ZYB – the innovator of the ZYB Phonebook – today announced that it has acquired the Danish mobile social networking company, Imity, for an undisclosed sum. ZYB’s existing offering has enabled a quarter of a million users to securely store nearly 16 million contacts. ZYB is now in final development of the ZYB Phonebook, a next-generation solution for mobile-enhanced social networking that will integrate features of the Imity service.
Imity launched in 2007 and quickly established itself as a pioneer of real-life mobile social networking. Imity uses Bluetooth technology to enable users to see how the people and places they are connected with in their online world are intersecting with them in the physical world. Following the acquisition, Imity is now closed to new registrations, but will remain available for existing users until the ZYB Phonebook is rolled out later this quarter. The Imity team has relocated to ZYB’s Copenhagen office.
ZYB believes that Imity will bring a powerful, new ‘here and now’ dimension to the ZYB Phonebook – which ZYB is due to launch later this quarter. Tommy Ahlers, CEO at ZYB, said: “The acquisition of Imity fits very well with ZYB’s goal to activate your real life social network on the phone and make it a truly mobile experience. The ZYB Phonebook is a next-generation mobile address book that connects your mobile life with your online life. With Imity’s technology, the ZYB Phonebook will connect you with your physical life as well, telling you which of your friends are near you, right now. We believe this opens up a number of new and exciting social networking opportunities.”
Nikolaj Nyholm, a co-founder of Imity, said “ZYB and Imity share the same fundamental vision, namely that the most powerful social networks are based on the most important daily interactions – the people we interact with through our phone and those we meet face to face in the physical world. ZYB’s large and fast growing global user base will enable Imity to more extend its reach in a way that’s not possible on our own.”