Classmates.com 2009 Annual Report Download - page 12

Table of Contents
Gold Membership. Gold membership on our Classmates Web site is a paid subscription service that provides members with access to all
of the features of a free membership as well as the following additional features:
•
Digital guestbook.
Our digital guestbook feature alerts a Classmates member when another member visits his or her profile,
unless the visiting member chooses not to leave his or her name. However, only a paying member is able to see the name of the
member who visited his or her profile.
•
Email.
Paying members have the ability to send double
-
blind emails through our Classmates Web site to other Classmates
members and respond to email messages from any other Classmates member, regardless of whether the sender is a free member
or a paying member.
•
Classmates maps.
Paying members have access to our Classmates maps feature which can generate a map, satellite or hybrid
view, showing the geographic locations, based on zip codes, of the members in a paying member's affiliated communities.
• Newsletter. In addition to receiving our Connections newsletter, paying members also receive our monthly "Gold Standard"
newsletter, which highlights ways for our paying members to get the most out of the subscription features accessible on our
Classmates Web site.
We continue to develop a number of new features on our Classmates Web site that we believe will enhance the member experience while
providing an additional incentive for our free members to upgrade to a pay account. We expect the features available to free members and paying
members to continue to change from time to time.
Standard pricing for a Classmates social networking pay account varies significantly by term of membership. Standard pricing for pay
accounts currently consists of a three-month subscription for $15.00, or $5.00 per month, a 12-month subscription for $39.00, or $3.25 per
month, or a 24-month subscription for $59.00, or $2.46 per month. In addition, discounted pricing plans are offered to certain free members at
various times on a promotional basis. Discounted promotions often feature an introductory 12-month subscription for $9.95 that, if not cancelled
by the customer, will renew at the then-current full price after the introductory 12-month period. We expect that the pricing and terms of
membership we offer will change periodically due to discounting and other factors.
International. In addition to our flagship Classmates Web site, we operate five international social networking services. We operate
StayFriends in Sweden, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland ( www.stayfriends.se, www.stayfriends.de, www.stayfriends.at and
www.stayfriends.ch , respectively) and Trombi in France ( www.trombi.com ). Each service is similar to our Classmates service, although their
affiliations are focused primarily on schools. We offer free and pay memberships on all of our international Web sites, although certain features
of our international social networking pay services differ from those of our Classmates pay services and pricing for our international social
networking services is generally lower than the standard pricing for Classmates.
Our strategy for our online social networking services includes the following key elements: continue to enhance member experience and
engagement by promoting user-generated and third-party content focused on connecting members with the people, places, events, and
experiences associated with their high school years; expand the free and pay member bases by marketing on, or in conjunction with,
complementary Web sites and services; increase monetization by incorporating loyalty programs into our services, by offering additional pay
services to our members and by developing new sources of revenue consistent with our value proposition of connecting members with their high
school years; and evaluate further opportunities to expand internationally or through the development and acquisition of complementary
services.
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