Press Releases

Media inquiries: pr (at) smilebox.com

• Leading Photo-Sharing Service Launches Smilebox for Mac

REDMOND, Wash., June 24, 2008 — Smilebox, Inc. a leader in photo-sharing technology, today launched Smilebox for Mac giving Mac customers an easy and compelling way to share their photos and videos. 

 

• Panicked Procrastinators Can Send Smilebox Photo EGreetings and Gift Subscriptions in Time for Holiday Giving
  REDMOND, WA, December 20, 2007.
  Last minute gift givers can turn to Smilebox for holiday photo egreetings or a gift subscription to the online service that will arrive to the recipient's email inbox in time for Christmas morning.
  

• Smilebox Secures $7 Million in Series B Funding Led by Bessemer Venture Partners
  REDMOND, WA, December 11, 2007.
  Smilebox, Inc., the leader in multimedia expressions technology, today announced it has raised $7 million in Series B financing. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investor Frazier Technology Ventures.
  

• Consumers Can Go Green This Holiday With Eco-Friendly Digital Photo Greetings, Newsletters and Invitations From Smilebox
  REDMOND, WA, November 15, 2007.
  This holiday season, Smilebox gives consumers an easy way to go green and send environmentally friendly digital photo greetings, photobooks, newsletters and invitations to friends, family and business colleagues.
  
  
• Smilebox and Lifetime Television Promote Breast Cancer Awareness With Multimedia Designs for Sending Mammogram Reminders and Celebrating Courage
  REDMOND, WA, October 2, 2007.
  Smilebox Inc., the leader in multimedia expressions technology, today released two multimedia greeting and scrapbook designs in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month. The designs, created in conjunction with Lifetime Television's "Stop Breast Cancer for Life (SBCFL)" campaign and offered at www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer, give users a creative way to remind their loved ones to get a mammogram, sign the petition for federal funding for care, celebrate courage or share the story of a loved one using their photos, videos, text and music.

• Smilebox Signs Distribution Partnerships With Leading Media and Blogging Service Companies Lifetime Entertainment Services and Six Apart
  REDMOND, WA, August 29, 2007.
  Smilebox Inc., the innovator in multimedia expressions technology, today announced distribution partnerships with Lifetime Entertainment Services, the parent company of Lifetime Television, basic cable's most-watched women's network, and Six Apart Ltd., the creators of Vox, a free blogging service for friends and family, and Live Journal, a free online community of passionate and prolific journalers. The agreements build on recent Smilebox partnerships with market leaders such as Hallmark and Corel..
  
  
• Smilebox Inks Distribution Partnerships With Drugstore.com and Corel
  REDMOND, WA, May 9, 2007.
  Smilebox Inc. today announced distribution partnerships with both drugstore.com, inc. and Corel Corporation, further broadening the availability of the Smilebox service to millions of new users.
  
  
• Smilebox Makes It Easy to Surprise Mom This Mother's Day With Personal Photos and Videos Inside Unique Digital Designs
  REDMOND, WA, April 24, 2007.
  For those who want to surprise the moms in their life this Mother's Day, Smilebox offers a multimedia option that's more personal and touching than a traditional card. Smilebox makes it easy to email a Mother's Day tribute that includes personalized photos, videos and music and can be created in minutes for less than the cost of an average printed greeting.
  
  
• Smilebox Selected as Finalist in Red Herring 100 North America 2007
  REDMOND, WA, April 9, 2007.
  Smilebox Inc. today announced it has been selected as a finalist for the Red Herring 100 Award, a selection of the 100 private companies based in North America that play a leading role in innovation and technology.
  
  
• On2 Technologies Enables New Generation of Social Network Video With Smilebox
  TARRYTOWN, NY, March 21, 2007.
  On2 Technologies, Inc., (Amex: ONT), a leader in video-compression software and solutions, announced today that its Flix(R) DirectShow(R) SDK is utilized by Smilebox's new Video Clips service, providing consumers with the ability to combine video with other digital media such as music, photos and other graphics in order to create personalized multimedia expressions for sharing through email and social networks.

• Smilebox Revolutionizes Personal Video Sharing
  REDMOND, WA, February 12, 2007.
  Smilebox Inc. today announced Smilebox Video Clips, a new service feature making it easy to import, personalize and share personal videos in a matter of seconds. This breakthrough technology is the easiest way to share personal videos with friends and family.
  

• Smilebox and Hallmark Partner to Deliver Photo Expressions to Consumers this Holiday Season and Beyond
  REDMOND, WA, December 13, 2006.
  Smilebox, Inc. today announced a distribution and content partnership with Hallmark Cards, Inc. With the holidays quickly approaching, this partnership will enable customers to access an online catalog of seasonal e-cards, animated scrapbooks, slide shows and interactive postcards that can be customized with their own photos, messages, music and backgrounds.
  
