Mobile widget maker Zumobi launches social-app blender

By Mickey Alam Khan

November 21, 2008

Roaming holiday

Mobile widget maker Zumobi has launched Ziibii, an Apple iPhone application that blends various social media applications on the Web.

Ziibii lets users blend Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and RSS feeds with their favorite Web feeds. The tag line says it all: "A river of friends, photos and feeds."

"It's a new social media service for the iPhone," said John SanGiovanni, cofounder and vice president of products and services at Zumobi, Seattle.

Available for free through Apple's iTunes App store, Ziibii delivers content through a flowing-water-and-rafts design.

So, consumers who want to go beyond the headline that's floating by can tap on it to open a preview. Another tap and the user sees the full story and Web site.

Apple's iPhone

Ziibii also opens photos with a tap.

In addition, Ziibii works with Twitter and email. Users can comment on Ziibii content and share thoughts on Twitter followers or via email.

Users can enlist other friends to sign on for Ziibii by emailing a Ziibii item. They will receive a link to the iTunes App Store to download Ziibii.

Zumobi intends to offer advertising, sponsorships and media units for branding purposes. It will also provide reporting analytics on Ziibii usage and behavior from monitoring at the back-end.

No advertisers have signed on yet.

"Our plan was to launch this without any advertisers and aggregate the users and content and then approach advertisers," said Ken Wilner, CEO of Zumobi.

"The big challenge with social media is how to monetize it," he said. "We find what we've come up with is a completely opt-in way to monetize these users for sponsorship opportunities."

Zumobi is relying on word of mouth, viral marketing through email forwards and public relations to get the word out on its consumer-focused Ziibii application.

An important distinction to remember is how advertising will be sold against Ziibii aggregated content.

"We're monetizing the user, not the content," Mr. Wilner said.

"The advertiser is paying for engagement of the user," he said.