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- Also see our ethics
- Also see playtxt business website
playtxt was created in 2002 by Andrew Scott, a UK based entrepreneur. Initially the service was designed as a purely Web and SMS based service, with as much functionality replicated on mobile via SMS as a small set of commands allowed (this was before the days of Java applications on phones). The restriction on mobile functionality was due to the limited ability of people to remember all the commands! It was the first mobile social software (MoSoSo) network with six degrees of separation and by early 2003 pilot trials proved successful.
However it was early days in Social Networking and the concept was not as clear in consumer's minds as it is today. Location based services were even less understood. Attempts to get significant venture capital funding were time consuming and the UK finance market was unresponsive.
Undeterred the team (still only working part time) continued to reevaluate technologies and the business case building toward a service which would work globally.
playtxt now works anywhere on the globe supporting 200,000 towns and cities worldwide in its database, in 3527 regions in 238 countries mapped to latitude and longitude. Names for places are supported in 15 languages.
As of 2006 the company was still small. We had one dedicated full time team member and three part time. We have continued to incorporate exciting functionality that will utilise new technology and platforms as they become supported and usable on a mass scale.
As of March 2007 playtxt is beginning to grow; playtxt now has a core team of 6 consisting of Andrew, Clive, John, Tamer, David and Yang, with a few others giving then a hand along the way!