Iobox facts for kids

IObox Oy was a company from Finland that helped people use the internet on their mobile phones and computers. It started in 1999 and later became part of a bigger company called Telefónica Mobile.

In 2000, IObox was sold for a huge amount of money, about $250 million! This was the biggest sale of a company started with "venture capital" (money from investors) in Finland for many years.

How IObox Grew

IObox was started in January 1999 by Jari Ovaskainen and Henry Nilert. Jari Ovaskainen used his own savings and even sold his car to get the first $120,000 needed to start the company.

In its first month, the company received about €3.1 million in funding. Soon after, an office opened in Helsinki, Finland. By November 2000, IObox opened another office in London, England.

More money, about €13 million, was raised in December 2001. By January 2000, after opening offices in Munich and Stockholm, the London office became the main headquarters. IObox also bought another company called Futuron Wireless Solutions. With a new office in Oulu opening in March 2000, the company had grown to 70 employees.

When IObox was sold in July 2000, it had 100 employees. By the end of that same year, the number of employees grew to over 200 people.

What IObox Offered

IObox ran special websites and services for mobile phones, reaching as many as three million users. They also created custom websites for other companies, like the Swedish company Telia.

Wapagotchi: A Digital Pet

In February 2000, IObox launched something fun called Wapagotchi. This was like a digital pet that was similar to the popular Tamagotchi toys. Users could take care of their virtual pet using special web pages designed for mobile phones (called WAP pages). If an owner forgot to care for their pet, they would get text messages (SMS) saying things like the pet was "hungry."

M-Mails: Sending Emails by Text

For a while starting in July 2000, IObox offered a service called "m-Mail" in the UK. This allowed people to send emails using text messages. It cost a small fee for each email.

Growing User Base

In February 2001, IObox announced that its "global wireless portal" had grown to 3.5 million users. At its busiest, it could handle up to 4,000 people using the service at the same time. However, only about a third of the registered users visited the site more than once. Many people only signed up to get free credits.

Who Owned IObox

IObox was first supported by several "venture capitalists," which are investors who provide money to new companies. One of these was CapMan Plc.

In July 2000, just 19 months after it started, CapMan and other investors sold all of IObox to a Spanish company called Terra Mobile for €230 million in cash. Terra Mobile was a joint company owned by Telefónica and Terra Networks.

When IObox Oy was officially closed down before December 2002, Telefónica had to reduce the value of the purchase on their financial records by €154 million.

The New Iobox (2008)

In early 2007, a Finnish company called Lapitor Oy bought many of the old `iobox.*` internet addresses. The new company announced that it wanted to "carry on from the point where Spaniards left Iobox in 2002." Lapitor hoped to launch a new Iobox website in twelve different European countries.

Trademark Rights

In January 2008, Lapitor successfully gained the trademark for "iobox" across Europe. They said they didn't have to pay anything for these trademarks. Telefónica had originally received the trademark when they bought IObox in 2002. Since Telefónica had not protected their original trademark, Lapitor started a process to try and cancel Telefónica's trademark.

Recent Updates

In the fall of 2011, another company called Suomen Kierrätyskone Oy acquired the Iobox trademark (EU-wide trademark number 005806609) and many related internet addresses. A new email service that accepts mail sent to those old iobox addresses was started in early February 2012.

During that month, the service received about 200,000 attempts each day to send emails to old iobox addresses. By the end of 2012, this number had climbed even higher, with some days seeing close to 4 million attempts. The current owner of the Iobox brand is not publicly known.