StayFriends.de
| File:Stayfriends de logo.png | |
| Type of business | Private (GMBH) |
|---|---|
Type of site | Social networking |
| Available in | German |
| Founded | Erlangen, Germany (2002) |
| Headquarters | Erlangen, Germany |
| Key people | Michel Lindenberg, CEO and co-founder |
| Employees | ? (August 2008) |
| URL | StayFriends.de |
| Advertising | Banner ads |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched | 2002 |
| Current status | Active |
Stayfriends.de is a social network service created in 2002. The social media website helps members find, connect and keep in touch with friends from kindergarten, primary school, high school in Germany. Stayfriends.de has more than 6.5 million members in Germany. Since 2004, Stayfriends belongs to Classmates.com.
According to AGOF (http://www.agof.de/angebots-ranking.366.de.html), Stayfriends.de is the 23rd most visited website in Germany with 3,48 million unique monthly visitors.
The Company
Based in Erlangen, StayFriends GmbH operates the online platform StayFriends.de since August 2002. Since January 2004, StayFriends GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Classmates Online (Renton, USA), the operator of the online community Classmates.com, which is a subsidiary of the U.S. internet company United Online. The CEO is the founder of the site Michel Lindenberg.
How it works
StayFriends enables its members to find back their friends from school. Schools can be searched by State (Land) and city. A user can add all the schools he attended on his profile by giving the start and end year of each of them.
Users can perform searches on the database by lastname, firstname, city, school. Searches of lastnames can be done among the lastname used at school and the current lastname.
While some functions are free, such as searching for old friends, organizing class reunions, or viewing of class photos, some require to be a gold member. These premium features include the possibility to read messages received and display all the photos and profile information. It's only communicate without any restriction if the sender or the receiver is a gold member. This means that users can contact each other if one of them paid for the service.
Privacy
StayFriends requires users to register with their real lastname and firstname. An online mailbox service enables to send and receive messages on the website without disclosing the email of the sender or the receiver. The e-mail address is never disclosed. A newsletter is sent every two months by e-mail.