matchmine Unveils Media Discovery Platform at Prestigious DEMO Conference; Enables Personalized Recommendations for Movies, Music and More Anywhere on the Web

matchmine Unveils Media Discovery Platform at Prestigious DEMO Conference; Enables Personalized Recommendations for Movies, Music and More Anywhere on the Web

Company Launches Predictive Beta Applications for the Desktop and Facebook; Announces $10 Million Series A from The Kraft Group

SAN DIEGO, and NEEDHAM, Mass., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- matchmine(TM) today unveiled the matchmine Media Discovery Platform(TM) at the DEMOfall Conference in San Diego, CA. Highlighted by the MatchKey(TM), an expression of a user's personal interests and tastes that they can take with them from site to site, the matchmine platform enables users to obtain personalized recommendations for movies, music and other online content from any matchmine Certified Partner on any Internet-connected device.

The company also launched two beta applications to demonstrate the predictive value of the MatchKey; MyGumballMachine(TM), a media recommendation application that resides on the desktop, and MatchMeter(TM), empowering Facebook users to discover other people on the social service with similar interests. In addition, matchmine announced that it has secured a $10 million Series A round of funding exclusively from The Kraft Group, a private holding company with interests concentrated in the distribution of forest products, paper and packaging manufacturing, sports and entertainment, real estate development and private equity investing. In a separate announcement, the company also unveiled the matchmine Certified Partner Program (Editor's Note: please see "matchmine Launches Certified Partner Program.")

"matchmine makes personalization portable by giving ownership of preference information back to the user. By enabling people to carry the distilled essence of their preferences with them and share that information anonymously with any matchmine Certified Partner, we serve the interests of both users and publishers in a totally new way," said Mike Troiano, CEO matchmine. "Today, we're starting a movement we believe will revolutionize the way people acquire personally relevant content."

Portable Personalization - The MatchKey As the range of movies, music, video, blogs and other media has expanded in recent years, so has the value of obtaining personalized recommendations. Most media-centric online retailers now have some form of recommendation system, and dedicated discovery services, often focused on a single content type, have also proliferated. Since each of these systems is site specific, individual users are constantly being asked to express the same preferences in order to obtain personalized content recommendations. The operators of these systems face the inverse challenge, being unable to provide a personalized experience without creating yet another burdensome or lengthy preference data collection process.

At the heart of the matchmine Media Discovery Platform is the MatchKey. Created by each user anonymously, a MatchKey is a representation of a user's unique preferences -- a collection of numerical "scores" for specific attributes like "SciFi," "Rock," "Tech" and "Celebrity" across media types including movies, music, blogs and online video. Once created, a MatchKey evolves based on the preference expressed by its user, explicitly or implicitly, on any web site, widget or desktop application in the network of matchmine Certified Partners. Creating a MatchKey is easy, free, and secure. Since it contains no personally identifiable information, it knows a lot about what you like, and nothing about who you are.

To demonstrate the predictive value of the MatchKey, matchmine unveiled two applications that users can interact with; MatchMeter, designed specifically for Facebook, and MyGumballMachine, a desktop media discovery application. MatchMeter enables Facebook users to associate their MatchKey with their own profile pages and discover other Facebook users with similar interests and tastes. MyGumballMachine resides on the users desktop and presents personalized media recommendations as digital gumballs, color coded by media type. MyGumballMachine recommends media across multiple domains, including movies, music, blogs and video.

"We're proud to have incubated the technology behind matchmine within The Kraft Group over the past several years, under the leadership of our Chief Innovator, Trent Adams," said Jonathan Kraft, president of The Kraft Group. "We're also pleased to have reached this important milestone in the life of the company, and excited about its prospects under the leadership of Mike and his team."

"matchmine takes personalization to the next level, giving ownership of preference information back to the consumer, enabling them to discover media they'll love across content domains such as movies, music, blogs and more. By making personalization portable, matchmine delivers value to users and to partners alike," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO conferences.

For more information on matchmine, its media discovery platform and its certified partner program, visit DEMO station #66 or visit www.matchmine.com.

About The Kraft Group

The Kraft Group is the holding company for the Kraft family's various businesses, which has concentrated interests in five specific areas: the distribution of forest products, paper and packaging manufacturing, sports and entertainment, real estate development and private equity investing. Together, the Rand-Whitney Group and International Forest Products do business in more than 80 countries annually and form one of the largest privately-owned paper packaging and distribution companies in the world. The Kraft Group's sports and entertainment division features Gillette Stadium, New England's premier concert and entertainment venue and home to the National Football League's three-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots and Major League Soccer's New England Revolution. Their real estate development team oversaw the construction of Gillette Stadium and is now developing Patriot Place, a 1.3 million square foot lifestyle and entertainment center located in Foxborough, Mass., anchored by New England's first outdoor superstore, Bass Pro Shops. For more information, please visit www.thekraftgroup.com.

About DEMO

Produced by Network World Events and Executive Forums, the semi-annual DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products, which are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships, and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features approximately 70 new companies, products and technologies. For more information, visit www.demo.com.

About matchmine LLC

matchmine LLC is the media discovery company that delivers personalized recommendations for movies, music and other online content anywhere on the Web. The company's patent-pending Media Discovery Platform features a visual representation of an individual user's personal interests and tastes, called a MatchKey(TM). A MatchKey enables any matchmine Certified Web site, widget or application to match video, audio and textual content with the preferences of an individual user, while maintaining the anonymity of that user. matchmine is privately-held and headquartered in Needham, Mass, please visit www.matchmine.com to learn more.

Contact:
Matt Flanagan
fama PR
617-758-4141
matchmine@famapr.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: matchmine LLC

CONTACT: Matt Flanagan of fama PR for matchmine LLC, +1-617-758-4141,
matchmine@famapr.com

Web site:

http://www.matchmibne.com/
http://www.thekraftgroup.com/
http://www.www.demo.com/

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