Zed (company)

Infobox Company
company_name = Zed Group
company_type = Public
foundation = 1996
location = flagicon|Spain Madrid, Spain
industry = Digital Entertainment
products = Products and services for mobile phones and Internet
brand = Zed
num_employees = 2.000 - 50% dedicated to R&D + innovation
homepage = [http://www.zed.com/ http://www.zed.com]

Zed is a multinational corporation from Spain that develops and markets entertainment and community products and services for mobile phones and the Internet. The company is the leading mobile phone value-added services (MVAS) player in the world in terms of revenue and geographical footprint. Zed operates in 54 countries, including Europe's largest markets, United States, and China.

The company is characterized for its development in services in the field of interactive leisure and entertainment, in mobile phones as well as the Internet. The range of products and services of Zed are 85% internally developed and available for the following platforms: Brew, Java, Symbian, Mac and PC.

History

The Perez Dolset family founded the company in Spain in 1996. The family launched the web portal La Netro, whose objective was to offer interactive leisure and entertainment content accessible from any device with access to the internet.

In 2002, they decided to focus on value added services for mobile phones. Two years later, La Netro acquired a mobile phone content provider, Zed, from Nordic operator TeliaSonera. The company changed its name to LaNetro Zed and kept Zed as its brand for mobile content and services.

Four years later, in December 2006 Zed acquired Monstermob, one of its competitors based in the United Kingdom. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/dec/28/mobilephones Zed to acquire majority stake in MonsterMob] ] That same year Zed acquired Alvento, a Spanish mobile phone services company. [ [http://www.moconews.net/entry/lanetro-zed-acquires-spanish-rival-alvento Lanetro Zed acquires Spanish rival Alvento] ]

In February 2007, Zed markets the first web 2.0 based platform integrating mobile phones and web services, where members can participate in the creation of content which is then shared within the community. LaNetro Zed becomes Zed Worldwide. Later that year Zed passed a milestone grossing $100 million in revenue in a single month. [ [http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/29184/Zed-makes-100m-in-a-month Zed makes $100m in a month] ] In the United States Zed began to offer its content via RingToneJukeBox.com. [ [http://www.wirelessweek.com/Zed-USA-Makes-It-Official.aspx Zed USA makes it official] ]

By early 2008 Zed Group established a joint venture with Grupo Planeta to manage the local guides LaNetro.com business. In addition, Zed acquired Netpeople expanding its presence in the Latin American market.

In August 2008, Zed merged with two other companies founded by the Perez Dolset brothers, Pyro Studios (video game developer including Commandos) and Ilion Animation Studios (production company specialized in computer-generated animation feature films).

Recently, Zed has announced an agreement with the NBA to expand the league’s mobile phone offerings reaching basketball fans throughout North America, Europe and countries in Asia. [ [http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/nba-teams-with-zed-to-expand-mobile-content-offerings,535293.shtml NBA teams with Zed to expand mobile content offerings] ] Also, Zed has acquired Mobitween, a developer and publisher of Flash-based content for mobile and online environments. [ [http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1872201/ Zed acquires Mobitween] ]

tructure

The Zed Group has the following lines of business:

* Zed Classic - Offers a broad range of personalized content for mobile phones: music, sound, videos, images, Java/Symbian applications. Zed has a portfolio of over 170.000 SKUs.

* Zed Games – Games for mobile phones and Internet. In addition to offering traditional games (arcade, multiplayer or 3D), Zed is a pioneer in the development of mobile applications that utilize the latest terminal functionalities, such as cameras or music in mobile phones, allowing more user interaction.

* Zed Net – Social networks for mobile phones and PC (Chat and instant messaging such as Zed statiOn or Zed Live Blog –, e-mail, blog). Zed Group has been a pioneer in the integration of social networks and web services, where members of the community participate in the creation of the content, which can be shared with the rest of the users. Zed shares its revenue with its content creators.

* Zed Business Solutions – Mobile marketing campaign applications, manage digital content and development of applications for mobile operators, large advertisers, multimedia companies and public institutions.

* Advertising Solutions – The objective of this business area is to sell advertising within all the platforms of the company.

Zed also has its own virtual world inspired in Second Life: ZedCity, a futuristic virtual city, in which users create and personalize their avatar, chat with friends and download images, videos, music and games to their mobile phone. [ [http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/11/spanish-mobile-.html Spanish mobile service LaNetro Zed to launch virtual world] ]

Management

References

External links

* [http://www.zed.com Corporate webpage]
* [http://clubzedcare.com/uk/index.asp Service user guide for Zed]
* [http://www.mobile-ent.biz/features/54/INTERVIEW-Javier-Prez-Dolset-CEO-Zed Interview with Javier Perez Dolset, CEO of Zed]
* [http://www.mobile-ent.biz/features/30/The-reign-of-Spain Interview: Javier Perez Dolset – CEO Zed, The reign of Spain]