a mobile community that strives to be a supportive space where people can ask any question and find connection and understanding."
Affinity Networks provides a suite of mobile app libraries that give developers a quick and easy way to launch custom messaging communities or embed engagement features like group chat and direct messaging into their apps. The company has also developed a native ad engine that goes beyond engagement and retention, giving developers a way to monetize mobile messaging. The opportunity to plug into that ad engine in the future was part of the reason MeetMe decided launch Advice Chat on the Affinity platform. Affinity Networks currently powers a number of other mobile communities including the popular app Geeking.
“We are excited to work with MeetMe’s large global brand and vibrant community,” said Jeff Solomon, CEO of Affinity Networks. “We look forward to watching Advice Chat grow, as well as to creating more applications with the MeetMe team.”
MeetMe also made a small seed investment in Affinity Networks.
About MeetMe, Inc.
MeetMe® is the leading social network for meeting new people in the US and the public market leader for social discovery (NASDAQ: MEET). MeetMe makes it easy to discover new people to chat with on mobile devices. With approximately 80 percent of traffic coming from mobile and more than one million total daily active users, MeetMe is fast becoming the social gathering place for the mobile generation. The company is a leader in mobile monetization with a diverse revenue model comprising advertising, native advertising, virtual currency, and subscription. MeetMe apps are available on iPhone, iPad, and Android in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Russian, Japanese, Dutch, Turkish and Korean. For more information, please visit meetmecorp.com.
About Affinity Networks
Affinity Networks, the trade name of AFTY, LLC, provides customizable social controls for mobile apps. The company offers a suite of libraries that make it easy for mobile app developers to implement powerful engagement and retention features like group chat and direct messaging. Affinity Networks also provides complete white-labeled solutions for enterprise clients, and a turnkey SDK to embed a chat community directly into an existing app. More information about Affinity Networks’ products and services can be found at http://afty.co.
About ReachOut.com
ReachOut.com is an information and support service that uses evidence based principles and technology to help teens and young adults who are facing tough times and struggling with mental health issues. ReachOut.com offers fact sheets, stories, blogs, videos and moderated discussion forums. All content is developed in collaboration with teens and young adults, for teens and young adults, and vetted by mental health experts. ReachOut.com meets teens where they are and helps them recognize their own strengths in order to overcome their difficulties and/or seek help. The Inspire USA Foundation oversees ReachOut.com
Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including whether we will publish new custom mobile applications as anticipated, including an Android version of Advice Chat, whether we will bring applications to market quickly or cost effectively, whether standalone app development will continue to be a cost effective way for us to gather user feedback quickly, whether Advice Chat app will appeal to the MeetMe audience or help attract new users, thus enabling us to gather data on group chat and engagement within a niche community, whether involvement of ReachOut.com will help build a supportive community for users, whether Advice Chat will become a supportive, thriving community, whether the ReachOut.com channel of the Advice Chat app will become an important mobile resource for young people to find connection and understanding, whether we will use the Affinity ad engine in the future and if so whether it will prove effective in monetizing the app, and whether Advice Chat will grow. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “project,” “is likely,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include the risk that our applications will not function easily or otherwise as anticipated, the risk that we will not launch additional features and upgrades as anticipated, the risk that unanticipated events affect the functionality of our applications with popular mobile operating systems, any changes in such operating systems that degrade our mobile applications’ functionality and other unexpected issues which could adversely affect usage on mobile devices. Further information on our risk factors is contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 and the Prospectus Supplement (Rule 424(b)(5)) filed on July 24, 2014. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
