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| July 26, 2005 | Press Release |
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| Jigsaw Online Marketplace for Business Contacts Surpasses the One-Million-Contacts Mark |
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| Portfolio Company: Jigsaw |
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SAN MATEO, Calif. --July 26, 2005--Grown entirely through the efforts of its membership, Jigsaw Data Corporation reported today that its database now has more than one million business contacts. The online global marketplace for buying, selling and trading business contact data formally launched in December 2004 and is currently growing by 10,000 new contacts every day through member contributions.
"The rapid growth of Jigsaw's database is one of the best examples of the Internet-enabled phenomenon variously being called peer production, the network effect or the sharing economy," said Jim Fowler, CEO and co-founder of Jigsaw. "While traditional data companies such as D&B pay hundreds of data workers to maintain their databases, we have many thousands of people voluntarily maintaining ours, which results in fresher data that is less expensive to access."
Jigsaw works on a collaborative, incentive model where members earn points adding, updating and maintaining Jigsaw's business contact information. These points can be sold for cash or used to purchase other contact information. The result is a self-correcting, continually growing database of accurate information, which includes business information only, such as company name, title, direct dial phone numbers and emails. The system employs a "wisdom of crowds" methodology utilizing the collective knowledge of its members to provide company information such as revenue and number of employees.
"The bane of a sales person's professional life has always been finding good contact information for prospects. Until I discovered Jigsaw, I used to spend hours and hours, even days, sifting through data from Google searches, and the information was often irrelevant," said Karen Lalazarian, sales manager at Endeca. "With Jigsaw, I find names and good contact information in no time at all. It's no surprise the database is growing so fast."
About Jigsaw Data Corporation
Jigsaw (http://www.jigsaw.com) is an online marketplace where members buy, sell and trade business contact information. Jigsaw offers a directory of business contacts that shortens the time required of sales, marketing and HR professionals to find the contacts they need. The database is built and maintained by the global membership, resulting in the most up-to-date corporate directory in existence. Jigsaw Data Corporation is located in San Mateo, Calif., and is funded by El Dorado Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.
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