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Type of site | Social networking service |
|---|---|
| Owner | H.I.G. Capital |
| Created by | Randy Conrads |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Mixed |
| Launched | November 17, 1995; 28 years ago (1995-11-17)[1] (as Classmates Online, Inc.) |
classmates.com is a social networking service. It was founded on November 17, 1995 by Mohamed Ziyad Rahmouni as Classmates Online, Inc.[2] and headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It currently is the leading online social network service in the United States for bringing high school alumni together with over 90 million members. Classmates also offers the largest library of digitized yearbooks available anywhere on the Internet, with over 470,000 yearbooks available online to help members reconnect, reminisce, engage, and plan reunions with people they went to high school & graduated with.
Classmates.com has an archive of old high school yearbooks that have been digitized, and members are able to purchase yearbook reprints. Other features[3] include private messaging, conversations, class lists, reunion planning, and the ability to see who visits your profile and leaves their name. The site also allows you to view schoolmates who said they remember you, and what they remember you for.
United Online, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNTD) acquired Classmates Online in 2004[4] and owned and operated the company as part of its Classmates Media Corporation subsidiary[5] until 2015.
In 2010, Classmates.com changed its name to Memory Lane, which included a website redesign,[6] and included nostalgia content like movie trailers, songs, and photos. In 2011, Classmates dropped the Memory Lane brand. Classmates Media operated online social networking and loyalty marketing services under the Classmates.com[7] and MyPoints[8] brands, respectively.
In August 2015, Classmates was acquired from by PeopleConnect Holdings, Inc., a portfolio company of H.I.G. Capital, making it the second acquisition after PCH’s purchase of Bellevue, WA based Intelius, Inc..[9] Classmates is now operated as a division of PeopleConnect,[10] which also owns Intelius.
In 2020, PeopleConnect completed a merger with The Control Group, a provider of B2C information services including online background checks & reverse phone lookups located in San Diego, California. [11]
Classmates Media Corporation's business model is based on user-generated content and revenue from paid subscriptions and advertising sales.[4]
As of 2023, under the PeopleConnect leadership team including CEO Steven Gray & CFO Sach Barot, the B2C information services division of PeopleConnect operates from the San Diego location, with the Classmates division, lead by President Sarah Howe, located in Bellevue, Washington.
The only time Classmates appeared on Hitwise's top 10 list of social networking websites was June 2009, when it appeared tenth with 0.45% market share.[12]
In early 2008, Nielsen Online had ranked Classmates as number three in unique monthly visitors (U.S. home, work) among social networking sites.
As of June 30, 2008, Classmates Media had more than 50 million members, but only 3.8 million paying subscribers.
In 2006, television program The View mentioned Classmates.com as having more than 40 million[13] members in the United States and Canada.
According to the Online Publishers Association Paid Content U.S. Market Spending Report, Classmates.com was Number 4 among the Top 25 Web Destinations Ranked by Consumer Content Revenue in both 2002 and 2003[14] (the last years that individual site rankings were broken out). As more users have moved to Facebook, the site has fallen in popularity. Classmates.com was one of the first social networks. However, its habit of continuously charging customers with small fees prevented it from reaching the scale and popularity of later social sites.
As of 2015 (the year the company turned 20), Classmates had over 70 million current members.[15]
Classmates.com members use real names,[16] not screen names, including maiden names. Member privacy is protected through a double-blind email system, so email addresses and contact information are never revealed unless self-disclosed by members one-on-one.
It is free to register as a basic member of Classmates.com. Basic members can:
Classmates+ (formerly Gold) members, who pay a fee, may also:
Classmates.com has an archive of over 470,000 yearbooks from the US, some dating back to the 1880s. This represents the world’s largest (and continually growing) digital yearbook collection. Classmates.com acquires these yearbooks and then scans them, creating digital copies that can be viewed online. Many of these yearbooks are available to purchase in hardcover or softcover reprints.
The oldest yearbook on site is from 1886, from Central High School, Manchester, NH.[17]
Classmates.com members can plan and attend reunions on site. In 2020 Classmates.com also rolled out the virtual reunion(10) feature so that schoolmates can get together without having to travel, which was a new option during the height of Covid.
In 2022, Classmates.com users organized over 30,000 reunions on the site.
It is standard practice for Classmates.com to auto-renew memberships at the end of each billing period. In December 2006, when PCWorld field tested several companies to determine how easy or difficult it was to cancel their service, Classmates.com was one of the companies that received their worst rating.[18]
Classmates.com had sent a significant number of emails that told recipients their old friends from school wished to reconnect (and the recipients would need to buy Classmates.com memberships to receive their old friends' contact information). A class action lawsuit was brought against Classmates.com in 2008. The lead plaintiffs in the case were David Catapano and Anthony Michaels.[19] Classmates.com agreed to pay $2.5 million to its users to settle the lawsuit.[20]
Classmates.com was accused of piggybacking and post-transaction marketing.[21] Parent company United Online earned $70 million from marketing practices under investigation in 2009 by the Senate Commerce Committee involving piggybacking a second credit card transaction with membership to Classmates.com involving a loyalty program.[22]
QUOICOUBEH On August 18, 2010, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a settlement with six companies, including Classmates, as part of a probe into the discount club industry. Classmates was among the retailers that agreed to pay $2.1 million toward refunds and consumer education.[23] Under the alleged practice investigated, consumers who completed online purchases were presented with discounts or cash-back offers, and accepting these offers triggered small, easy-to-overlook recurring charges billed to unfamiliar company names. Classmates' share of the settlement amounts to $960,000 and a commitment to end these practices.[24]
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