TextPlus, an application that letsあgroupsあeasilyあtextあeach other for free,あtoday announced it has submitted its 4.4あversion to Apple. The new version willあallow users not only to text for free but also to search for people (see image),あ bringing a new social aspect to group texting. We&'ll be sure to let you know when the new version gets approved.
When I last spoke withあTextPlus about its new photo feature back inあSeptember, the company claimed 8 million application downloads. Today, it&'s claiming 11.5 million downloads. That&'s a whopping 3.5 million downloads in a fewあmonths, which makes sense, as chief executive Scott Lahman notes that the company is seeing around 50,000 new users per day.
A deeper dive into numbers shows that during 2009, TextPlus users sentあ713 million messages and had a total of 8.7 million users. As we close in on the end of 2010, the company claims usersあhave sentあ5 billion messages (2 billion in Q4 alone) and has close to 32 million total users. The overall number includes apps downloaded on a smartphone as well as users sendingあtexts through simple non-smartphone phones.
Several companies are providing group texting services, including CallVine and TextFree. However, TextPlus appears to be the first to add several social features, including user profiles and search.
The Marina Del Ray, Calif. based company, founded in 2007, has raised a total of $13.2 million in funding. Kleiner Perkins Caufield &' Byers participated in both rounds.
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Companies: Callvine, TextFree, TextPlus
People: Scott Lahman
Companies: Callvine, TextFree, TextPlus
People: Scott Lahman
Cody Barbierri is a social and digital media consultant. He works for Piehead and blogs about social media at Social Tab. (None of his posts are about clients or their competitors.) Reach him at Cody@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Cody on Twitter.
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