Press Releases

Customers’ Close Social Community and Influence Play a Significant Role in Purchasing Decisions and Defining Customer Value

Mobile Asia Congress, Macao, SAR of Republic of China – November 19, 2008 – Xtract Social Links’ new feature, Social Revenue, measures the value that a mobile subscriber brings by influencing his or her close social community in mobile purchasing decisions. With Social Revenue, mobile operators can estimate their customers’ value more accurately than with any other method used on the market today.

Consider, for example, an individual with large social community consisting of high ARPU customers versus another individual with a smaller social community consisting of low ARPU customers. Clearly, from a return on investment point of view, the individual having a large social community with high ARPU customers should be the focus of marketing activities for the mobile operator.

Our friends, family and social communities influence greatly our decisions to purchase goods and services. Often, we ask our friends for recommendation on which phone model we should purchase or on whether they have been satisfied with the new service provider. Word of mouth travels and has an impact on our decisions that is stronger than pure marketing and advertising by brands. Studies show that word-of-mouth is the most powerful selling tool, and 78% of people trust the recommendation of other consumers [Source: Trust in Advertising, A global Nielsen consumer report, October 2007].

“Companies are constantly trying to identify the revenue, profits and costs directly related to a customer. However, the traditional customer value measures do not take into account the social value that a customer brings”, says Hanna Kettunen, Product Manager at Xtract. “This leads to either overestimating or underestimating the real value of a customer.”

Xtract Social links takes into account whether a customer is influential or not when measuring how much that individual is worth to the company. In addition, not only the level of influence but who that influence can be inflicted on plays a role. With Social Links’ capability to estimate customers’ social revenue, mobile operators can include the indirect social revenue generated by a customer into the equation, therefore estimating much better the real customer value.

Helsinki, Finland – 30 October, 2008 – Xtract announced today that the GSM Association (GSMA) selected its Social Links solution as a top finalist for the 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Awards Competition – APAC Tournament. The Mobile Innovation Global Awards Competition encourages breakthrough technology, applications and services in the mobile industry by bringing together innovative mobile products, industry investors and mobile operators. Xtract with its Social Links solution, a social marketing intelligence product, has been selected as one of three finalists in the ‘Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or Platform’ category.

Timo Laaksonen, CEO of Xtract said, “We are very proud to be recognised by the GSMA for the second time this year. This shows again that the operator community is starting to utilise their rich user data for marketing, making it more flexible, cost efficient, accurate and relevant to their customers. With Social Links, mobile operators can utilise their marketing budgets more effectively to tackle churn, acquire new customers and launch new products to the market. Operators that have already adopted Social Links are gaining tangible returns on their marketing investment right from the start of taking the solution into use.”

Xtract was a finalist for the 2008 Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last February, and has now been recognised for the second time for the APAC tournament.

About Xtract Social Links
Xtract Social Links is the first carrier-grade product that analyzes customers’ real social networks from massive amounts of calls and messaging data. It utilizes this information to better predict the behaviour of customers in operators’ networks. Social Links can be extended with its add-on modules that are designed for specific business applications including: customer insight, customer acquisition, product marketing and customer loyalty. Social Links has already been successfully deployed by several top-tier mobile operators worldwide with very positive results. Xtract’s customers range from top-tier operators such as T-Mobile to innovating challengers such as Blyk.

About Xtract
Xtract delivers software products for social marketing and advertising intelligence. The company refines social interaction, personal behaviour and demographic data to create accurate 3D user profiles. These profiles for the first time enable companies to utilise data as a dynamic tool in the day to day business of marketing for effective and intelligent targeting of digital advertising, viral campaigns and predictive churn management. Xtract’s products and solutions are automated, self-learning and capable of analysing billions of customer transactions. They make complexity simple with easy to use and actionable tools for marketers and advertisers to define and manage their campaigns. Xtract works with over 50 blue-chip companies with intensive customer data. Headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland.

Meet us at GSMA Mobile Asia Congress Mobile Innovations Zone

Helsinki, Finland – October 16, 2008 – Xtract announced today that the company’s board of directors has appointed Michael Hallén as chairman of the board effective immediately. Hallén has a solid experience from several technology companies.

