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 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message a major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject . it may require cleanup to comply with wikipedia s content policies particularly neutral point of view . please discuss further on the talk page . august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message tuenti technologies s.l.u. type private limited industry internet software telecommunications founded 2006 founder zaryn dentzel f lix ruiz hern ndez kenny bentley adeyemi ajao joaqu n ayuso de p ul headquarters gran v a 28 . madrid spain . area served spain peru argentina ecuador key people sebasti n muriel ceo iv n izaguirre cto net income 21 000 000 eur 2014 owner telef nica number of employees 180 2016 approximation website www.tuenti.com tuenti is a mobile operator brand owned by tuenti technologies s.l.u a spain based tech company that focus in providing a cloud experience through their own application and their website to their customers . tuenti was created in 2006 as a social networking service . between 2009 and 2012 tuenti was the most popular social network in spain with over 15 million registered users . 1 tuenti s namesake social network was referred to as the spanish facebook . 2 currently in spain tuenti offers mobile telephone services accessible anywhere in any device by making it accessible through the cloud . in latin america tuenti ships its brand through telef nica branches in those countries exploiting the young market by offering simple and affordable plans among other services common to mobile carriers tuenti offers free voip calls and instant messaging through its own messaging app . contents 1 company history 2 mobile operator in spain 2.1 history 2.1.1 pre launch phase 2.1.2 final launching 2.2 characteristics 2.2.1 availability 2.2.2 customer support 2.2.3 plans 2.2.4 vozdigital 2.2.5 app 3 mobile operator overseas 3.1 mexico 3.2 argentina 3.3 peru 3.4 ecuador 4 social network 5 social network cease 6 see also 7 references 8 external links company history edit tuenti was founded as a social networking service in 2006 by a group of friends in spain . zaryn dentzel felix ruiz hernandez kenny bentley adeyemi ajao and joaqu n ayuso de p ul were they key people who worked together to bring tuenti to life . 3 dentzel s first experience in spain was in a students exchange program that took him to cabeza del buey badajoz . bentley the lead programmer came to spain after having worked in social networking in the united states . 4 in the beginning the project aimed to university students but due tu its success they opened to everyone although it was only possible to register with an invitation . 5 years later the register was opened to everyone in attempting to make it available globally with the only extra requirement of giving a phone number . zaryn dentzel has chronicled the story of tuenti in a book called el futuro lo decides t . 6 although the name sounds similar to the english word twenty it actually comes from tu id enti dad meaning your identity . 7 the service was originally targeted at the spanish market but from 2012 they made it globally available . 8 the organization has reached more than 250 employees from more than 21 countries around the world . 9 google zeitgeist s 2009 listed tuenti as the third fastest rising global search . google s 2008 zeitgeist report listed tuenti as the year s fourth fastest rising global search term 10 and during 2010 alexa internet ranks the site as the sixth most visited in spain . 11 in 2011 it was estimated that more than 15 % of the web traffic in spain was on tuenti which at the time had in spain more traffic than google and facebook together . 12 13 on august 4 2010 the major telecommunication group telef nica acquired 85 % shares of tuenti for a total of 70 million euro becoming its largest shareholder . 14 in the same year they start the development of a light virtual mobile network operator which worked completely under the movistar telef nica infrastructure . later in december the service yet in developing state is released to the users of the social network under the brand tu . tuenti announced a big renovation of its social network platform on 11 july 2012 . it featured a new focus on mobile devices availability in 12 new languages a new mobile app called tuenti social messenger and its attempt to become a global social network by officially supporting registers out of spain . it was a failure . after a massive loss of active users a big change on the company s drift occurred and its virtual mobile operator became the main focus . from november 6 2013 telef nica owns 100 % of the company after an agreement with the remaining shareholders . 15 tuenti launched its mobile operator brand in mexico peru and argentina in 2014 . 16 after this movement the brand was present in four countries offering competitive data bundles and developing a cloud based strategy . tuenti has completely transformed its business from a social network to a mobile telecommunications provider . during 2014 the company reported that their mobile operator represented 98 % of the income . 17 the company attained a global turnover of 21 million euro 25 % more than the previous year . 