Thumbplay News

NEW YORK -- March 23, 2009 -- Thumbplay (www.thumbplay.com), the #1 mobile entertainment destination in the U.S., today announced the appointment of Thomas Tracey as Vice President, Product. He reports directly to Evan Schwartz, Thumbplay’s co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer.

Tracey will spearhead the development and introduction of new products, particularly in the area of advanced media such as MP3s and videos. He will also ensure the continued delivery of best-in-class mobile entertainment services for smartphones and mobile devices. Tracey joins Thumbplay from Vindigo, where, as director of product development, he managed a portfolio of cross-carrier and cross-handset mobile applications including MapQuest Mobile, The New York Times, NBC Weather, Vindigo City Guide, MovieGoer and Plaxo.

“Thomas is an accomplished addition to Thumbplay, home to the industry’s best and most innovative team of professionals,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder of Thumbplay. “He will play an important role as we continue to evolve our products while simultaneously preserving the exceptional entertainment experience our customers have come to expect.”

Tracey will leverage his deep experience in web and mobile product development to further enhance the Thumbplay customer experience across all platforms. Prior to his time at Vindigo, he spent six years in various product development and sales positions with Yesmail, an InfoUSA company, where he was responsible for the strategy, development and support of Yesmail’s online marketing products and services.

Featuring music, videos, games and more, Thumbplay’s extensive and ever-growing entertainment library is accessible on more than 2,500 mobile phones among every major carrier in the U.S., reaching more than 230 million U.S. wireless subscribers. The company has maintained and grown its leadership position by delivering an optimal user experience, which includes its live, “24/7/365,” customer service and an unparalleled catalog of entertainment options. Each month, Thumbplay.com gets more than five million unique visitors and its mobile (WAP) site (m.thumbplay.com) receives more than 12 million page views, making it one of the most popular mobile Web sites.

About Thumbplay
Thumbplay’s award-winning, direct-to-consumer service features licensed content from some of the world’s largest entertainment companies, including EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Pictures Television, as well as several independent labels and artists and video game companies. Thumbplay’s mobile entertainment catalog is integrated into Clear Channel Radio, AOL and MSN Mobile sites, as well as iLike.com, one of the Web’s leading social music discovery services. Moreover, based on Thumbplay’s reputation for exceptional customer care and technological innovation, MTV tapped the company to power personalization content for the music giant’s mobile content site. Thumbplay OPEN provides independent music and visual artists, application developers and Web site publishers the opportunity to package and sell their own digital media to millions of mobile customers (open.thumbplay.com).

Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. It is backed by Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. More information can be found at www.thumbplay.com or at m.thumbplay.com from a mobile phone.

Labels: press-release