ChaCha Secures $12 Million and Reduces Costs

ChaCha, which offers a free SMS-based mobile search service, wit has closed an equity financing round of $12 million. These investments will provide ChaCha with the additional capital it needs to expand its local and national advertising sales activities, including a newly opened New York office.


ChaCha's free mobile answers service leverages human guides to provide answers, for free, to any question, anytime, anywhere. Users don't need a Web-enabled phone, special browsers or codes. Mobile customers simply text 242242 or call 1-800-2-ChaCha (1-800-224-2242) on their mobile phones, ask their questions and receive concise, relevant answers via text messaging.


ChaCha reports that they now deliver 30 million impressions per month and have had approximately 3.6 million users since the SMS answers service launched in January 2008. The company said it generates 70 percent of Google's SMS search volume.


In addition, Palm, H&R Block, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and the Obama Campaign have partnered with ChaCha to run interactive and engaging SMS ad campaigns.


ChaCha also announced it is streamlining and restructuring itself to preserve its cash. The company is reducing headcount, overhead, and expenditures.
http://www.chacha.com