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It has been about 90 days since my last update about developments here at Viewpoints.  Wow!  It has been an exciting time and crazy busy.  On May 7^th we officially launched the Viewpoints Technology Platform and also announced the launch of MySears.com and MyKmart.com on the platform.   During the same time, Viewpoints.com continues as one of the fastest growing consumer reviews site on the Internet.  We had more than 1.5 million consumers using our platform last month and are on pace to have more than 2 million this month.  We are also about to cross the 500,000 registered user mark.  As we approach the three year anniversary of the founding of the company I am pleased to report that we are profitable and growing like a weed!

On the media side of our business we continue to work with a stable of blue chip brands such as Whirlpool, Kenmore, Kraft, SC Johnson, and several Proctor & Gamble brands to help them reach a) in-market consumers who are actively researching purchases and b) social influencers who are active online contributors.   Take a look at the results of a campaign we ran with Kraft  for Philadelphia Spinach and Artichoke Cream Cheese and one we ran with SC  Johnson for their Windex Outdoor All In One Cleaner.

And on the technology licensing side of our business, we are seeing tremendous interest in the Viewpoints Technology Platform.  You can read some of the great press we've received in the last few days and even check out the favorable write up in Tech Crunch.  If you know of any retail, travel or media companies that want to better engage their customers tell them to talk to us about ways that we can leverage the Viewpoints Technology Platform to help them collect reviews, solicit ideas, engage in discussions and ultimately create a vibrant and valuable online community for their customers and prospects.

Of course no update would be complete without a few recommendations:

·         Lost City of Z - A NYT's best seller written by a friend about a deadly obsession with the Amazon
·           Vitamix Blender - I make a smoothie every morning with this workhorse of a blender
·         Westin Heavenly Mattress -  Need a great mattress?  My review - 34,431 views and growing! 

And on a final note, we have been hiring new employees at a fast and furious rate.  Please welcome Paula Cooper, Laurel Stiles, Ashley Barthel,  Nik Krimm, and Rahul Matta to the Viewpoints team.

We are moving into larger offices later this summer, bringing several more people on board, launching more sites and releasing some innovative new enhancements to our platform.   Hopefully it won't take me another 90 days to write again, but just in case, have a great summer and don't be a stranger!

Regards

Matt Moog
Founder/CEO
Viewpoints Network

P.S. - for pure entertainment value take a look at Kyle's blog . Kyle is one of our developers.  He recently moved out of his apartment, bought an Air Stream and is now traveling around the country.  He stopped by the office this week and gave us all a tour.  He might have the only Air Stream with a Tivo, a Wii and a Mac Book Pro and  three different ways to get on the Internet. Check it out here: http://whereiskylenow.com/blog/

We are super pleased that Viewpoints.com is growing so quickly and is now solidly over 1.2 million users and that we have re-architected our technology to enable us to enter into private label and co-brand relationships with other companies who have large and engaged audiences.  In launching The Viewpoints Technology Platform we are taking the lessons that we have learned in building our own community and bringing those both to our clients and partners.   We have a passion for building communities and partnering with great brands so give us a call!   

So, because we are curious little critters, we decided to poll the 140 people who had written their reviews and ask them to complete a survey on their satisfaction with the phone now that they have had more time to really use it.  Had the luster worn off?  Was the bloom off the rose? Or, was Kyle right.  Did it change everything?

So the first thing we did was the survey.  Click here to see the all the questions we asked.   (feel free to take the survey yourself!) We had about a 20% response rate to the survey request, which while maybe a research professional might think we need a larger sample size, we think this is a pretty good indication of what iPhone users think.   One obvious self selection bias here is that we only surveyed people who took the time to write a review of their iPhone. In the interest of complete transparency here are the full results.   

I have attached the press release we wrote up on this but let me first highlight a few of things that really jumped out at me:

1. Right off the bat an impressive 88% of people said that the Apple iPhone exceeded their expectations. For a product with incredibly high expectations that is pretty amazing.
2. What is even more amazing, is that 70% of the respondents said they told everyone they knew about their iPhone.  70%! wow. And 65% of the respondents report that at least one person purchased on as a result of their endorsement.  In Kyle's case it just might have been 20+.
3. I was also surprised to see that 72% of the respondents said that they were already an AT&T customer.   What that says to me is that when people start rolling off their two year commitments with Verizon the iPhone is likely to see another bump in sales.

We also surveyed non iPhone customers so that we had a benchmark.  The levels of satisfaction are about the same with a 4+ rating at 69% for non iPhone customers vs 74% for iPhone customers.  I was shocked to read that 50% of the respondents had not had any exposure to the iPhone.  However, I do think it bodes well for Apple that 15% of our non iPhone respondents stated their intention to buy one in the next 12 months.

Download apple_iphone_press_release_from_viewpoints.com.pdf  

It has now been just over a year since the whole team came together.  I am very proud of both the product, the company and the team we have built.  We launched our private beta in February, public beta on April 30th and our official 1.0 version on Sept 13th.  We now have what I belive is a first class, competitive user driven reviews site.   The next year will be all about innovation, differentiation and scale.   We believe reviews are at there most useful when the reader knows more about the reviewer.  We hope you agree and see the power in what we are building.

Be sure to take a look around the site to see how things are shaping up.  Check out some of these great reviews in  Electronics, Travel, Home & Garden or on the lighter side see what TV Shows, Movies,  Music or Books you could discover.  Of course we also have a great section for Local Places that features local Restaurants, Shopping, and even local Doctors & Hospitals.

See you on the site!  http://www.viewpoints.com/aboutme/Matt

We've been hard at work on a number of new features, but I thought I'd highlight our new Email Preferences feature, since we're particularly happy with it.  In a nutshell, it gives our members complete control over what types of emails they get from us and how frequently they are sent.  That might not sound breakthrough, but when you consider how few sites give you choice over how they communicate with you, we think it's a big deal.

We're still working out some minor kinks, but here is an overview of the new Email Preferences feature:

• You can get real-time, daily, weekly or monthly emails whenever someone makes a comment on one of your reviews or sends you a compliment. 

• If you have a particular category or sub-category of reviews you are interested in (like books) you can get daily, weekly or monthly emails for the top-rated items and most helpful reviews in that category.

• You can choose to get emails whenever someone on your Friends List posts a review. 

There are some other options too, all of which you can set by visiting the "Email" tab on your My Profile page.  Best of all, you can change your preferences anytime you want.  And for you RSS fans, all of these options are available for you, too. 

We'll be cranking out new features all summer and we welcome your feedback on what you'd like to see next.  So don't be shy about dropping us a line!

As I write this however, I realize that when I say "our team" I should realy include the 100+ reviewers who wrote more than 1,200 reviews in the last 8 weeks.  Their commitment, dedication and enthusiasim has been fantastic.  They have helped nurture the start of a community and create something special.  Thanks to our Publisher's Circle Jo, Patty, Libby,  Anne, Gamera23, Cat, CyndiA, Bryan, Matt, LaurieM , bkovacs,  ChrisJarmick, Nicole, and Niki. 

You guys are awesome!  I have found great new movies, a planter for our porch,  great new hotels and new vacation destinations. 

I feel fortunate to work with such a great group of people both here in the office and across the world.  Together, we are going to build something very special.

Thanks,
Matt Moog