Marco Polo

Joya Communications, Inc., the parent company of the Marco Polo application, was established in 2012 by the husband-and-wife team, Vlada and Michal Bortnik. The founders' personal story is deeply intertwined with the company's mission. Vlada, an immigrant from Ukraine, and Michal, from Poland, both experienced the challenges of staying connected with family spread across the globe. This personal need for a more meaningful way to communicate, especially after starting their own family, became the driving force behind the company. Both founders have a strong background in technology; Vlada is a computer engineering graduate from Northwestern University who worked at Microsoft, while Michal studied computer science at Harvard and pioneered social gaming for Xbox Live at Microsoft, which is where the pair met.

The company's flagship product is the Marco Polo app, a video messaging service that functions like a "video walkie-talkie". It allows users to send and receive video messages asynchronously, eliminating the need to coordinate schedules for live calls, a major pain point the founders personally experienced. The platform is designed for private, one-to-one or group conversations, positioning itself as an anti-social media tool focused on the quality, rather than the quantity, of relationships. It intentionally omits features like public feeds, "likes," or follower counts to foster authentic communication. The service saw a significant surge in usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a reported 1,147% increase in sign-ups over a few weeks in early 2020. Key features include the ability to re-watch videos, add filters or voice effects, and a "mom-mode" for listening to messages at double speed.

Marco Polo operates on a freemium business model. While a free version of the app is available, the company generates revenue through a premium subscription plan called Marco Polo Plus. This paid tier, introduced in May 2020, offers enhanced features like HD video and unlimited storage, which were previously part of the free service. Subscription options are available on a monthly or annual basis for individuals and families. This model was chosen to align with the company's commitment to user privacy, explicitly stating they will not make money from advertisements or by selling user data. The company has received venture capital backing, raising a total of $27 million by 2020, including a significant $20 million Series B round led by Benchmark in 2016.

Keywords: video messaging, asynchronous communication, family communication, private social, subscription model, freemium, mobile app, communication software, ad-free, Joya Communications