Following takeover of YiGG, ekaabo now acquires Mister Wong

Bookmarking service eyes transition towards “social news“

Fresh off its recent takeover of YiGG, Weinheim-based ekaabo GmbH has now acquired bookmark provider Mister Wong from construktiv GmbH of Bremen. Mister Wong ranks among the most linked-to German websites, with the site’s German version alone boasting a half-million members. Commenting on the newest acquisition, Marco Ripanti, CEO and founder of social media service provider ekaabo said “We believe that the acquisition of Mister Wong will result in a quantum leap in the efficiency of social media use.“ The parties agreed not to disclose the sale amount. Online marketing specialist Phuc Tran has been tapped to serve as CEO of the new Mister Wong branch in Berlin.

“The high footfall seen on Mister Wong makes the prospect of also being able to share bookmarks and also being able to bookmark shares very attractive. Once integrated into our social ad network Spreadly, this will result in an attractive win-win situation,“ Ripanti said.
The daily addition of 3,000 new bookmarks and 200 new members guarantees a very high activity level. New Mister Wong GmbH CEO Phuc Tran expressed confidence at the prospect. “In the past, bookmarking service Mister Wong was able to notch up to 250,000 daily visitors at times. My team and I are looking to get back to these levels and to thoroughly modernize the portal with the help of our active users. In the long-term we’d like to expand the service provided by Mister Wong, and in addition to the very popular bookmarking service use our service to move a step closer in the direction of ‘social news‘. Of course all of our users‘ previous bookmarks will continue to remain in place,“ explained Phuc Tran.

Agents in social ad network Spreadly are site operators which have installed buttons from Mister Wong, YiGG or Spreadly, together with internet users which click the buttons and the advertisers which offer deals in the share or bookmark window. A deal is an advertising message which is disseminated to online channels Twitter, Facebook, Xing or LinkedIN, and which is rewarded with a voucher. No obligation exists to redeem the voucher, which appears as an offer while web surfers share content or bookmark and comment. My.Spread.ly provides its users with a single-location overview of their personal content and bookmarks.

“My time with Mister Wong was wonderful and I’m pleased to have found a reliable operator in ekaabo,“ said Mister Wong founder Kai Tietjen in response to the sale. “No member need be concerned about his or her bookmarks, since ekaabo also places top priority on the well-being of its users,“ he said. Tietjen will continue to run online agency construktiv, which was also founded by him and which has a staff of 80 at its main offices in Bremen and Berlin.

About ekaabo
In addition to developing online communities, ekaabo GmbH provides various social sharing services based on social data from the social graph. Social advertising in the Spreadly-brand social ad network is based on these internet technologies and benefits all players. Operators which permit ads on their sites as well as internet users which disseminate advertising messages are both rewarded. Advertisers obtain valuable information regarding the behavior of individual members within their target group, enabling them to identify the latter.
Weinheim-based ekaabo GmbH was founded in November 2006. The company’s investors are Marco Ripanti (CEO and founder) and Artus Capital GmbH & Co. KgaA of Kulmbach. YiGG GmbH and Mister Wong GmbH were acquired by ekaabo GmbH in July 2012.

Marco Ripanti
06201 / 845 20 12
marco@ekaabo.com
ekaabo GmbH

Schulstraße 8
D-69469 Weinheim
tel: +49 6201 845200
fax: +49 6201 84520-29

This release was published on openPR.