Estonia-based United Dogs and Cats, which operates two pet-specific community websites dubbed UnitedDogs.com and UnitedCats.com, has raised €480,000 in VC funding. The money comes from individual investor Raivo Hein, the state-owned Estonian Development Fund and Ambient Sound Investments, the investment group led by co-founders of Skype that had previously seeded the startup with €170,000 of funding back in April 2008.
UDC first launched the two pet communities internationally about two years ago, and the nicely designed social networking services have quickly gained traction with cat and dog owners throughout Europe, in large part thanks to its localized nature with support for 16 languages. CEO Ragnar Sass says the total number of registered users has recently surpassed 200,000 and claims that the site is market leader in its respective segment for a number of European countries like Italy, France, Spain, Lithuania and Estonia.
United Dogs and Cats makes money by selling advertisement placements to companies interested in reaching pet owners with related products, and by offering its members a number of paid features like the ability to upload more photos of their pets, access to more hand-crafted virtual gifts and a range of pet profile designs. Paying users also receive bonus points (like a virtual currency) every month, which they can use to send virtual gifts to other pets, etc.
I asked co-founder Martin Tajur if UDC was inspired by the popular Dogster / Catster network sites based in the U.S., and he claimed they did not even know about the San Francisco company (which by the way, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is an investor in) when they launched the websites in Estonia.
“he claimed they did not even know about the San Francisco company ”
So much for market research and a competitive analysis.
We did start off as a hobby project but eventually grow a lot bigger.
Where the 200,000 users from?
Their blog clearly states: “Currently the websites have 40000 registered users and are visited 600000 times per month.”
Where’s the 200,000 users figure from?
Their blog clearly states: “Currently the websites have 40000 registered users and are visited 600000 times per month.”
This 40k must be an outdated information we might have forgotten to update. Where did you see that?
Isn’t a “social network for dog owners” the cliche default example of a stupid investment?
Nope, people send a lot of money on their pets.
I agree and I must admit i am one of them, i treat my doggy like a family member, i try to fulfill all of his needs!
if only dogs and cats could speak…
Wow, I must have just closed my eyes and gone back to 2001…
Guess I should buy some google stocks while I’m here.
A vertical social network is nowadays old news.
I cannot believe that they only have 200K users – bear in mind that the platform is translated into 16 languages. Why are they throwing good money after bad one?
Until no one thinks only about money we will never have peace.
Yes, that is the only thing you people think about.
Patetic, very patetic.
I pay my respect for United Dogs and Cats co-founders for staying on the ground, and not flying to the sky.
If I’d need to choose between Facebook and Uniteddogs, I’d choose Uniteddogs. Always and ever.
The admins on UD always think of how to make people more comfortable, and not on how to make more money by cheating people like Dogster does.
Think of something before you post it.
Thank you.
something lovely about people supporting animals in tough times. pets too.
Uniteddogs is way better than Dogster or Catster. Design is better, and you can find your way around everything. I am moderator for 1 year on United Dogs & Cats, and admins are very polite, always ready to help, there has been no one who has ever complained about their work. What ever needs to be fixed, is fixed right away. People love UD & UC so much that they donate money to the company even if it doesn’t mean making some virtual money or getting a premium membership. But beware, it’s addicting, once you get on, you just can’t leave, it’s that good. The best of all is that you meet new people, share knowledge and experience. We have even arranged a several meeting in Croatia, and got to know the people in person, it’s even better. You feel like you know everybody, but you have never actually met them. The order of the site is incredibly great. 200, 000 users is not a small number, and you have to keep an eye on all of them. There is always someone “smart” who comes online and starts bullying other people. But the UD moderators and admins react so quick that it’s not even a problem. It is great investment if you ask me, amazingly great.
Gee, you wouldn’t happen to be part of UD’s marketing, would you?
No, I am moderator of Croatian Uniteddogs & Unitedcats.
Until there is a social network for turtles we will never have peace in our time.
I like turtles.
Still a classic.
He is a zombie….
Robert – there is.
http://www.zootoo.com/
Old news are Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Compared to Chinese SNSs that make tens of millions per year already.
Greetings from 2004!
I would like to point out that recently ebay announced they would be pulling the Skype feature from ebay listings. Didn’t get much coverage though.
http://www.tech...ction-listings/ — not enough?
Pets are big business. Look at the numbers for North America alone.
A new pet-healthcare site:
PetMD.com
Estonians are very successful guys. Small country but forward looking people – Skype, Kazaa, UCD etc. There’s soon more to come…
btw: http://www.edicy.com/en
and there are plenty of other things in the oven over there
Just wanna let you know how happy I am to be part of the UDC family… yes, we are not only a team but throughout the world we continue to strive on how members/users will stay happy at UDC..
Everybody has the right to ride the social wave, dogs, cats, bats why not?
I heard somewhere dogster went to deadpool, is it true? Interestingly here it seems they have a business plan by promoting premium plans.
any other source of revenue other than ads ?
Ads and premium services for the users are the main sources of income today.
can you break even with the revenue currently earned ?
I am not questioning your business plan, just being curious
We still need to grow. But surely we have a clear roadmap in place with some additional important paid services that will help us reach break even.
Just checked out UnitedDogs. Thanks TC for informing about this wonderful site. It’s waaaay better looking than Dogster or any other pet community.
There’s MyDogSpace.com too.
Another awesome site is http://www.dailypuppy.com
Nice design…
Martin, can you answer how much respectively is owned by the creators and VC funds of the company?
why not ask them on their weblog?