ChaCha receives investment from Qualcomm
ChaCha, a Question and answers website, has secured a further US$3 million of investments, including US$900,000 of outstanding warrants from new investor Qualcomm Ventures. The company has nearly 32 million unique inquisitive users monthly and answers over 3 million questions daily.
According to Scott Jones, ChaCha’s CEO, ChaCha is pleased to welcome Qualcomm to its list of top-tier individual and institutional investors.
In December, ChaCha hit a record of nearly one million unique visitors to ChaCha.com in a single day and hit another record of two million mobile SMS text questions in a single day.
Since its inception five years ago, ChaCha has raised approximately US$75 million from prominent tech leaders, venture capitalists, and angels. The most recent round in October 2010 was led by new investors VantagePoint Venture Partners and Rho Ventures, joining previous ChaCha investors Bezos Expeditions, Morton Meyerson (former leader of EDS and Perot Systems), Rod Canion (founding CEO of Compaq and creator of the portable computer industry), and others.
According to Nagraj Kashyap, Vice President at Qualcomm Ventures, they have tracked ChaCha closely since the beginning and have been impressed by its recent, accelerated growth. ChaCha’s service has a natural consumer appeal and they think the company is well positioned to engage audiences worldwide through its innovative answers platform.
ChaCha introduces social platform
A social platform by the name of ChaCha.me has been introduced by ChaCha, in which its services have been extended. Now it would include answers directly from individuals and businesses.
These answers are now accessible via Facebook, Twitter, Texting 242242, the ChaCha.com Web site, and its iPhone and Android applications.
David Guetta, who won a Grammy this year and has had two songs on the Billboard Top 50 for over 30 weeks, will help launch ChaCha.me while performing this week at the 25th Annual Winter Music Conference in Miami, FL.
According to Scott Jones, CEO of ChaCha, Indianapolis, ChaCha is all about free questions and answers. This is a line extension of its core business of providing free answers to anyone, any time, on nearly any platform.
The company expects that as ChaCha.me gains momentum, it will be a go-to place for teens and young adults to ask questions of celebrities, friends and even businesses that interest them.
According to Nielsen and Quantcast, ChaCha.com is one of the fastest-growing mobile and online publishers owing to its association with major brands such as Paramount, AT&T, Palm, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and presidential political campaigns.
MTN, uganda telecom and WARID battling over prices!(Uganda)
MTN, uganda telecom (utl) and WARID having tussle over prices. Low rates are being offered by each company within the same network to lure subscribers. MTN recently launched MTN Zone, a tariff structure that offers discounts of up to 99%. The more capacity available, the greater the discount at the time of making the call, the Chief Commercial Officer, Erik Van Veen, said. Discount varies according to the amount of traffic in particular areas. The more phone usage in an area, the lower the discount and vice versa. The discounts are on a per second basis.
Newcomers are trying to pull MTN’s dominance from the market by giving heavy dicounts. WARID’s, Megabonus pushes the bar even higher in the tariff war. Under the promotion, subscribers can talk for free 24 hours after loading airtime. The free calls are only to WARID subscribers. Zain launched Chacha where calls within the network cost sh3 per second.
