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PlanetAll Keeps Online Masses Organized

Amazon takeover means the bookseller knows where you live.

By Nancy Weil, PCWorld   

Amazon's surprising counterproposal was an offer to buy the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PlanetAll. The $100 million acquisition could potentially pull thousands, if not millions, of Amazon's loyal book and music-buying customers into the contact management service, which automatically updates user address books.

PlanetAll is keeping its name, its office, and its 40 employees, including executives, and will function as a wholly owned subsidiary.

"It means that our growth will only accelerate even faster, which for customers is really good because that means there will be more people in the system they can stay in touch with," Warren Adams, PlanetAll cofounder and president, said of the acquisition during an interview at his office two days after the deal was announced.

PlanetAll's Humble Beginnings
The idea for PlanetAll started a decade ago when Adams, now 32, wanted to keep in touch with friends from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. But the concept didn't take off until Adams was working in London and discovered during a Colgate reunion that various friends had passed through the city unbeknownst to him. Adams took a leave of absence from his consulting job and contacted Brian Robertson, a colleague who also was on leave, and had the technology background that Adams lacked. The two put up $100,000 of their own money searching for investors as they got off the ground. The service launched in November 1996.

The free service, which currently boasts 1.5 million members, is akin to an online personal assistant. Members sign up, inputting personal details such as high schools and colleges attended, address, telephone, and e-mail information. PlanetAll software then scans its existing "groups," currently totaling more than 100,000, and tells members if friends from schools or organizations also are members.

Users can set up address books for those included in the membership directory and the service will automatically make any updates as friends and business associates change jobs or addresses. A calendar section of the service further enables users to find out when and where friends and colleagues will be traveling so that opportunities to get together are not lost.

PlanetAll also will inform the post office, magazines, and others when users change mailing addresses. If colleagues and friends in the database have listed their birth dates, PlanetAll will let users know so they can send well wishes or a gift.

That's where part of Amazon.com's strategy apparently lies.

Sales Opportunities Abound
Amazon.com recommends book and music selections based on information provided by its 3 million users and on their past purchases. Meshing the user databases is likely to mean that in the future PlanetAll fans will log on to the service to find a listing of upcoming birthdays along with customized recommendations for book or music gifts from Amazon.com, which in turn will have on file the correct shipping address for the recipient.

"Our content will help prompt additional purchases," Adams predicted.

PlanetAll and Amazon.com will cross-market; PlanetAll also will continue its partnerships providing private label versions of its service for users of the Lycos, GeoCities, and The Monster Board portal sites.