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ShoZu Upgrades Media Service for Mobile Phones, Offering New Benefits for Media Companies, Content Owners, Web Partners & Handset Manufacturers

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 October 2006, 18:00 CDT

ShoZu Inc. today announced an upgrade to its mobile phone media service that enhances the service's value to media companies, content owners, web partners and handset manufacturers by increasing the visibility and usability of both the application and the partner offerings. The new features make it easier for camera phone owners to activate the application, send images to photo sharing sites and other Web destinations with the company's Share-It service, subscribe to the company's ZuCast media delivery service, and discover both the Web destinations and ZuCast options available.

"The ShoZu platform already offers major advantages for partners, from one-click image uploading with our Share-It system to automatic delivery of content to the user's handset with our ZuCast service. The newest version takes the next step by ensuring that consumers have easy access to all content and capabilities," said ShoZu CEO Mark Bole. "These enhancements make ShoZu and its offerings as easy to find as address books and call histories, encouraging frequent use and continuing exposure to partners' brands."

New features include:

Easier activation from the handset, whether ShoZu is pre-loaded on the phone or downloaded from a website. This promotes ShoZu adoption and associated partner visibility by eliminating the need for users to go through extra steps such as entering their email address.

One-click image uploading for all Web partners, eliminating the extra clicks previously required to send images to sites that lacked full API integration with the ShoZu server. This enhancement assists photo sharing sites and other Web partners that are unable to provide APIs, and it also allows end users to choose any site as their one-click destination.

Easy access to ZuCast and Web destination listings from the handset, enabling users to subscribe to ZuCasts or select Web destinations for image upload without visiting the ShoZu website. These new on-screen catalogs are specifically designed to promote partner offerings.

Full integration of ZuCasts with the Share-It service, eliminating separate sign up procedures. ZuCasts allow multimedia content to be delivered to the user's phone by subscription without any manual intervention or download wait, giving content providers a direct pipeline to mobile users for the first time.

ShoZu also offers a variety of custom capabilities for partners in all categories, including custom landing pages as well as priority catalog listings for Web and media partners under certain circumstances.

Benefits for Partners

ShoZu helps drive business for all parties in the mobile content value chain by delivering a high-demand service with clear technological, strategic and ease-of-use advantages over any similar offering on the market today.

For brands, media companies and content providers, ShoZu offers the ability to connect, engage and interact with their consumers in the mobile world in a compelling yet effortless way, allowing partners to maintain the quality associated with their brand while seamlessly transitioning to the mobile device. For web communities, ShoZu offers increased usage and stickiness through easy extension of community services to the mobile phone with minimal upfront investment.

For handset manufacturers, ShoZu offers unlimited content support on one open application platform, eliminating the need to install different clients for each service or upgrade the client when a new service is added. For mobile operators, ShoZu offers the ability to generate new revenue streams with a service that has strong appeal for the key 14-30 demographic and does not interrupt other revenue-generating services.

Availability

The ShoZu upgrades will be available on Symbian Series 60v2 and v3, Microsoft Smartphone 2003 and Microsoft Windows Mobile devices, including the Motorola Q, before October 30. A version for Java-based handsets will follow later this year.

About ShoZu

ShoZu is a mobile media service enabling consumer and media brands to connect with their consumers by mobile phone, driving increased usage of content and web-based services by seamlessly bridging the mobile subscriber to the media world. The company's patented technology allows consumers to download and upload photos, videos, music, text and other digital content 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. Services include innovative ZuCasts that deliver content to the handset automatically, one-click uploading of camera phone images and video clips to community websites and other destinations, and two-way mobile-to-web messaging and interactivity. For more information, visit www.shozu.com/corporate.

Source: Business Wire

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