zaOza
About
Vivendi Mobile Entertainment (“VME”), formed in early 2007, is a fully-owned subsidiary of Vivendi, dedicated to marketing to end-consumers multi-media services and content for cell phones and PCs, including games, videos, TV series, short programs, music downloads and all related products for personalizing cell phones, such as ringtones and applications.
VME seeks to create a new and entertaining distribution channel, in order to exploit the Vivendi Group’s media content and to relay the content of other groups. VME also produces its own content and works with many independent producers and creators. Its services are available on the Internet and cellular phone networks.
After a period of development, VME launched its subscription-based offering in the French market through its portal zaOza. zaOza meets two strong public expectations: “unlimited” downloads of quality content for a monthly subscription fee and the possibility of legally sharing that content, for the first time, with friends and family in a simple and entertaining way, over a PC or cell phone.
Eighteen months after its commercial launch, zaOza has more than:
- 750,000 subscribers, a majority of whom were paying members (450,000); and
- 19 million content items available for sharing (television series, videos, music, ring tones, games, images and more).
After negotiating the “share rights” to the content it offers, zaOza has become the leading community exchange and sharing site in France. To achieve this result, the zaOza teams convinced both designers and their legal beneficiaries in all segments. To this date, in a very unstable legal framework, they understood the rationale of this initiative and are participating with interest in the “shared rights” project, a major Internet trend.
Following its launch in France, the “beta” version of zaOza was launched in Germany in early October 2009. A major partnership with a local telecom operator is expected to generate growth in that country.
Management Team (in alphabetical order)
Sabine Anger
EVP International
Patrick Escande
COO
Alain Ferrandi
CFO
Cédric Ponsot
CEO
Stefan Schulz
EVP Germany, Austria, Switzerland & Eastern Europe
Valérie Chemla
CTO
