At Tuenti, we focus less on the quantity of users and more on the quality of our product and the engagement of our users. This qualitative commitment sets us apart in important ways, making us the social network with the highest average daily connection time. We continue strengthening our position at the head of our sector with innovative services and products that reiterate our principal objective: develop the most trusted, relevant web and mobile social communications platform. Alongside that focus, though, we have started 2012 with two big quantitative advances worth sharing:

• After reporting 12 million registered users in October, we have now surpassed 13 million registered users, marking 30% growth from our 10 million users in January of last year.

• ComScore has just published last month’s audience numbers, which mark a new record for active Tuenti users: 10.4 million in December. Numbers from the previous month showed 8.2 million active users, indicating a 21% increase. As of January 1, 2012, comScore is in charge of online measurements in Spain, appointed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB Spain) and the Association of Communication Media Research (AIMC) to serve as the reference point for the buying and selling of online advertising in the Spanish market.

Tuenti continues moving forward. First launched in Spanish 5 years ago, we began offering our service in English, Catalan, Galician, and Basque in December of 2009. Today, we’re adding Portuguese to that list. We opened Tuenti for registration outside of Spain in June of last year, inspiring the decision to make more language options available. Portuguese is the third most spoken Latin-alphabet language in the world (behind Spanish and English), making it the next logical choice in the process. This decision does not represent a Tuenti launch in other concrete markets, but rather a broadening of our services to facilitate international registration and set a foundation for upcoming expansion plans.

Tuenti is once again positioning itself as one of the world’s leading technology companies in innovation and development. We’ve taken another important step in our continued dedication to be the securest, most private social network; we are now the first to use electronic certificates (DNIe) for ID verification.

Our new users’ increasingly digital social environment creates a constant demand for simplicity. We work to make sure processes are clear and intuitive by employing the latest technological advances while complying with strict legal requirements.

The new e-Certificate technology, developed by Tractis, is now available during the verification process for prepaid users on Tuenti’s mobile service provider, Tu. Users can take advantage of their DNIe without the installation of drivers on their computers, making the process quick and easy. In the future, this new technology may be available for other services provided through our social network.

This morning we had the opportunity to participate with the Spanish Association of Online-Community Directors (AERCO) in a training session about Tuenti. Several members of our team demonstrated the social tools that Tuenti offers for creating and developing user communities around a specific organization or trademark.

Cristóbal Fernández, our Director of Communications, presented an outline of Tuenti’s evolution and current development, followed by a practical demonstration by Daniel Valledor and Amanda Guglieri—responsible for Tuenti Pages and Tuenti Places, respectively—about how to make the most of our social network’s high engagement for meeting communication goals.

Applications Partner Manager Cristina García and Account Manager Ainhoa Fernández-Checa then explained the tools aimed at reaching commercial objectives: commercial applications and advertising formats, both useful for organizations working to create dynamic user communities on Tuenti.

Sebastián Muriel, Tuenti’s VP of Corporate Affairs, closed the session by highlighting the most relevant information about Tuenti for social media professionals.

It is the first time Tuenti has participated in this type of initiative, and we could not be happier with the results; we’re looking forward to repeating.

The presentations are available here.

Today, Tuenti debuts the new film “Okupados”. This marks the first time a social network has offered an exclusive movie premier. Only Tuenti users have access to this new release by Nueva PC, subsidiary of Impala Productions, whose catalog includes notable Spanish titles such as “La Escopeta Nacional” and “Las Bicicletas Son para el Verano”, along with co-productions on international successes like “The Other Side of the Bed”.

The movie is available free on Tuenti’s video platform, which currently boasts an average of half a million unique daily users and up to 7 million daily plays. “Okupados” is a horror film directed by Fernando Herrero and Eduardo Sainz de Vicuña, and is not recommended for children under 16. The movie, with an original screenplay written by its directors, employs a television recording style similar to that used in blockbusters like “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity”; the film was recorded in just 10 days.

Audiovisual content is increasingly accessible on the Internet, and Tuenti is working to become an important support for the movie industry with attractive products like our new VOD service, beta-launched in November.

Our virtual mobile service provider is determined to make the latest phones available to our users, so we’ve launched a new Christmas campaign: Smartphones for Everyone. The campaign includes an exclusive offer for the ZTE Racer II, priced at just €59 plus €10 of credit—the lowest-priced Android on the market—with no contract required.

We’re convinced that, with smartphones available at these prices, all our users will be able to enjoy the benefits Tu offers, including free mobile access to Tuenti and our Monthly Internet Passes. In fact, we’re so convinced that we are now the first mobile operator to remove all basic “feature phones” from our catalog.

