Viralon, a San Francisco-based online marketing firm specializing in viral marketing, closed up shop yesterday after only five months in business.
The company — founded by Alex Edelstein, a veteran of Netscape Communications, Microsoft Corp. and Inktomi — was financed with $3 million, half of which Edelstein put up himself.
The company closed its San Francisco office and laid off its 30 employees.
In a press release touting the launch of the company, Edelstein had noted: “Viralon was founded to provide companies with powerful marketing services that marry the efficiency and efficacy of viral marketing with the resilience and structure of network marketing and a sophisticated planning and tracking system on the back end.”
Viralon's first product was a viral marketing platform that the company said could be used to rapidly deploy viral marketing campaigns. It allowed companies to plan, implement, manage and track viral promotions.
