That gives Classmates more subscribers than the site that analysts usually hold up as the leader in paid Internet content, Wall Street Journal Interactive. An additional 17 million people have entered their names in Classmates' free alumni directory, allowing paid subscribers to send them e-mail. Nearly 100,000 people register daily at the Classmates Web site. People were all in the same boat back then. Intense relationships seem to happen just as you are becoming an adult, and that is the time in your life that draws you back more than anything else.
Classmates is an increasingly rare Internet success story.
The Seattle-based company has 120 employees and has been hiring even as most Web operations were slashing their workforces. Since inception, Classmates has operated at close to break-even. It projects bottom-line profitability by the end of this year, from a mix of advertising and subscriptions. With dot-coms dying all around it, Classmates took advantage of falling ad prices last year and revved up its own online marketing, propelling it ahead of competing alumni directories. The company has been buying more than 2 billion ad impressions a month all over the Internet.