Paws at work The Official Uniteddogs and Unitedcats team blog

Hey folks. This here is a very positive piece of news that we’re just starting to send out today. So here goes:

June 11, 2009, TALLINN, Estonia – Makers of Uniteddogs and Unitedcats, the Estonia-based United Dogs and Cats Ltd (UDC), received an investment of €480,000.

The investment was made jointly by 3 parties – the state-owned Estonian Development Fund, Ambient Sound Investments - an investment group led by co-founders of Skype, and a private entrepreneur with a web background in the Baltic region, Mr Raivo Hein.

“We have shown a steady growth of both revenues and the user base,” CEO of United Dogs and Cats, Mr Ragnar Sass says, “we’ve got over 200,000 users and we are the market leader in Italy, France, Spain, Lithuania and Estonia. This is something we are really excited about.”

Available in more than 10 languages, Uniteddogs and Unitedcats are fun and useful web communities where pet-owners can communicate, find new friends and learn to take better care of their pets.

“The investment will be used to further perfect the core services and to grow the user base,” Mr Andrus Oks, a spokesman from the Estonian Development Fund commented.

Currently, the main sources of income for United Dogs and Cats are advertising of pet-related products and paid services for its members, like the Champion membership which enables access to additional features. “Currently, the Estonian economy is in a recession. But in a situation like today, we are glad to have managed to grow our revenues over the last quarters,” mr Sass stated. Currently, about three quarters of UDC’s revenues come from outside Estonia.

UDC focuses on how to enable great conversations between pet-owners, as well as to help people take better care of their pets. “We will introduce some revolutionary services later this year that will bring veterinarians and pet-owners much closer,” Mr Ragnar Sass also added.

Previously, UDC had received €170,000 of funding from Ambient Sound Investments (ASI) in April 2008. “The early stage investment United Dogs and Cats Ltd received from us was successful - the product has been well received by the users. We now look forward to the expansion of the service,” Kristjan Laanemaa, an investment manager at ASI, commented.

About United Dogs and Cats Ltd (UDC)
Founded in 2007, United Dogs and Cats Limited is the maker of social networking sites Uniteddogs.com and Unitedcats.com. Company’s blog: http://blog.uniteddogs.com

About Estonian Development Fund
The Estonian Development Fund was launched in April 2007. It was created by the Estonian Parliament to initiate and support changes in the Estonian economy and society that would accelerate modernization of the economic structure, lead to growth of export and contribute to creating new jobs with high qualifications.

About Ambient Sound Investments
Ambient Sound Investments (ASI) was established by the four founding engineers of Skype. ASI is a investing shareholders’ equity primarily in Eastern European start-ups offering innovative technology and services. Since March 2006 the company has invested 8,2 millon EUR in 13 companies in several sectors including telematics, biotechnology and power electronics.

Contacts for more information

Andrus Oks, Investment expert at the Estonian Development Fund, phone +372 5087 123, e-mail: andrus.oks[at]arengufond.ee
Ragnar Sass, CEO of United Dogs and Cats Ltd, phone +372 5714 666, e-mail: ragnar[at]uniteddogs.com

June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, but more importantly, it is also the first day at work for a new team member Ellen (me!), who will be assisting with content on uniteddogs.com and unitedcats.com.

I am currently working on getting you guys more relevant material to read on our webpages and will soon launch an international campaign for a cause that has been close to the hearts at UDC for a long time and hopefully will also touch yours.

Riki (the office pet dog) has been rather indifferent towards me so far, so I am planning to spoil him tomorrow with some gourmet ham, doggie biscuits or just a pat.

I would also include a picture of my rather empty desk, but I am currently stuck between an air ionisator , 4 tables and a large carpet (we are moving soon!), and will wait for a better time to make promotional photographs

The weather is lovely in Tallinn and I will be taking my cat out on a leash later this evening. I can bearly handle him when we are out for a walk and he only weighs 9 pounds. My regards to anyone else who is going to get dragged around by a 9+ pound pet tonight in the park, looking helpless!

Cheers and have a wonderful day with your loved ones!

After a little while again, we’ve added a new language in which Uniteddogs and Unitedcats are available. From now on, we’re available in Finnish.

• Uniteddogs in Finnish
• Unitedcats in Finnish

Tervetuloa!

