July 2007 Archives

There's a great article on our recent venture capital funding on the CNN/Money Media Biz blog -- VC gives a 'hi5′ to hot social network:

"The battle of the social networks is heating up. News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace and privately held Facebook may be the most recognized leaders in this market but hi5, a site that's particularly popular around the world, with more than 60 million registered users globally, got a big boost from a prominent venture capital firm Tuesday."

The news originally broke on Om Malik's GigaOM Blog on Sunday.  From there it spread to many of the Web 2.0 news sites including:

• Mashable
• TechCrunch
• paidContent.org
  
• Scobelizer

Recently feedback also has come from other areas such as:

• Think Multicultural
• VentureBeat
• BloggingStocks
• The Deal
  

We'll update this list as the stories come in.  For further press inquiries or mentions contact press@hi5.com or Mike Barash from Atomic PR +1-415.402.0230.

Leading international social networking site takes first institutional financing round for expansion.

July 24, 2007 - San Francisco, Calif. - hi5, one of the leading social networks in the world, today announced it has secured $20 million in venture capital funding. Led by MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture firm investing in early stage Internet, Cleantech and Life Sciences startups, the new funding will enable the company to expand services and grow into new markets with its popular website. With more than 60 million registered members, hi5 is a top 10 site in more than 25 countries around the globe. Prior to this financing, the company had operated profitably for the last two years.

"hi5 has developed a strong global brand and loyal audience around the world, and we are very enthusiastic about the large market opportunity, the business momentum, and the great team they have assembled," said Jon Feiber, an MDV Partner, and new hi5 board member.  "When we were evaluating potential investments in the social networking space, hi5's massive global community and track record of profitability made it a clear choice. We're excited to help the hi5 team continue to extend its reach."

Each day, millions of people connect and communicate with each other using hi5's global platform. hi5 provides a platform that breaks down location barriers, making it easier for people to stay connected with friends around the world.

"As a leading international social network, we recognize the value and opportunity in markets across the World, and we are in a strong position to continue our rapid growth." said Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO of hi5.  "With the support of MDV, we'll be able to continue to invest in our platform, and to make it more valuable and relevant to our membership across the Globe."

About hi5
hi5 is one of the leading social networks in the world, with over 60 million registered members. Members use hi5 to communicate with friends around the world, and to connect with the local and global communities that are important to them. hi5 provides a localized experience for its members, enabling people to connect with others based on language or other personally relevant cultural and popular interests. hi5 was founded in 2003, is privately held, and located in San Francisco.

About MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
MDV is a leading early stage Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. For 25 years the firm has identified, mentored and developed entrepreneurs and young companies redefining business technology and medicine. The firm invests around three major business and science concerns: Driving the Digital World; Powering the Planet; and Personalizing Medicine. The MDV team partners with entrepreneurs and engages very early in the life of a company to impact its long-term success. Category-leading companies funded by MDV include Agile, Brocade, Energy Innovations, Epigram (BRCM), FormFactor, Ipsilon Networks (NOK), Kalpana (CSCO), Nanosolar, NeuroMolecular Pharmaceuticals, ONI Systems (CIEN), ParAllele (AFFX), Pivotal Technologies (BRCM), Revenue Science, and Shutterfly. MDV has $1.4 billion dollars under management. For more information, visit www.mdv.com .

Contact:
Mike Barash
Atomic PR
415.402.0230
mike@atomicpr.com

 

The Hi5 site was knocked offline at 1:50 PM Pacific by a power loss in our Data Center in San Francisco.  We lost about 1/4 of our servers which negatively impacted performance.  We have disabled access while we evaluate the impact of the outage.

Update (3:45 PM): Our engineering and operations team just finished checking all systems.  We are starting to restore access.  Thanks for your patience.

Update (4:10 PM): This outage knocked out other popular Internet services like LiveJournal, Craigslist, Yelp, and Technorati.  Here's some news coverage of the outage for the curious:

• At least 20,000 without power in downtown S.F.
• Power Outages?!
• Power outages hit 50,000 PG&E customers

Hi5 has a team of people devoted to protecting your security and privacy.  Recently we shutdown several malicious "Phishing Sites" which attempted to steal Hi5 passwords.  Here's some background on how we dealt with this problem:

• Problem was reported, we found that there was a site containing a fake Hi5 home page.
• We immediately reported the site to all the Phishing clearinghouses.
• Then we looked up who hosts the server and who was hosting the domain/DNS.
• In this case we found that the phisher was using a Dynamic DNS service.  We contacted their customer service which shut down access.
• Then we contacted the web hosting company in Malaysia.  This required multiple emails and phone calls in the middle of the night.
• Finally the web site was shut down.
• Details about the identity of the perpetrators was supplied to the appropriate authorities.
  

