Intelius

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Intelius, Inc.
Type corporation
Genre electronic commerce
Founded January 2003
Founder Naveen Jain, John Arnold, Edward Petersen, Kevin Marcus, Niraj Shah, Chandan Chauhan
Headquarters Bellevue, Washington,
Flag of the United States United States
Area served United States
Key people *Naveen Jain, CEO
*Bill Owens, Chairman
*Kevin Marcus, CTO
*Edward Petersen, Exec. VP of Sales and Marketing
*John Arnold, Exec. VP of Business Development
*Paul Cook, CFO
*Niraj Shah, Exec. VP of Engineering
*Chandan Chauhan, Senior VP of Product Marketing
Industry online data broker
Services background checks, identity theft protection
Revenue $55,000,000 (2006)
Employees 113
Website http://www.intelius.com

Intelius, Inc. is a United States corporation with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington specializing in public records information and offering service to consumers and businesses which include background checks and identity theft protection.[1][2][3][4][5] Founded in 2003 with origins in Microsoft and InfoSpace[2][4][6] and employing a staff of 113,[4] Intelius is ranked as one of the top 100 electronic commerce sites on the Internet.[1][3] It had $55 million in revenue in 2006 and has been profitable since 2004.[7]

Contents

[edit] Foundation

In March 1996, former Microsoft executive Naveen Jain founded InfoSpace, an early online search engine and directory. From 1996-2002, he served as CEO of InfoSpace. Jain co-founded Intelius with co-worker Kevin Marcus[6] as well as John Arnold, Edward Petersen, Niraj Shah and Chandan Chauhan.[1] Setting up shop in 3 stories of a building right across the street, Intelius began offering background checks with online access to court records, property holdings, address histories, and less reliably, "relatives and associates", for a charge of $50 to a credit card.[4][5] InfoSpace sued both Jain and Marcus for violating the non-compete clauses in their contracts. Jain and Marcus prevailed in May of that year.[6][7]

[edit] Market and traffic

 This article or section is written like an advertisement.
Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view.
Mark blatant advertising which would require a fundamental rewrite in order to become encyclopedic for speedy deletion, using {{db-spam}}. (May 2008)

Intelius links from major portals such as Yahoo and AOL.[3] Advertising is important to all electronic commerce sites, and Intelius consistently ranks in the top ten B2B (business to business) advertisers.[8] Intelius claims more than 4 million unique hits[4] and also receives more than one million hits daily.[3] Overall it ranks as one of the top 100 Ecommerce sites on the internet.[1][3]

[edit] Target markets

A majority of Intelius' revenue comes from selling background reports.[7][9]

Background checks for dating

Intelius targets marketing for consumers and businesses with an interest in dating, especially online dating. It provides background checks for potential relationships and verification of identity under the InteliSign branding.[1][10] Critics point out the advertising campaign's reliance on "scare tactics".[4][11]

Employer background checks

On December 5, 2006, Intelius enlarged its employment screening market with its acquisition of Bothell, Washington's IntelliSense Corporation, integrating an infrastructure capable of international background information, fingerprinting, and drug screening, and complementing its previous capabilities for small and medium businesses. Naveen Jain said that Intellisense had experience serving Fortune 100 companies.[12][13]

Direct marketing leads

Intelius also provides direct marketing leads for direct mail and telemarketing.[14]

[edit] Possible IPO

In late 2006, Intelius began advertising for an executive whose main responsibility would be relations with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Bloomberg. CFO Paul Cook told Bloomberg this was a step towards a possible Initial Public Offering. Cook also told Bloomberg that they were weighing the benefits of increased exposure and reputability against the costs of going public, which he estimated at about $1 million per quarter.[7] Intelius filed a registration statement on January 10, 2008 for an initial public offering to raise up to $143.75 million.[15][16]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Cellular phone directory

In early 2008, Intelius came under scrutiny for providing access to private cellular phone numbers culled from a variety of sources, including pizza delivery companies.[17] In response, Verizon threatened a lawsuit over posting consumer phone numbers without consent. A few days later, on February 1, 2008, the cellular phone directory was taken down.[18][19]

However since then, Intelius has apparently begun publishing private cellular numbers once more on their website by performing a phone search.

[edit] Opt-out policy

There has been criticisms for the difficult nature of "opting out" of being listed on Intelius. The website states, "Intelius does not usually offer individuals the opportunity to permanently remove their publicly available information from our public records databases." [20] The site states, "as a courtesy", that personal information may be suppressed by a user's request, provided they mail or fax a notarized letter and a copy of their driver's license.[19][21]

[edit] Unauthorized credit card charges

Many customers of Intelius later find charged to their credit card unauthorized and regularly recurring charges under different listings such as PMIdentity, 24ProtectPlus, AP9*24ProtectPlus, etc. [22] and that their only recourse is to file a fraud complaint with their credit card company and close their credit card account.

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Intelius, Inc.. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  2. ^ a b Intelius - profile. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  3. ^ a b c d e f If in doubt, check it out : Profile of Naveen Jain. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Nina Shapiro (April 11, 2007). "Intelius Says it's Capable of Conducting a Full Background Check on Anyone". . Seattle Weekly Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  5. ^ a b John Swartz and Byron Acohido (April 1, 2007). "Who's guarding your data in the cybervault?". . USA Today Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
  6. ^ a b c Intelius Founders Win Lawsuit. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
  7. ^ a b c d Tim Mullaney (December 26, 2006). "Intelius, Founded by InfoSpace's Jain, Considers Going Public". . Bloomberg Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  8. ^ iMedia Connection: Advanced Site Search. Retrieved on 2007-04-14.
  9. ^ Sara Kehaulani Goo (February 1, 2007). "Dinner, Movie, Background Check for Online Daters". . The Washington Post Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  10. ^ Sara Kehaulani Goo (February 1, 2007). "Dinner, Movie, Background Check for Online Daters". . The Washington Post Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  11. ^ Mandy Stadtmiller (September 27, 2006). "Check Mate". . The New York Post Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  12. ^ IntelliSense Sold. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  13. ^ Intelius Expands Applications for Fortune 500 Customers Through Acquisition of IntelliSense Corporation. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  14. ^ The world doesn't stop, why should your data?. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  15. ^ Julie Vorman (2008-01-10). Intelius plans IPO of up to $143.75 mln - SEC filing. Reuters. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.
  16. ^ sv1
  17. ^ Cell phone directory rings alarm bells. Retrieved on 2008-02-29.
  18. ^ Verizon To Sue Intelius? Spotlight on Local Mobile Privacy. Retrieved on 2008-02-29.
  19. ^ a b Company shuts down cell phone directory. Retrieved on 2008-02-29.
  20. ^ Intelius Privacy FAQ. Retrieved on 2008-02-29.
  21. ^ Opt-out of the Intelius database and affiliated brands. Retrieved on 2008-02-29.
  22. ^ Complaints Board | PMIdentity.com
  23. ^ dBusinessNews :: Daily Business News Delivered to Your Desktop
  24. ^ Finalist Showcase - The 22nd Annual SIIA Codie Awards. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  25. ^ The American Business Awards: The Stevies