On May 31st, 2009, we’ll be celebrating our 2nd birthday. As part of the celebration, we’ll kick off a photo contest soon. Watch out for more announcements. Oh, and do follow us on Twitter.

Part of our team is going to a retro theme party on Saturday. In order to be well prepared, animal costumes were picked up today that are based on the characters featured in the legendary children’s show called “Lasteekraan” on Estonian national television during the Soviet period. Anyway, we got all excited and wore these ridiculous outfits here. Even had these on when we went to have some afternoon coffee down the hallway…

There’s an eggstra special egg hunt going on at Uniteddogs

Come and join the excitement - the more you surf at Uniteddogs website, the more bonus points you can earn. Keep your eyes open to find colorful eggs on Uniteddogs pages, be quick to click on them and you can earn up to 50 points for a single click

And remember, all Champion members will earn 1.2x more points. So if you’re already a Champion member, you can earn up to 60 points with a single click, instead of 50. If you’re not Champion yet then, well, here’s a reason to sign up today. You can do that at www.uniteddogs.com/champion

Colorful Easter virtual gifts

You can spend your bonus points at the Uniteddogs virtual gift shop. We have added new colorful gifts - small colorful eggs and a ladybird. For all Champion members, there’s a set of new unique gifts available. Have a joyful Easter!

After months of hard working, it’s finally here – the new design of Uniteddogs and Unitedcats.

It’s really been a long ride since 29th September 2008 – that’s the day I placed an order for 2 new fonts and started playing around with some new design ideas. One thing I knew for sure – we’ve got to evolve. Our old yellowish-purplish face had served us well since our start in 2007.

So, ladies and gentlemen - let me introduce to you our new design.

Take a look at our sites - Uniteddogs and Unitedcats - and see for yourselves.

Whoof-whoof and hip-hip hurray! We are proud to announce that Uniteddogs and Unitedcats had a super successful July! Our team has been working hard for over a year now and finally we all are here today to witness our great success! We have broken some records and would like to share our winged victory with all of you too!

In July 2008, Uniteddogs and Unitedcats’ sites welcomed 5.500 new profiles every week - that is 21.500 new profiles during the whole month!

Here’s a little sample of our growing popularity!

We are a friendly family of many dogs and cats as well of their owners and we all know the best for us as a constantly growing network is yet to come! We have experienced that if you listen really close you can hear our sites buzzing like a bee tree because every single user of Uniteddogs and Unitedcats has been 3 times as active as users at Dogster! In addition to our accomplishment among the pageviews in July (12.7 million) we have been doing great at welcoming special quests too – a big bunch of 400.000 unique visitors at Uniteddogs and Unitedcats in July 2008!

This is a great result and we would like to thank all our users - we would not have done it without your help! Our special thanks go to users from Colombia, Estonia, Chile, Venezuela, United States, Lithuania, Argentina, Mexico, Philippines, Canada and Italy as users of most active and fastest growing sites!

Whoof-whoof and meoooow!

Uniteddogs and Unitedcats team wants to share this great moment with you - we have passed the magical 100 000 members’ milestone! Woof! Now, 16 months after the launch of Uniteddogs and Unitedcats, there are more than 100 000 dog,- and catlovers connected at Uniteddogs and Unitedcats.

100 000 is definitely a huge number for us and we would like to thank everyone contributing in making Uniteddogs and Unitedcats the fastest growing social network for petlovers in the world.

Besides, I have some stunning facts to share with you. During this period:

• more than 500 000 photos have been uploaded;
• 320 000 virtual gifts have been given;
• the dogs and cats have received more than 4 300 000 warm pats;
• 300 000 forum posts have been created;
• 55 000 pets have been added on the map;
• more than 30 000 diary posts have been created.

Thank you once again - you’re just great!

Warm pats and tailwags:)

Mood message is a new feature, that allows you to show others what your dog or cat is doing at the moment, how he feels or what he’s up to.

The mood message will be shown at the dogs and cats profile, just below the name. Editing the mood message is really simple - just go to www.uniteddogs.com/my_dogs or www.unitedcats.com/my_cats and click on the label below your dog’s or cat’s name. The mood message can be also easily changed directly from your dog’s or cat’s profile - click on the mood message and insert something new.

For example Brock was giving hugs that morning:)

What is your dog or cat up to? Let us know by using the new mood message!