  
• Smilebox Introduces Photo Expressions Service for Instant Creation of Digital Scrapbooks, Greetings, Slideshows, and More
  NEW YORK, NY, June 28, 2006.
  Today, Smilebox, Inc. announced that its new photo expression service is available for download at www.smilebox.com. This revolutionary new tool allows anyone with a digital camera to create and share their personal memories through customized digital scrapbooks and photobooks, e-greetings, slideshows, and postcards.
  
  
• Beyond Scrapbooks - Easy, Personalized Ways to Share Photos
  REDMOND, WA, April 14, 2006.
  The Smilebox service has hundreds of quality multimedia designs including digital scrapbooks, photobooks, greetings, slideshows and postcards. Users can personalize the Smilebox designs with their photos, words, music and embellishments, and then email their creation to family and friends or print it as a keepsake.
  
  
• Smilebox, Inc. Releases Internet's First Creative Messaging Service
  REDMOND, WA, April 3, 2006.
  Today, Smilebox, Inc. launched the beta version of its category-defining Smilebox service. The Smilebox service creates a new category called "creative messaging," which draws from related categories including photo services, scrapbooking and electronic greetings, delivering a new medium for communication unparalleled in its ability to convey mood, thought and emotion.
  
  
• Smilebox, Inc. Unveils Internet Service Making it Easy to Connect with Friends and Family in a Creative and Compelling Way
  REDMOND, WA, February 6, 2006.
  Today, Smilebox, Inc. previewed its one-of-a-kind service that makes it easy and fun to connect with family and friends in a creative and compelling way. It enables people to choose from hundreds of unique multimedia designs, easily customize them with their photos, music, words, and style and then share them via email or print.
  

Awards

• 2006 Adobe MAX Award Finalist
  Media and Entertainment category

• Sympatico Site of the Day, November 12, 2006
  "Helps you create online scrapbooks, digital greetings, and postcards. It also allows you to add motion and music to your creations and print the pages you create."

• Adobe Showcase Site of the Day, October 25, 2006
  "Personalize and share your photos with Smilebox. Choose from hundreds of interactive Flash based greetings, scrapbooks, photo books, and slide show options, then drag and drop your photos into the design."
  
  

In The News

• New York Times, April 17, 2008
  "There are also a number of crossover tools that straddle the line between printed works and multimedia presentations. Smilebox.com, for instance, specializes in scrapbooks and photo albums that can be sent by e-mail or printed on paper."

• Seattle Times, March 31, 2008
  Interview with Andrew Wright

• Scholastic Parent & Child, December, 2007
  "Create animated e-cards from your photos, as well as photo albums, scrapbooks, and postcards, set to the music of your choice. We like the neat little trick after you've created a digital photo album - roll your mouse over a shot and it enlarges."

• TechCrunch, December 10, 2007
  "Smilebox, a site where you can create a variety of media presentations (such slideshows, ecards, scrapbooks, photobooks, and postcards) by loading your own amateur photos and videos into designer templates, has raised $7M in Series B financing. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and joined by Frazier Technology Ventures."

• Seattle Times, December 11, 2007
  "Smilebox is the modern-day Hallmark of sorts. It allows you to upload your digital photos, and then make slideshows, electronic cards, scrapbooks and other stuff."

• Seattle P-I, December 10, 2007
  "Smilebox tomorrow plans to announce a new $7 million venture round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and including participation from Frazier Technology Ventures."

• Yahoo Tech, November 28, 2007
  "Smilebox makes easy work of putting together a unique, creative photo and video slideshow, set to music."
  

• PC Magazine, November 12, 2007
  "With more than 1.3 million unique visitors worldwide and at just over one-year-old, Smilebox.com combines software with a service for creative messaging, which lets you do scrapbooking, share photos and video, make photobooks and postcards, and send ecards."

• Globe and Mail, September 18, 2007
  "Andrew Wright took what he learned at RealNetworks and started a combination greeting card and photo-sharing service called Smilebox."
  
  
• Parents Magazine, May 2007
  "If you want more inspiration, check out Smilebox.com. This site is full of photo books, short slide shows, cards, and keepsakes you can personalize and e-mail to friends."
  
  
• About.com Parenting K-6 Children, May 20, 2007
  "We've been having a great time creating photobooks and greeting cards from our digital photos with Smilebox. The designs are so cute and they keep adding new ones all the time."

• Savannah Now, May 10, 2007
  "iMovie is great if you have the time, but with this little program, it took me about four minutes to build a present for my Mom."
  