Phew!  It's a lot of work protecting Hi5 users from unsavory elements!

We do our best to keep on top of this, however you can protect yourself from Phishing attacks by following a few simple steps:

• Use a current browser.  The latest versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer contain Phishing protection.  When we find evidence of a phishing site we report it immediately.
• Pay attention to your browser bar.  Insure that the URL starts with http://www.hi5.com before entering your password.
• Report suspicious phishing emails to us.  Click on the contact link on any page to alert customer service about this type of activity.
• Remember, if an email sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Hi5 will never solicit financial or personal information via email.
• Read more about protecting yourself from Phishing attacks.  Microsoft and Wikipedia both have good articles about protecting yourself from Phishing attacks.
  

Say goodbye to the old photo uploader tool. We have now launched the multi-photo uploader. You can access it by clicking on the photos tab or the upload photos link. To use this multi-photo uploader, look for the link at the top of this page "Lots of pics to upload? Try our fast and easy upload tool".

Using the new photo uploader tool, you can now search through files on your computer. Next, just select the photos you want to upload. Once you have selected the photos, click on the "upload" button. The photos will then upload to the selected photo album. That's it!

If you experience any problems with the new photo uploader, you can always switch to the old one by clicking on "Switch to the simple uploader". Let us know what you think of our new tool at the "How can we make Hi5 better?" group.

    We do a lot of hard work here at Hi5, so it is nice to be able to take a break from time to time and enjoy some time outside the office as a team.  Recently, we made the hour trek up to Sonoma Valley, which is the home of a vast array of vineyards.  A bus picked us up at 9:30 AM and we were on our way.  The card sharks showed their true colors in the games of Hearts and Texas hold 'em that started as soon as the bus was out of the city. 

    Our first stop, Sebastiani Winery, proved to be a great start to a great day.  We went through a brief lesson on pairing wines with cheeses -- a lesson that was quickly reinforced by the real thing!  Everyone had their opinions on their favorite wine or their favorite cheese, but one thing that we could all agree on was that they were well paired, and brought out the best in each.
 




   We headed on to Viansa for a quick tour followed by lunch.  Their wine cellar was beautiful and dark with several barrel-lined corridors branching off in various directions.  We emerged from the cellar and headed over to the wine bar for some tasting and then off to lunch.  The weather, lunch and company was wonderful and it was time to move on before we knew it.  On our way out however, some of the group managed to be lured into the "VIP room" where they were able to taste an array of higher-end wines...




    Our next stop, Domaine Carneros, is the home of some tasty sparkling wine.  After an informational video and a tour of their facilities, we were able to try some of their fine sparkling wines.  For everything you ever wanted to know about Champagne check out Wikipedia.  Only sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of France can actually be called "Champagne".  However, sparkling wine made in the same manner as Champagne has "méthode traditionnelle" written on the bottle.  Whatever you call it, it was good.

If you're ever in the Sonoma Valley, be sure to check out these hi5-recommended wineries!

A change in our core networking is causing temporary problems with Scraps and Groups on the site.  ETA for resolution is 18:35 Pacific Standard Time.  We'll update this post with more information as it comes in.

Update 18:40: Fives have returned, groups and scraps coming back online.  New ETA 19:00.
Update 17:10: All systems back to normal.  Bug fix release will be deployed shortly.
Update 23:59: Bug fix release is deployed 100%

You can find out more about this release in the Hi5 group - How can we make Hi5 better.  Here's a short synopsis of the fixes:

• Improved the rendering of profiles that have content from external sites.
  
• Profile backgrounds and custom styles are working again.
• You can now delete multiple messages in the Message Center.
• Removed the ability to send messages to your entire list of friends, as a spam control measure.
• Re-enabled transparency for content modules on the profile page.

At long last, we have decided to dive into the blogosphere with our new hi5 blog! The hi5 blog is our way of telling you a little more about what goes on behind the scenes at hi5 and connect with you, our members, on a personal level. Here's a little of what you can expect to see in the hi5 blog:

• hi5 Site will cover all the latest important updates and give you a heads-up about upcoming changes to the site
• hi5 Life will tell you a little about the people who work at hi5, including a peek at our recent company outing in California's Sonoma Valley and share some "fun facts" about our staff
• hi5 Engineering will be the place where our engineering team transmits some of the bits and bytes that make stuff work on hi5
• hi5 Member Mashup will feature tips and tricks about using the site and discuss ways to make sure hi5 is a safe, secure and fun place to hang out with your friends
• hi5 Corp will share with you how we are making the news and hosting events in countries from Portugal to Mexico.
  

Nothing is written in stone - like hi5.com, we'll be fine-tuning this blog as we continue to post and receive your feedback. Be sure to come back soon!