The Snaptu team is excited to announce today that we recently agreed to be acquired by Facebook.

Our goal when we founded Snaptu in 2007 was to provide useful and innovative services to the 95 percent of mobile users that don’t have access to advanced smart phones.

Earlier this year, we announced the launch of a new Facebook mobile application to give people a great mobile experience on a broad range of feature phones. The Facebook for Feature Phones app currently works on more than 2,500 devices.

We soon decided that working as part of the Facebook team offered the best opportunity to keep accelerating the pace of our product development. And joining Facebook means we can make an even bigger impact on the world.

The acquisition is expected to close within a few weeks.  We’ll have more updates on Snaptu soon, and we’ll be working hard to offer a richer and more advanced Facebook app on virtually every mobile phone. During this transition period, we expect Snaptu will continue to operate as it does today.

We’d like to thank everyone involved in the development of Snaptu, especially our millions of loyal users. We can’t wait to get started at Facebook.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(March 15, 2011) – Snaptu, the breakthrough mobile app platform, and LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members worldwide, today launched the new LinkedIn mobile application for mass market phones.

Built on the Snaptu mobile app platform, the LinkedIn app brings smartphone-like user experience to over 2,500 different mobile devices, representing around 80% of the devices sold worldwide.

LinkedIn will now be available worldwide as a part of the Snaptu mobile app, which is already used by over 30 million people worldwide. It will join a range of other popular web and online services, including Facebook, Twitter and over 30 other news, sport, weather and entertainment services.

“With the rapid growth of mobile professionals around the world, we’re thrilled to partner with Snaptu to expand our global reach and be accessible wherever our members work,” said Adam Nash, VP of Product Management at LinkedIn. “By harnessing Linkedin’s rich developer platform, Snaptu’s LinkedIn application now offers millions of people direct access to professional insights and information on their feature phones, whether they are in the office or on the go.”

Snaptu CEO Ran Makavy: “LinkedIn has become as much a part of the working life as the mobile phone, so it’s very exciting for us to bring the two together. LinkedIn recognizes the value in reaching beyond the smartphone market to bring quality services to every device, leveraging the Snaptu mobile apps platform.”

“The Snaptu platform provides the complete technical and distribution structure to help publishers and service owners massively expand their mobile user base and unravel the immense monetization potential in the global market. We are delighted LinkedIn has joined the likes of Facebook and ESPN to offer an outstanding user experience to all mobile users, regardless of their device,” he said.

Snaptu has partnerships with mobile operators and device manufacturers across the US, Europe and Asia, so millions of mobile users will have the Snaptu app pre-loaded on their device.

To add LinkedIn, simply go to “Add more” and select “LinkedIn” and it will appear on your homescreen.

To download the LinkedIn app on Snaptu, please visit m.snaptu.com from your mobile device.

About Snaptu
Snaptu changes the way the world uses the mobile web, bringing millions of people online via their mobile phone for the first time. It is focused on providing useful, intuitive mobile services to the 95% of mobile users who do not have advanced smart phones.

Best known for its breakthrough mobile app, also called Snaptu, the company has a unique mobile platform that delivers fast, fun and effective services that work on virtually every mobile phone.

Snaptu was established in 2007 and has millions of users all over the world. It is backed by Sequoia Capital and Carmel Ventures. For more information please visit www.snaptu.com.

San Francisco, CA; 19 January, 2011: Snaptu today announced the launch of a new Facebook mobile application that brings smartphone-like usability to over 2,500 different types of mobile devices, including around 80% of the devices sold worldwide.

Built on the Snaptu mobile app platform, the new Facebook mobile app brings popular features like Photos and familiar user experience to the world’s most popular feature phones.

Working with mobile operators around the world, including Vodafone Romania, Starhub Singapore and STC Saudi Arabia, Three Hong Kong, Dialog Sri Lanka, Life Ukraine, Play Poland, Tunisiana Tunisia and Viva Dominican Republic, soon to be joined by Reliance India, Telcel Mexico, TIM Brazil, Vivacom Bulgaria and Mobilicity Canada – hundreds of millions of people will be offered the ability to download and use the app free for 90 days.

Like Snaptu’s own breakthrough app, already used by over 27 million people worldwide, the new Facebook app will also include a range of other popular web and online services, including news, sport, weather and over 30 other applications and services, including the popular LinkedIn, ESPN and AccuWeather.

Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business, Facebook: “We are always looking to enable people to easily access Facebook wherever they are, on whatever device they are on. This new Facebook mobile application developed in close cooperation with Snaptu helps give more people the ability to stay connected through Facebook via a high quality and high speed mobile application on feature phones in an affordable way.”

Snaptu CEO Ran Makavy: “In parts of the world where mobile phones are more popular than computers and mass market phones are dominant, Snaptu is changing people’s lives. We are delighted to bring these people the best possible social networking experience, as well as the range of invaluable services within the app, which many people will have access to via their phone for the first time.”

“The Snaptu platform provides the complete technical and distribution structure to help publishers and service owners massively expand their mobile user base and unravel the immense monetization potential in the global market. We are delighted Facebook has joined the likes of LinkedIn and ESPN to offer an outstanding user experience to all mobile users, regardless of their device,” he said.

To download the Facebook app, please visit m.fb.snaptu.com/f.

For a full list of operators supporting the launch of the new Facebook app with no data fees on download of usage for 90 days, please visit blog.facebook.com.

About Snaptu

Snaptu changes the way the world uses the mobile web, bringing millions of people online via their mobile phone for the first time. It is focused on providing useful, intuitive mobile services to the 95% of mobile users who do not have advanced smart phones.

Best known for its breakthrough mobile app, also called Snaptu, the company has a unique mobile platform that delivers fast, fun and effective services that work on virtually every mobile phone.

Snaptu was established in 2007 and has millions of users all over the world. It is backed by Sequoia Capital and Carmel Ventures. For more information please visit www.snaptu.com.

About Facebook

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Also see the post on the Facebook blog

NEW DELHI, INDIA and SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – October 13, 2010) –  Snaptu, the breakthrough mobile app for any phone, today announced it has reached two million Indian users. In celebration, Snaptu also announced it is enhancing Snaptu for Indian audiences with the addition of extra local content from a very popular media organization, MiD DAY.

Snaptu transforms popular web services into a fast all-in-one application that runs on any mobile phone. Since launching in India just over twelve months ago, it has forged partnerships with the country’s major operators and handset vendors, including Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance and Micromax.

“The people of India have embraced Snaptu like no other, so we are giving them more to embrace by providing even more top level local services, such as MiD DAY,” said Snaptu International Managing Director Simon Davies. “We already have the most popular Facebook, Cricket, News and Weather mobile services in the country and plan on continuing the innovation to ensure every Indian, regardless of which phone they have, can reap the benefits of the mobile web.”

Manajit Ghoshal, MiD DAY Infomedia Ltd Managing Director & CEO, said: “Snaptu, as we all know, is growing in popularity by the day. MiD DAY is very excited about this alliance with Snaptu as we now have exposure to an additional 2 million users of this platform in India. We look forward to only strengthening this association in the near future.”

Mr. Vikas Jain, Business Director, Micromax, said, “We believe that a mobile phone is the best way to get online in India. By providing consumers with Snaptu we make it simple to go directly to their favourite applications. It’s fast, it’s simple and it’s fun. This unique application has enabled us to bring social networking feature-rich handsets into the market faster and make them available at attractive price points.”

During the twelve months since launch, the top ten most popular Snaptu services have been:

1. Facebook
2. Picasa
3. Cricinfo
4. MyMovies
5. Big Picture
6. Twitter
7. Weather
8. News
9. Football/Soccer Scores
10. Soduko

These services, plus more than 30 others, are all available via Snaptu’s fast, simple app that works on virtually any phone. It is currently used on more than 2,500 different devices.

To download Snaptu simply to go to www.snaptu.com or m.snaptu.com on your mobile phone browser. If you already have Snaptu and want to add MiD DAY, simply select Add Applications from the main menu.

About Snaptu

Snaptu changes the way the world uses the mobile web, bringing millions of people online via their mobile phone for the first time. It is focused on providing useful, intuitive mobile services to the 95% of mobile users who do not have advanced smart phones.

Best known for its breakthrough mobile app, also called Snaptu, the company has a unique mobile platform that delivers fast, fun and effective services that work on virtually every mobile phone.

Snaptu was established in 2007 and has millions of users all over the world. It is backed by Sequoia Capital and Carmel Ventures. For more information please visit www.snaptu.com.