Michael Hallén’s most recent operational assignment was as president and CEO of Stockholm listed Boss Media AB, a leading systems supplier in digitally-distributed gaming entertainment. His team contributed in revitalizing the company and then to a successful public bid process resulting in Boss Media being acquired by US based GTECH in April 2008. Previously, Hallén was president and CEO of IFS AB, a provider of business applications, also listed in Stockholm and operating in some 50 countries. He played a key role in the company’s international expansion and has also been establishing its offshore capabilities.

“I am thrilled to be elected chairman of the board of Xtract and to contribute in building the next successful step in the company’s fast development,” says Michael Hallén. “Xtract has built a unique proposition and track record providing software products that enable highly accurate customer targeting and profiling for telecom operators and online social media. I am impressed by the results and the dramatic increase of return on marketing investment for the Xtract customers.”

In support of his interest in building entrepreneurial companies, Hallén has held board positions in a number of other technology companies. He is currently active in the boards of Extenda, a supplier of software for the retail industry; Cambio, provider of healthcare administration software; and XDIN, an engineering consultation firm.

“Michael is the right person to head Xtract’s board through these exciting and challenging times,” said Timo Laaksonen, Xtract’s CEO. “He brings hands-on experience combined with in-depth knowledge and vision of the market that Xtract needs to strengthen our long term strategy and execution.”

Helsinki, Finland – September 24, 2008 – Xtract today named Timo Laaksonen, 46, Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. A top ICT industry executive, Laaksonen has more than 20 years of experience from First Hop (now Airwide Solutions), Sonera SmartTrust, Teamware (Fujitsu), ICL and Nokia.

“Timo is a strong leader and has a track record for driving growth and building world-class teams. I look forward to benefiting from his knowledge and experience,” said Kimmo Kiviluoto, Xtract’s Deputy CEO and Co-founder.

At Xtract, Laaksonen will be responsible for developing and executing company’s long-term growth and market strategies as well as leading the management team. “I am both thrilled and honoured to take on the position as Xtract CEO. Thrilled thanks to the significant market opportunities available to the company, and honoured because of the position and recognition Xtract has already won as one of the absolute top tier companies in social marketing and advertising intelligence” said Timo Laaksonen, Xtract’s CEO. “Xtract’s innate strength lies in its unique skill set, knowledge and technology. There are very few companies out there who would have as unique strengths and as much potential for competitive differentiation as Xtract does.”

Prior to Xtract, as CEO of First Hop, Laaksonen performed a central role in the company’s growth to become a leader in mobile service delivery and business management solutions through building a world-class team into First Hop, defining the market strategy and positioning, setting up and controlling sales and product operations, as well as directing the related corporate financing activities. He has also held executive and business management positions at Sonera SmartTrust, Teamware Group (Fujitsu), ICL and Nokia Data.

Laaksonen graduated with honours and gained a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Turku School of Business Administration in Finland. He is fluent in five languages.

Xtract’s Scenario Competition opens at Online Marketing Show in Düsseldorf

Helsinki, Finland and Düsseldorf, Germany – September 17, 2008 –If you could see the social connections between your website visitors and find out who are the most influential ones – how could you utilise the knowledge to your business benefit? This is the theme of Xtract’s first international social advertising and marketing competition announced today at the Online Marketing show in Düsseldorf, Germany. The goal of the competition is to recognize online marketing and advertising ideas that incorporate the importance of social networks. More information at: http://www.xtract.com/competition2008/.

“Marketers have known for a long time that peer-to-peer communication has a strong impact on consumer purchasing, but measuring and utilizing it for marketing and advertising has been very difficult. With new technologies we are now learning more about large scale consumer networks and are therefore capable of understanding their needs better,” says Jouko Ahvenainen, chief strategy officer of Xtract, a provider of social marketing and advertising intelligence products.

The competition is addressed to online marketers and advertisers from traditional media companies to in-house marketers at long tail social media websites, blogs and social networking sites.