  
• Seattle Times, May 9, 2007
  "Smilebox is continuing to forge online partnerships to distribute its greeting card-meets-scrapbook service for photos and videos."
  
  
• Seattle P-I, May 9, 2007
  "Smilebox, the Redmond developer of interactive online greeting cards, said today that it has inked distribution partnerships with drugstore.com and Corel. The deals follow a partnership that Smilebox launched with Hallmark last December."
  
  
• PodTech.net, March 23, 2007
  "This is a really cool service that lets you create online fun greeting-card-like experiences. Lots of fun, with lots of personality, and you'll see why if you watch this tour."

• Scobleizer, March 23, 2007
  "I love a company that puts its developers right in the middle of its office. That tells me it's a different kind of company right off the bat."
  
  
• Red Tricycle, March 21, 2007
  "You have ton of photos and video of Little One to share with your far-flung family, but you never seem to get around to pulling it all together. Enter Smilebox, an online service that packages photos, videos and music into cool templates that allow you to deliver personalized online greetings in a snap."

• Boston Globe, February 19, 2007
  "Smilebox.com is a nice website and photo-sharing service for creating fancy digital photo albums."
  
  
• Red Herring, February 12, 2007
  "Just in time for romantic couples, photo-sharing site provides video valentines."
  
  
• PC Magazine, February 12, 2007
  "Smilebox users can continue to upload their favorite photos to create digital scrapbooks, slideshows, and other template designs, with the additional option of uploading personal videos."
  
  
• Seattle P-I, February 12, 2007
  "There's plenty of activity in the online video arena. And now Smilebox - best known for its interactive greeting cards - is jumping into the mix."

• Cookie Magazine, February 12, 2007
  "Smilebox launches a new video capability to go along with their much-lauded application that allows parents to share pictures of their kids, and to craft inventive e-cards - without the annoying hassle of requiring your friends to register before viewing the photos."
  
  
• Seattle Times, January 22, 2007
  "Smilebox ... is focused on personal greetings and experiences focused on digital photography. It's a great company. It turns your photos into the coolest consumer experiences."
  
  
• Int'l Herald Tribune, January 3, 2007
  New York Times, January 1, 2007
  "The kicker is that, in a market cluttered with free services that have struggled to produce profits, Smilebox is actually attracting paying customers."
  
  
• Seattle P-I, December 13, 2006
  "Today, the two companies will begin touting a service called Hallmark Smilebox that draws on the technical innovation of 22-month-old Smilebox and the brand recognition of 96-year-old Hallmark."
  
  
• Seattle Times, December 13, 2006
  "Redmond-based Smilebox is partnering with Hallmark Cards to power a new photo-based service on the Hallmark.com Web site, the companies are announcing today."
  
  
• Money Matters Today on Comcast Network, November 15, 2006
  "When they say it was easy to use, it really was."
  
  
• PC Magazine, November 10, 2006
  "Unlike traditional scrapbooking, which can be a long, tedious (and expensive) process, Smilebox lets you produce results in minutes."
  
  
• Stacy Julian, Founding Editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, November 8, 2006
  "Check out Smilebox"
  

• Savvy Mom, October 16, 2006
  "The best of digital scrapbooking and on-line greeting cards all rolled into one, with your choice of photos, text, background music and background designs."
  

• PC Magazine, October 15, 2006
  "Smilebox, a very fun way of creating personalized electronic greeting cards based on your own photos."
  

• Family Fun Magazine, October, 2006
  "Am I Super Scrapbooking Mom? No, my secret is Smilebox."
  
  
• Fast Company, October, 2006
  "Smilebox [is] ardently focused on friends and family."
  
  
• Cosmogirl, July 14, 2006
  "It's a huge upgrade from cheesy electronic cards. And I find it more fun than adding comments to Facebook photo albums."

• Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2006
  "We found Smilebox simply enjoyable. It jazzed up our photos with fun designs, gave us the ability to see the final product during any stage of our creating process, and didn't take long to use."
  
  
• DEMO 06 Conference, February 8, 2006
  Smilebox presents at the DEMO 06 Conference.
  
  
• FlashForward Seattle, March, 2006
  Interview with Andrew Wright and Yannis Dosios.
  
  
• Seattle Times, February 7, 2006
  "Smilebox focuses on new creations using digital photos."
  
  
• Seattle P-I, February 7, 2006
  "Smilebox hopes to offer new kind of personalized greeting."
  
  
• Seattle P-I, September 10, 2005
  "Former RealNetworks Vice President Andrew Wright is trying to keep a low profile around his new startup technology company."