company industry mobile search directory assistance and several other related industries including kgbdeals predecessor infonxx founded 1992 founder robert pines 1 headquarters new york city united states area served united states canada key people robert pines chairman and chief executive officer products 118 118 texperts 542542 kgbkgb owner robert pines 1 subsidiaries kgb usa kgb.com kgbkgb 118 media the number 118 118 118 218 le numero 118 50 conduit die nummer 18 18 892 892 il numero conduit 118 811 unnamed canadian service website kgb.com kgbusa.com kgb stylized in lower case is a privately held new york based company that provides directory assistance and enhanced information services across europe and north america . it describes itself as the world s largest independent provider of directory assistance and enhanced information services . 2 founded in 1992 by robert pines under the name infonxx the company rebranded in 2008 . 1 the term knowledge generation bureau is from an advertising copy line and is not the name of the company which is kgb . in 2003 after the uk yellow pages directory market has been opened kgb launched 118 118 uk a uk directory enquiries provider that assists customers with telephone number enquiries and general queries . after the success of 118 118 in the uk kgb launched 118 218 in france when the french market has been opened . thanks to a very good advertising campaign it became quickly and is still the most used directory assistance service in france with around 200 000 calls each day on the phone number . it s 118218 . fr website also acquire a very good place on the internet and was in the top 100 french website based on traffic amount . in december 2008 kgb acquired texperts a united kingdom based firm in order to benefit from their innovative software platform and industry experience . shortly afterwards in january 2009 kgb launched a new suite of products in the united states providing answers to customers questions through multiple platforms . the first is through a mobile search service known as 542542 kgbkgb . it launched january 5 2009 following the launch of the similar 118118 ask us anything service in the united kingdom . in february 2013 after investigation by the us department of labor a judge ordered kgb to pay 1.3 million to internet researchers who had been sharply underpaid . 3 the company has also entered the internet group buying space with a business called kgbdeals . kgbdeals seeks to offer lifestyle deals to consumers in the us uk france and italy . contents 1 542542 kgbkgb 2 class action lawsuit 3 references 4 external links 542542 kgbkgb edit this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . august 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message 542542 is an ask anything 2 way text service whereby united states customers can submit questions via sms text message for a cost of 1.49 per question . 4 they will then receive another text message containing the answer . questions are not limited to traditional information assistance but may cover any facet of knowledge or even speculation . 5 the customer is also responsible for any applicable mobile carrier sms service fees . citation needed in order to answer questions the service makes use of both human internet researchers whom the company refers to as kgb special agents and automated keyword matching . for simpler queries such as directory assistance show times or weather answers are generated automatically via software that matches keywords in customers questions to a database . answers generated this way are then verified by a human before being delivered to the customer . 6 more complex queries are answered entirely by people . citation needed class action lawsuit edit in january of 2013 kgb usa settled to pay 1.3 million in unpaid minimum wage and overtime wages to 14 000 current and former employees . 7 the lawsuit alleged that from january 19 2009 to december 4 2012 kgb usa repeatedly violated the fair labor standards act flsa by 1 misclassifying the special agents as independent contractors instead of employees 2 failing to pay minimum wage and overtime amounts and 3 failing to make keep and preserve adequate and accurate employment related records of the special agents . references edit a b c http kgb.com people http www.kgb.com about hawkins joanna february 12 2013 . us labor department obtains consent judgment to recover 1.3 million in back wages for more than 14 500 workers of kgb usa inc. . us department of labor . retrieved 2013 03 09 . 542542 what is 542542 kgbkgb . kgb . retrieved 4 october 2011 . suddath claire february 3 2009 . answers for 50 cents testing the new kgb . time . kgb is hiring special agents . meilynn.com . retrieved 2011 01 02 . 0.05 usd for each validation response answer automatically populates from our knowledge database and is forwarded on by the special agent http www.lexology.com library detail.aspx g 74986500 39c3 4799 aaec 07913518813b external links edit official website kgbkgb us tour website us corporate website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title knowledge generation bureau & oldid 738004529 categories telecommunication servicescompanies based in new yorksms based question answering serviceshidden categories articles with a promotional tone from august 2010all articles with a promotional toneall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from december 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what 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