Entrants are requested to submit a presentation summarizing how they would utilise insight about their most influential users and the way their user base is networked to improve their online marketing and advertising campaigns.

Applications will be judged on two criteria:
1. Visual and effective presentation (are the ideas presented in a visually appealing way that gets the message across effectively?)
2. Creativity and practical application (how innovative are the ideas presented? Are they plausible and applicable to online marketing and advertising campaigns?)

Prizes
• First prize receives a Wacom Cintiq 12 WX or cash price of Euro 1100
• Second prize receives an iPod Touch 32GB or cash price of Euro 400
• Third prize, receives a one year subscription to lynda.com premium training video or cash price of Euro 300.
Additional awards will be given to the Best of Marketing Scenario, Best of Advertising Scenario, Best User-centered Scenario and Best Visual Design.

Jury
The jury includes world class experts in advertising, marketing and web 2.0 communities:

Alan Moore
Alan Moore is the creator of the principles of Engagement Marketing and co-author of Communities Dominate Brands. His ideas and practices are at work within companies such as Nokia, Microsoft, T-mobile Germany, EMAP, Telia Sonera, SonyBMG, The Coca Cola Company, H&M, Hewlett Packard, IPG and News International. Alan’s blog was voted one of the top 20 most influential blogs in 2008.

Brian Jacobs
Brian has worked for over 35 years in media and advertising agencies in the UK, Europe and the USA. He has been International Media Director of Leo Burnett, MD of Carat International, and EMEA Regional Director of Universal McCann. Before launching BJ&A he was EVP of Millward Brown.

Ajit Jaokar
Ajit is author of Mobile Web 2.0 and OpenGardens books and founder of the London- based publishing company futuretext. Currently, he plays an advisory role to a number of mobile start-ups in the UK and Scandinavia. He is also a member of the web2.0 workgroup and chair for Oxford University’s next generation mobile applications panel. His thinking is widely followed in the industry and his blog, The OpenGardens Blog

Jouko Ahvenainen
Jouko Ahvenainen is co-founder and chief strategy officer at Xtract. He is regarded in the industry for his knowledge in Social Advertising Intelligence. A veteran international business management consultant, Jouko has worked and lived in several countries including UK, Finland, Malaysia and U.S. where he held senior positions at Cap Gemini, Ernst & Young, Powerwave Technologies Inc., Nokia and Sonera.

How to participate
1. Enroll at: http://www.xtract.com/competition2008/
2. Create a (pdf or ppt) presentation of a detailed scenario on how you would utilise information regarding social connections between your website visitors and who the most influential users are in your online marketing and advertising campaigns.
3. Submit the file using the following file naming convention. The proposal of tom.jones@company.com would be tom-jones-company-com.pdf
4. Share your final presentation with us (competition2008@xtract.com) using the free service www.slideshare.net by October 20, 2008. Check the option that makes it possible for us to download it.

Winners will be contacted by October 27th, 2008 and announced during Adtech, NY, November 3-6th, 2008.

Xtract at Online Marketing Dusseldorf: Booth # 11 / B45.

The newest software module brings more customer insight for effective mobile marketing campaigns

Helsinki, Finland and San Francisco, USA – September 10, 2008 – Marketers in the telecom industry are faced with the challenge of ever-changing market conditions that lead to shortage of customer insight, especially in the pre-paid markets. Today at the CTIA wireless show in San Francisco, Xtract announced expanded U.S. availability for its Social Links software, as well as a new module to help mobile operators worldwide better understand their customers in order to deliver more engaging marketing and advertising.

Now playing across the USA
Xtract’s Social Links is the world’s first commercially available software for analyzing social network interactions within large scale mobile communication networks. Social Links ability to deliver a far higher return on investments for its clients has been proven in a series of trials and full-scale projects with mobile operators around the globe. Starting today, Social Links is available to additional mobile operators in the U.S.

Xtract Social Links turns raw customer data into a vital marketing tool for mobile operators. By analyzing the social networks within large scale mobile communication networks it identifies the underlying social network structures within the subscriber base and the most influential people in the network, which Xtract calls Alpha Users. The result is a completely new layer of customer insight and a tangible tool for increasing the efficiency of targeted marketing and advertising.