We’ve got a list of smartphones available at competitive prices, including:

• BlackBerry 8520: best final price on the market at €109 + €10 credit
• Samsung Galaxy Mini
• Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro

This campaign is another step in our efforts to put the users in charge of the telecommunications market and provide total connectivity. We are the first social mobile service provider, combining the content and the social experience of Tuenti and our mobile applications, and developing on the innovative features that a social Web can offer in the current telecommunications market.

Ten percent of our users can now start enjoying the new version of our chat. Tuenti Chat is a great communication tool with huge usage numbers, generating more than 200 million messages a day.

Users can take advantage of direct access to their chat history to easily see whether the 10 friends they chat with the most are connected. We’ve also given the chat a permanent spot in the right side of users’ Home page, so it moves with them as they read the latest updates from their friends.

The improvements include a design overhaul in which each chat message, now separated into speech bubbles for clearer viewing, is displayed next to the profile photo of the person who wrote it, along with the time it was sent. There are also more emoticons available with their own quick-access button.

The new and improved Tuenti Chat will be progressively made available to more users in the coming weeks, with plans for opening it to all users by the end of the year.

We’re preparing more updates for Tuenti Chat that we will be available soon. Stay tuned…

As everyone knows, the dedication to be a private communication platform is one of the pillars of Tuenti’s identity. Throughout the last year, we developed an API (application programming interface) that permits the integration of external applications in Tuenti to expand the features we can offer.

From the outset, we decided that keeping the API closed was a fundamental part of maintaining our commitment to privacy. The API is only made available to those entities that, after thorough investigation on a case-by-case basis, we decide meet our strict requirements for security and privacy. This policy has allowed us to integrate a strong online gaming platform without compromising the security or privacy of our users.

Based on the success we’ve had with the integration of games on the platform, we’ve decided to extend this policy to include commercial applications. Brands that are interested in intergrated an application into the Tuenti platform can contact our commercial team to request access to the API. As long as the integration supposes a benefit for our users and does not putting their privacy at risk, we are happy to work with the interested brands to intergrate their applications into Tuenti.

Today, Tuenti joins as a founding member of the new CEO Coalition to Make Internet a Better Place for Kids. This European initiative is driven by Neelie Kroes—European Commission Vice President and head of the Digital Agenda—in collaboration with an international array of technology companies including Apple, BSkyB, British Telecom, Dailymotion, Facebook, Google, Hyves, KPN, Liberty Global, LG Electronics, Mediaset, Microsoft, Netlog, Nintendo, Nokia, Opera Software, Research in Motion, RTL Group, Samsung, Sulake, Telefonica, Teliasonera, Telenor Group, Vivendi, and Vodafone.

Tuenti continues working passionately within this new digital environment to develop self-regulation programs and directives that guarantee the security of minors and make the Internet a safer place for them.

Taking part in this coalition is another step in Tuenti’s commitment to defend our users’ privacy and security, pillars in our ongoing growth and success.

Our private social network is defined by the values of trust, security, and privacy. This is why we only allow real profiles and refuse to index users’ information on external search engines. Tuenti provides users with simple and effective tools to guarantee their privacy, including options to block messages from unknown users and not allow photo downloads, among others. The importance of these security features is demonstrated by the 98% of Tuenti users that have some level of privacy restrictions active on their profiles.

The main priorities of the coalition are to simplify report procedures for inappropriate content on the Web, ensure that minors have the highest level of privacy available to them (Tuenti sets all minors’ profiles to the highest privacy settings by default), and to offer more parental control.

As founding members, we have signed a public Statement of Purpose that outlines 5 areas for further development in our commitment to these goals.

More information about our Privacy Policy and recommendations for good Internet practices are available at www.tuenti.com/privacidad

Last week I had the chance to speak at FICOD, a fantastic event located right here in Madrid. I spoke about the history of Tuenti, the lessons we’ve learned, the opportunity we see in the mobile/Web ecosystem, and our vision for Tu to address that opportunity.

You can find the links to the video and slides below, but there are a few key messages about Tu worth highlighting:

• Social networking is becoming less about connecting with people, and more about communicating with them.
• Tu takes this communication to the next level, keeping you connected with your friends all the time.
• Tu combines content/experience—namely, Tuenti’s social content and apps—with a mobile service provider and explores what the innovation of a social Web company can bring to the largely static, monotone product offerings of today’s Telco market.

Tu leverages the social aspect in a couple unique ways:

• The bill (and billing model) is social. You can check your bill online from your Tuenti account to see who you’re calling and how much it costs. And all Tu users can talk and text for free.
• Voicemail arrives instantly to the Web panel on Tuenti, where you can see the sender’s profile and play, delete, and reply.

What the video at FICOD TV, or check out the presentation on Slideshare.

You can also learn about the great new Tu offer at www.tuenti.com/tu.

I’d like to thank the organizers of FICOD for the invitation to speak, and our Communications and Tu teams at Tuenti for helping me prepare the presentation.

Finally, here’s the mind map drawn up by FICOD during the talk: