ApnaCircle-Viadeo acquires social networking company Unyk

The recently merged combined entity, ApnaCircle-Viadeo, has announced the acquisition of Unyk, a Canadian social networking site. This acquisition includes Unyk’s membership of 16 million users, which is growing at a rate of 600,000 new members each month. Unyk members will now become ApnaCircle-Viadeo members, bringing the global network to over 25 million users and increasing the growth rate of over one million users per month.

This acquisition will also help the Indian members of ApnaCircle to double their reach and also will help in increasing the growth rate of ApnaCircle’s network to 150,000 users per month.

Yogesh Bansal, Founder & CEO ApnaCircle and Board of Director, Viadeo, said, “This acquisition will help us to grow the Indian market organically. This will also get us critical mass, while providing greater usability and value to our members through Unyk’s smart address book and synchronisation technology. We have been growing at a substantial pace and I am sure this acquisition will help us to grow further.”

Dan Serfaty, CEO, Viadeo, commented, “This acquisition is highly complementary and more than doubles Viadeo’s network, while strengthening our global and local market presence. Our strategy continues to be to develop networks throughout Europe and emerging countries, and with this acquisition, I believe we have significantly strengthened our market position and offering, particularly throughout Mexico, Brazil and India, and now have a North American presence, with 4 million members throughout Canada, the US and Mexico. We are building a global platform, but remain committed to developing local offerings specific to each market we service, one of our key competitive differentiators.”

Unyk is the first smart and private address book that updates itself and is used primarily by business professionals looking to keep multiple address books current with the latest and simplest technology. The company possesses strong and innovative technology services with its core differentiator, a synchronisation tool that enables members to seamlessly merge their address books from Outlook, webmail, cell phones and more. With Unyk, users are able to access a consolidated and up-to-date address book, anytime from anywhere. Launched in September 2005, Unyk has a global network spanning 180 countries, managing 870 million contacts globally.