18 19 although it was still not positive this year s financial report was the best since the launching of their mobile business and the acquisition by telef nica . during 2015 and 2016 a rebranding was carried out in spain featuring a whole rebranding after officially announcing their strategy shift from a social networking platform to a mobile operator and a whole new website in line with their mobile app . by doing this tuenti officially leaves behind their past as the most popular social network of spain . mobile operator in spain edit tuenti developer s tuenti technologies operating system ios android type voip instant messaging license proprietary website www.tuenti.com history edit pre launch phase edit tuenti launched tu as a developing project in 2010 supported by telef nica which was the largest shareholder back then aiming to have influence in the young market that the social network had at that time . signing up for tu was free of charge during the initial launching but it had certain limitations it was only accessible by invitation an invitation from a social network user who already had signed up was a requirement the company sent invitations to random users with this purpose once an invitation was received users could only sign up for a new number number portability from another provider was not possible also the service was only available on prepaid . the provisioned sim card was posted nationwide free of charge . during the pre launch phase offered plans changed a couple times . first plans launched consisted in weekly 14 days long or monthly plans which were focused in calls and sms as well as free access to the social network after recharging and free tuentisms usage . 20 almost a year later postpaid plans were first launched . offered plans changed multiple times during this phase and just before the final launch their main focus became bigger data plans . final launching edit on 15 february 2012 the company left behind the pre launch phase of the project and launched tuenti m vil for social network users dropping the name tu used for the pre release phase . this official launch came accompanied by brand new plans including competitive data bundles invitation system was no longer required to access the service and a new advertising campaign within the social network to promote the service . just a month later new postpaid plans were launched . 21 one year later tuenti announced a better integration between tuenti m vil and the social network thanks to its mobile application which included the ability to manage various of the mvno services and the release of new plans that came with free unmetered usage of the social network making chatting sharing and doing voip calls within the platform totally free of charge or data quota consumption . this new feature was named zerol mites . 22 this proposal aimed to make the whole brand more attractive for current and potential customers and social network users . by that time the social networking platform experienced an important decrease on active users that presumably migrated to other brand new social platforms . 2014 was an intensive year for the company this year the company started in spain the deployment of their own mobile core network therefore gaining on independence and enabling them to develop brand new functionalities . at the same time they also gained presence as a mobile operator on itu . 23 vozdigital was also launched on july 24 it is a serviced that takes advantage of the current application voip functionalities to give customers the possibility to make phone calls using their current phone number and a plan that includes vozdigital minutes . later it also became possible to receive calls and make international calls without extra cost . characteristics edit in spain tuenti s main focus is to offer a mobile operator that is not only accessible through radio network but also from the internet using their own application and their website as well as simple and affordable data bundles . the mvno uses telef nica m viles espa a movistar network and also provides lte coverage through the same radio network under the commercial name 4g . although it uses a different radio network in spain tuenti has its own core network infrastructure being completely independent from its host network except radio therefore tuenti is technically denominated a full mvno . availability edit customers can sign up for the service on their website or via partner retailers . the service is available at more than 2 000 retailers including canary islands . customer support edit tuenti does not provide a phone number for customer enquiries but its customer care is carried out by chat email forums and social media . users can access the support chat through the website or the application . plans edit the amount of plans offered is small to keep a simple catalog . the same plans are available for either prepaid or postpaid although it is not mandatory to renew plans in prepaid . from 15 february 2012 final launch date of tuenti m vil a whole new and simple plan portfolio is launched containing just 1gb for 6 and 3gb for 15 taxes not included . at the same time first pre launch plans which included free on net sms and voice for recharging and other benefits were not offered anymore although customers with those plans were able to keep them for a couple years even after the launch date . zerol mites is announced on november 2013 it is a free benefit that allow customers to use their social network website and mobile app for among other social network common functions call other mobile application users without using their current data plan allowance . 25 on november in an attempt to have smaller and more affordable offer they launch remix plans . 26 27 although these plans were withdrawn after only 3 months at the same time as their biggest data plan offered . 28 on january 2014 after discontinuing the short lasting remix plans and their 3gb bundle their biggest data plan offered 29 bonoplus and new data and voice bundles are launched . bonoplus are an option for customers