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ShoZu Establishes U.S. Regional Headquarters in San Francisco To Support Growing Momentum for Mobile Media Service; Move Will Help Expand New ZuCast Service, Relationships With Key U.S. Partners

Posted on: Monday, 11 September 2006, 12:00 CDT

ShoZu Inc. today announced the opening of a U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, reflecting growing market traction for its mobile media platform for camera phones. The new office marks ShoZu's first global expansion since the company was founded in the UK in 2000 as a developer of mobile application software. Today the ShoZu service includes one-click image uploading from handsets to dozens of Web destinations, two-way messaging between handsets and community websites, and automated subscription-based delivery of multimedia 'ZuCasts' directly to users' cell phones.

These services have attracted key U.S. partners ranging from YouTube and Warner Bros. Records to not-yet-announced film studios, content publishers, handset manufacturers and wireless carriers. The new San Francisco location is expected to accelerate the completion of new partnership agreements that will dramatically expand ShoZu's footprint in the U.S. market.

"ShoZu's services cater to consumers around the world, but the U.S. is a leading market for product and thought leadership in the area of user-generated content and digital media. We clearly need a North American presence to forge the strongest possible relationships with these companies and other potential partners," said ShoZu CEO Mark Bole. "Our new U.S. location will help us rapidly expand our ecosystem, respond to strong partner demand for our ZuCast service, and continue building our brand in North America as well as globally."

The San Francisco office is being staffed with an executive team that will have both North American and global responsibilities. Executive appointments to date include:

-- Bob Morgan as Vice President, Business Development, North America, with responsibility for developing and enhancing partnerships with mobile operators, handset manufacturers, content providers and online communities. Morgan previously served as VP, Business Development for Kodak EasyShare Gallery (formerly Ofoto) and related Kodak services; VP, Business Development at MessageVine, a pioneer in mobile instant messaging and presence solutions; and in sales and business development roles at Macromedia.

-- Brett Butterfield as Technical Director for North America, with product development and direction responsibilities to meet the needs of partners and consumers in the U.S. and Canada. Butterfield was co-founder and Director of Imaging at Ofoto, and subsequently served as Director of R&D for Kodak Gallery and Kodak Mobile.

-- Jen Grenz as Global Partner Marketing Director, with responsibility for co-marketing and co-branding efforts with handset manufacturers, carriers, web partners and content owners around the world. Grenz previously worked as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble and as an account executive at SSPR, a communications consultancy, with a focus on major consumer electronics, mobile and web brands.

Bole has also hired a San Francisco-based executive assistant to ensure smooth communication with U.S. partners.

About ShoZu

ShoZu specializes in interactive media solutions that enable cellphone users to get more out of the mobile experience, providing fast and easy handset access to multimedia web content ranging from photo portals to blogs, videocasts and podcasts. Services include 'ZuCasts' delivered directly to handsets on a subscription basis, one-click uploading of camera phone images and video clips, and two-way message exchange with community websites. The company's patented technology transfers any kind of data effortlessly and inexpensively between a mobile phone and the Internet without the need to open a mobile phone browser, wait for pages to load, interrupt phone calls, start over in the event of a dropped connection, or sync to a PC. Visit www.shozu.com.

Source: Business Wire

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