Video: Talkin' Tech: Classmates.com quietly growing

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A check of email last week turned up a reminder for me about the evolution of social networks. Before there was Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter...Classmates.com was the big man on campus.

Actually, when Classmates launched in 1995, it was probably the only man on the social network campus. But unless you've been contacted by other Classmates members about a high school reunion (like I was this past summer; don't ask about the graduation year, please), you might have forgotten about the Renton-based company in the wake of all the tech media attention regarding Facebook, et al.

Greg Ott, Clasmates.com's senior vice president of marketing, says the company isn't really bothered by that. "We really have to put it into context," Ott told me this week. "We're happy that they're doing well and while they've been growing and getting attention, Classmates has seen record growth in our user base, in both free and paid memberships. Since we've been around a while, we've been focused on the financial numbers while those companies that are newer are not really finding ways to provide a sustainable business."

And Classmates is crowing about its Q3 earnings: an 18 percent jump in revenue, a 37 percent increase in paid memberships. Classmates has taken in paid memberships since its inception, but also has ad revenue as well. (Classmates' own ads are ubiquitous and memorable; high school yearbook photos of the famous and infamous. The first round of ads back in the mid-90s, however, featured employee senior-year pictures.) Unlike many other Web 2.0 companies, Classmates is adding employees and is going ahead with plans to move from Renton to new headquarters along Elliott Bay in downtown Seattle.

Still, I told Ott that while some of my former high school and college friends reached out to me on Classmates, an equal number are renewing ties via Facebook.

"Absolutely there's competition there," Ott said. "There's competition from schools themselves developing websites. We're very aware of that and that's why we're adding value and services that are more than just saying, 'Hey I can send e-mail.' We're the only place where you can come in and there's a community already there. On other networks, that person has to stumble across you."

By the way, the email that got me started on this waltz down memory lane was a notice that I could now remotely monitor conversations on my Classmates community page. As expected, Ott won't talk about future plans, but when I asked about the ability for members to upload videos, "it's not there yet but it becomes a natural extension to share experiences with others. We're just trying to gauge what's more important to our customers in the near-term."