The add-on modules combine social network with demographic and behavioral information, providing a Three Dimensional (3D) view of the customers for specific business applications including marketing activities by mobile operators as well as targeting for mobile advertising. These modules include: Churn Prediction, Customer Acquisition, Product Marketing, and now Customer Insight. Customers benefiting from Xtract Social Links range from top-tier operators such as T-Mobile and Vodafone to innovative challengers such as Blyk and Fonecta.

New module offers more customer insights, better targeting at a lower cost
To help mobile operators create more effective and relevant marketing and advertising campaigns, Xtract has developed a new Customer Insight Module for Xtract Social Links that can predict the customers’ demographics and behavior based on a known customer sample. In addition, the Customer Insight Module brings customers’ demographic information to the marketers’ fingertips through an easy to use network visualisation tool.

In just one easy-to-install module, Social Links customers can:
• Predict customer demographics such as age and gender for the whole customer base. Knowing age and gender of a fragment of network customers enables the module to accurately predict the same information for the rest of the customer base.
• Adapt the module to their specific markets based on demographic characteristics of these given markets.

By using the Customer Insight Module, mobile operators are able to quickly and easily develop more focused targeting for the marketing and advertising campaigns, and achieve their marketing objectives at a lower cost.

Always ready for the close up
Social Links Customer Insight Module comes with a network visualizer tool which enables visual analyses and viewing of subscribers’ social network. Mobile operators can observe their whole subscriber social network in real time, highlight the Alpha Users (influencers) and select certain communities within the network. They are also able to zoom in and out in order to gain detailed insights about specific customer qualities.

Integration and Availability
Xtract Social Links Customer Insight Module integrates seamlessly into the Social Links base and is available for all customers globally.

About Xtract
Xtract is a trusted partner and innovator in social advertising intelligence enabling mobile and media companies to monetize their digital communities. Our core strengths are in social network analytics. Xtract has developed a unique set of automated products that, based on social interactions, behavior and demographic data, can create accurate and real time consumer profiles for mobile and online marketers and advertisers. Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 blue-chip companies with intensive customer data. Headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland. For more information, visit www.xtract.com.

London, UK and Helsinki, Finland – July 8, 2008: Xtract, the leader and innovator in social advertising intelligence today announced that it has closed its series B round of funding with EUR 7,5 Million ($11.74M) from leading early-stage technology investors Creandum, ETF III advised by Eqvitec Partners and InnovationsKapital.

Xtract enables mobile and online companies to refine their customer data creating highly accurate 3 Dimensional profiles combining social interactions, behaviour and demographic information. It answers a crucial need in the advertising industry by making the advertising in social media and mobile effective. By using Xtract, customers have seen the average ad income increase with as much as 82% and in mobile campaigns response rates have increased, on an average, with 30%.

Staffan Ingeborn, Managing Investment Director of InnovationsKapital comments: “Xtract is a very exciting company with a unique proposition for targeting of digital advertising. Its solutions have been shown to create substantial value for its customers, and we believe that Xtract is very well positioned to become a winner and a leader in this space.”

Xtract works with over 50 companies with intensive customer data ranging from global leaders such as Nokia, T-Mobile and Vodafone to innovative challengers such as BLYK and Flirtomatic. Xtract makes complexity simple and actionable via a unique and patented set of products that based upon social interactions, behaviour data and other dataflow can create accurate and dynamic real-time customer profiles. Xtract can ensure delivery of the right audience to the right commercial message at the right time and accurately report on the effectiveness of any campaign. Something which up until now was not possible.

Xtract board member Juha Mikkola of Eqvitec Partners said: “This investment opportunity had a lot of demand and clearly marks the very interesting market and expansion opportunity that Xtract represents in the fast growing social intelligence market.”

“We are delighted to have added two new prominent investors, InnovationsKapital and Creandum in addition to our original investor ETF III advised by Eqvitec Partners. This investment round combined with an exceptional organic growth enables us to expand to new markets outside Europe,” says Kimmo Kiviluoto, CEO of Xtract.

