The World On My Fingers

Tagged.com is a social networking site founded in 2004. Tagged is the subject of numerous customer complaints for sending misleading bulk mai and is regarded as a phishing and spamming site by consumer anti-fraud advocates.

About the Company

Tagged was co-founded by Harvard graduates and entrepreneurs Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith. Tagged.com was launched in October 2004 by Tagged Inc. and is privately owned.

Tagged Inc. has raised $7 million in funding, from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Mayfield Fund. The site initially targeted US high school students but has since opened to all users worldwide age 13 and older. The company reached profitability in early 2007. The site allows its users to build and customize profiles, send messages, leave comments, post bulletins, customize status, browse photos, watch videos, play games, give gifts, give tags, chat and make friend. Early innovations include the use of third-party widgets and YouTube as a part of the site’s graphical interface.

Other partnerships include Slide, RockYou, PhotoBucket, Meebo, Razzand Jangl. As of July 2008, the site claims to have 70 million registered users. In late 2008, Tagged raised $5 million venture debt from Horizon Technology Finance and Leader Ventures.

In December 2008, Social Networking Watch reported that Tagged.com ranked 4th, 9th, and 19th by Hitwise, Nielsen, and Comscore respectively.In June 2009, TechCrunch ranked Tagged as the 6th most valuable social networking site in the world, according to their unique "social network valuation model", with estimated valuation up to $920,000,000.

It received a rating of C+ from the Better Business Bureau.

Controversy Surrounding Email Invitations

Tagged asks users for their email username and password and it will then check their email address books for contacts and repeatedly send email invitations to people who are not yet on Tagged, stating that they have been "added as a friend" or that the inviter had sent them photos on Tagged. This process has met some criticism in the technology press and from some users. The resemblance to a "virus" has been often been mentioned, including by urban legend sites like snopes.com.

In March 2008 Microsoft announced a commercial partnership with social networking sites Tagged, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo, and hi5 regarding email contacts APIswhich has since been implemented.

Prior to Tagged, Greg Tseng was Co-Founder and CEO of Internet incubator Jumpstart Technologies. In March 2006, Jumpstart Technologies settled with the FTC on alleged violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, which included a $900,000 fine, but no admission of guilt.

From February 2009, Tagged.com has been blocked in the State of Qatar by the only ISP Qtel after a number of "complaints from the public”. Tagged.com is one of the 10 most visited sites in the State of Qatar.