What Deja does

Deja.com, Inc. was a privately held, Mountain View, California-based web services company operating with 101–250 employees. The company offered two distinct web-based services: a "Precision Buying Service," which functioned as a consumer-facing commerce/buying tool, and what was characterized as the leading "Usenet Discussion Service," a community and archive platform for Usenet newsgroup content. Together these two services positioned Deja at the intersection of consumer community/discussion and online commerce during the late-1990s/early-2000s internet cycle.

The company raised $12.5 million in a Series 4 funding round on June 21, 2000, from a strategic investor syndicate comprising Austin Ventures, Chase H&Q, Comcast Ventures, GE Capital, Actua Corporation, and ZDNET. The mix of venture capital, strategic media (ZDNET), and telecom/strategic capital (Comcast Ventures, GE Capital) is consistent with consumer internet companies seeking distribution, content, and commerce partnerships during that period.

No information is available on the company's revenue model, pricing mechanics, customer segmentation, geographic footprint beyond a U.S. headquarters, technology stack, leadership team, or subsequent operating history. The firmographic snapshot reflects a single point in time and provides no visibility into post-2000 strategic direction or current status.

Name

Deja

Website

http://www.deja.com

Company type

Private

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Deja.com, Inc. is a Mountain View, California-based private web services company that operates two consumer services: a Precision Buying Service and a leading Usenet Discussion Service. The company employed 101–250 staff.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Consumer Internet Services

NAICS

Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192), Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (51621)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Retail-Catalog & Mail-Order Houses (5961)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Goods, Subscriptions & Gift Card Marketplaces (BPAMAGAG)

Keywords

• Precision buying service
• Usenet discussion service
• Online shopping comparison
• Consumer web services
• Usenet newsgroups

Headquarters

HQ city

Mountain View

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Core offering

Deja.com, Inc. operated two consumer-facing web-based services: a Precision Buying Service that helped users find and purchase products online, and a Usenet Discussion Service that provided access to threaded newsgroup discussions. Both services were delivered through the Deja.com website to individual internet users.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Precision Buying Service Web-based service that helped consumers find and purchase products online more accurately; positioned by Deja as the first such precision buying offering on the web. Targeted at individual internet shoppers.
• Usenet Discussion Service Web-based service providing access to Usenet newsgroup discussions through the Deja.com website. Deja described it as the leading Usenet Discussion Service, targeted at individual internet users interested in threaded online discussions.

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves2 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Broad incumbents

• eBay: Larger e-commerce marketplace of the same era that acquired Shopping.com; operated broadly in online commerce and represented the category leader that comparison services like Deja were feeding into.
• Yahoo Shopping: Major web portal's shopping comparison vertical that aggregated product listings and merchant offers; broadly overlapped with Deja's Precision Buying Service within a much larger portal ecosystem.

Direct peers

• NexTag: Comparison shopping marketplace founded in 1999 that helped consumers compare prices across online retailers; same e-commerce shopping-aggregation category as Deja's Precision Buying Service.
• Shopping.com: Product comparison and shopping search engine launched in 1999 that competed directly with Deja's Precision Buying Service before being acquired by eBay in 2005.
• DealTime: Price comparison shopping site launched in 1998 that aggregated product listings from online merchants; a direct contemporary of Deja's Precision Buying Service.
• Pricerunner: Shopping comparison service founded in 1999 in the Nordics that expanded globally; comparable product category and value proposition to Deja's Precision Buying Service.
• MySimon: Late-1990s product comparison shopping service that aggregated prices across merchants; directly comparable to Deja's Precision Buying Service in product, customer base, and business model.
• Google Groups: Direct successor to Deja's Usenet Discussion Service after Google's 2001 acquisition of Deja News; the most direct peer for the Usenet/archival discussion platform component.

Emerging players

• BizRate.com: Online shopping research and merchant rating service founded in 1996 that helped consumers compare merchants via ratings and reviews; overlapped with Deja's Precision Buying Service in the shopping-research category.
• About.com (The About Group): Web guide and topic-content platform of the same era that combined editorial content with commerce referrals; comparable as a web-based content-plus-commerce hybrid of Deja's vintage.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Deja