PacketExchange Brings Bebo and Customers Closer Together

Bebo chooses PacketExchange to bypass the public internet

London, UK - 7th March 2007 - Bebo, Inc. one of the largest social networking sites in the world with over 31 million registered users, has selected PacketExchange to improve its overall website performance and customer user experience. PacketExchange's leading global, private high-speed network will offer Bebo an alternative to the public internet. By avoiding the mounting traffic delays and security issues associated with today's public internet, Bebo will be able to offer a superior service to its customers.

Bebo selected PacketExchange to prevent the slow web page downloads experienced in certain regions. Due to the explosion in user demand, largely fuelled by rich media travelling over the internet, severe bottlenecks are being created on the public internet. Furthermore, Deloitte predicts that in 2007 these delays will become even more apparent, bringing the long-term sustainability of the internet into question.

Originally designed for exchanging raw data between academics, the public internet is struggling to keep pace with the demands of emerging internet business models, forcing cutting edge organisations to seek alternative measures.

By utilising PacketExchange's leading ProXimity peering and eXpress services, Bebo will have direct access to customers over a connection specifically designed to support rich media applications. This will help to improve web page download speeds for Bebo customers, leading to an improved user experience.

"A large majority of our users are based in Europe and by working with PacketExchange, we are able to get better connectivity between our servers and our users," said Michael Birch, CEO of Bebo. "PacketExchange have effectively allowed us to avoid the bottleneck of the internet, which means our users benefit from a faster performing website and we can afford them the best user experience possible."

Kieron O'Brien, CEO, PacketExchange explained: "Last year we saw an explosion in the popularity of social media sites like Bebo and YouTube. Video streaming, music downloads and file sharing are becoming more and more popular placing considerable demand on the public internet. This is where PacketExchange can make a real difference. By delivering a private, high-quality and secure network we can help businesses, like Bebo, focus on offering their customers a superior service, rather than worry about the shortcomings of the public internet."

_{About Bebo
Bebo, the UK's number one social networking site, has seen an enormous growth in user numbers since it launched in July 2005. It now has over 31 million registered members worldwide and more than 8 million users in the UK who spend an average of 9.4 days per month on the site, significantly ahead of MySpace and over double that of YouTube*.}

_{* UK Comscore, December 2006}

	Average usage days per visitor	Average minutes per usage day	Total minutes (MM)
Wikipedia sites	2.6	10.2	59
MySpace.com	6.9	27.1	495
Piczo.com	5.3	14.6	129
YouTube.com	4.1	18.1	217
Bebo.com	9.4	29.6	80

_{The Year-End Google Zeitgeist named Bebo as the number one search term of 2006.}
_{About PacketExchange
PacketExchange is a leading provider of private high-speed internet transport services with a global network spanning North America, Europe and Asia. By enabling organisations to bypass the public internet, PacketExhange offers its customers a reliable, fast and secure internet connection, while providing a superior user experience. PacketExchange has an impressive customer portfolio including Microsoft and Yahoo! Headquartered in London, England; Packet Exchange has offices in San Francisco and was recently ranked as the 18th Fastest Growing Technology Company of 2006 in The Sunday Times Tech Trak.}

_{For more information, visit www.packetexchange.net

Media Contacts
PacketExchange Team
Grant Butler Coomber (PR Agency)
p. +44 (0) 208 322 1922
e. packetexchange@gbc.co.uk}

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PacketExchange Brings Bebo and Customers Closer Together