ChaCha

The birth of ChaCha:

• The ChaCha search engine was launched on September 1, 2006. An updated version was introduced on November 6, 2006.

• 20,000 guides had registered by year end and that it had raised 6 million in development funds, including support from Bezos Expeditions, a personal investment firm owned by Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur behind Amazon.com.
The new ChaCha:

• Mobile Answers Text Service launched January 2008 - ChaCha is the only mobile search capability that provides an easy way to get answers on the go.

• Mobile Answers Voice Service launched on April 2008 - ChaCha launched its groundbreaking voice-enabled mobile search service, 1-800-2ChaCha.

• Privately-owned and headquartered in Carmel, Indiana with approximately 75 employees – bringing world-changing technology to the Midwest helping make Indiana one of America’s Top States for Business.

• 55,000 active Guides throughout the country - with thousands available online at any time.
Mobile trends:

• ChaCha, the human-powered mobile answers service quickly captured seven percent of the mobile text search market with a quarterly growth rate of more than 800 percent.

• ChaCha increased its market share in the U.S. mobile search market to seven percent, tying for second place with Yahoo at the end of June 2008. ChaCha also exited the quarter with an 800 percent growth rate, compared to Yahoo’s 200 percent growth rate.

• “Mobile search is growing at an incredible pace,” says Chris Quick, mobile media analyst with Nielsen Mobile. “Within the mobile SMS search category, ChaCha is the fastest growing service, increasingly competitive with other mobile search providers. We’re therefore keeping very close tabs on how ChaCha will affect the mobile market.”