About Creandum
Creandum is a Nordic venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies. The firm has 120 million Euros under management and is today the fastest growing independent partnership of its kind in the Nordic region. Creandum invests in innovative companies in high growth markets led by outstanding entrepreneurs. All investment professionals at Creandum have started companies or been part of successful startups. For more information, please visit www.creandum.com.

About Eqvitec Partners Oy
Eqvitec Partners Oy is one of the largest technology focused venture capital and private equity firms in Northern Europe. The company was founded in 1997 and employs 15 investments professionals in Helsinki and Stockholm. Eqvitec Partners currently advises 6 funds with the total capital base of 500 million Euros. The funds invest in technology companies in all phases from start-up to buyouts. At the moment the funds have investments in 40 companies and have carried out 35 exits. More information can be found at www.eqvitec.com.

About InnovationsKapital
InnovationsKapital is a leading independent venture capital firm in the Nordic region with capital commitments of EUR 317 million in four funds. Years of experience and a strong network within academia and industry enable InnovationsKapital to invest in successful early stage and growth companies. InnovationsKapital supports talented entrepreneurs to help them create successful high growth businesses. Since 1994, InnovationsKapital has made over 60 investments and a number of successful exits in the life sciences and technology sectors. For more information, please visit www.innkap.se.

About Xtract
Xtract is the global trusted partner and innovator in Social Advertising Intelligence.
We have the technology and competence to turn large user data into cash flow. Our solutions create accurate and automated consumer profiles for mobile and online advertisers based on social interactions, behavioural and demographic data.
Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 companies with intensive customer data ranging from global leaders such as Nokia, T-Mobile and Vodafone to innovative challengers such as BLYK and Fonecta. Headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland and London, UK. www.xtract.com

Joint Solution Enables Companies to Gain Deep Customer Insight and Better Target Their Advertising

Helsinki, Finland and San Mateo, Calif. – 25 June 2008 – Xtract, the leader in social advertising intelligence, and Greenplum, a leading provider of database software for business intelligence, today announced strong customer adoption of the Xtract Social Advertising Intelligence (SAI) solution which includes software from Xtract running on the Greenplum Data Warehouse. Top customers in Europe and Asia are deploying Xtract SAI to better target their marketing and advertising to strengthen and grow customer communities in the telecommunications, advertising and retail markets.

Xtract SAI is a powerful solution for advertisers and marketers to target and manage personalized and automated advertising campaigns. With highly accurate, three-dimensional profiling based on customers’ social, behavioral and demographic information, Xtract SAI revolutionizes customers’ marketing and multiplies the results from their advertising campaigns. Xtract SAI is powered by the Greenplum Database and is sold as a turnkey solution to Xtract and Greenplum’s shared customers. These customers are using Xtract SAI to improve business across a range of market segments including telecommunications, advertising and retail.

Fonecta Group is the market-leading directory services company in Finland, offering a variety of directory services to meet the contact information needs of customers. Fonecta’s services are used more than 1.5 million times each day. Fonecta has deployed Xtract SAI in its datacenter for extremely fast analytics across a massive dataset of contacts.

“Our SMS services have been increasing rapidly, and we were looking for a better way to understand our customer segments to target our SMS marketing,” says Rami Meling, Business Development Manager, Fonecta. “Working with Xtract, we were able to create a clear segmenting of our customers and also begin to target and personalize our SMS marketing online. We are thrilled about the results.”

Broadcasting company Plus TV has over 250,000 subscribers and customers utilizing its pay-per-view television service. Plus TV is using Xtract and Greenplum to perform demographic data analysis for its marketing and customer retention efforts.

“Analytics are extremely important to us. We needed a partner with the top people building the right solution,” said Jari Vanhanen, CTO of Plus TV. “Xtract delivers a reliable solution and Greenplum Database has worked extremely well. Together these products are helping us to improve our profitability.”

“Xtract enables companies to gain competitive advantage from their data, and the combined Xtract and Greenplum solution allows customers to achieve critical insights with greater speed and scale,” said Frank Bien, VP of Business Development at Greenplum. “The market traction we’re seeing for Xtract SAI underscores the significant value companies derive from our joint solution.”

About Xtract
Xtract is the global trusted partner and innovator in Social Advertising Intelligence. We have the technology and competence to turn large user data into cash flow. Our solutions create accurate and automated consumer profiles for mobile and online advertisers based on social interactions, behavioural and demographic data. Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 companies with intensive customer data ranging from global leaders such as Nokia, T-Mobile and Vodafone to innovative challengers such as BLYK and Fonecta. Headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland and London, UK.

About Greenplum
Greenplum is a data warehouse software company that has developed the world’s fastest, most scalable database software for business intelligence. Designed to handle extremely large and fast-growing data volumes, Greenplum Database enables companies to gain critical insights into their data and extend their competitive advantage in the market at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions. Greenplum Database powers the Sun Data Warehouse Appliance and is being used by some of the leading companies in the world, including Reliance Communications, Comcast, Skype, AirTran and O’Reilly Media.

London, UK and Helsinki, Finland: Xtract, the leader in social advertising intelligence today announced it has closed new funding of EUR 3,5 Million led by Creandum, a leading early stage technology investor together with renewed commitment from existing investor ETF III, advised by Eqvitec Partners.

Xtract answers a real need in the advertising industry which is making the advertising in social media and mobile effective. By using Xtract, customers have seen the average ad income increase with as much as 82% and in mobile campaigns response rates have increased with 30%.

“Our solutions provide genuinely innovative ways to ensure delivery of the right audience to the right commercial message at the right time and to accurately report on the effectiveness of any campaign in an automated way, something that up until now was not possible,” said Kimmo Kiviluoto, CEO of Xtract. ”We are delighted to have Creandum join the company which clearly underlines the confidence in our offering and in the management team,” he added.

Staffan Helgesson, Managing General Partner at Creandum, said: “We are very impressed with Xtract’s success in the telecom sector where leading mobile operators use Xtract to increase revenues and reduce churn. We also believe that Xtract’s approach is unique from the traditional approach in mass advertising. The transition from the traditional static advertising to the more dynamic advertising is going to happen and the brand managers and advertising agencies understanding this change will be the ones surviving the transition to digital advertising. Xtract has a unique position to be one of the leaders driving this change.”

Xtract board member Juha Mikkola of Eqvitec Partners said he was pleased by Creandum’s decision to invest. “This investment opportunity had a lot of demand and clearly marks the very interesting market and expansion opportunity that Xtract represents in the fast growing social intelligence market”

About Xtract
Xtract is the global trusted partner and innovator in Social Advertising Intelligence.
We have the technology and competence to turn large user data into cash flow. Our solutions create accurate and automated consumer profiles for mobile and online advertisers based on social interactions, behavioural and demographic data.

Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 companies with intensive customer data ranging from global leaders such as Nokia, T-Mobile and Vodafone to innovative challengers such as BLYK and Fonecta. Headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland and London, UK. www.xtract.com

About Creandum
Creandum is a Nordic venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies. The firm has 120 million Euros under management and is today the fastest growing independent partnership of its kind in the Nordic region. Creandum invests in innovative companies in high growth markets led by outstanding entrepreneurs. All investment professionals at Creandum has started companies or been part of successful startups. For more information, please visit www.creandum.com.

About Eqvitec Partners Oy
Eqvitec Partners Oy is one of the largest technology focused venture capital and private equity firms in Northern Europe. The company was founded in 1997 and employs 15 investments professionals in Helsinki and Stockholm. Eqvitec Partners currently advises five funds with a total capital base of 440 million euros. The funds invest in technology companies in all phases from start-up to buyouts. At the moment the funds have investments in 40 companies and have carried out 35 exits. More information can be found at www.eqvitec.com.

London, UK and Helsinki, Finland - Xtract is the winner of the European IT Excellence Award for Business Intelligence. This award recognises business solutions rewarding excellence in the development and the delivery of real end-user solutions.

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