zanox to launch $2 Million Application Store Contest at 2009 Web 2.0 Expo

Company to unveil its second VC contest for $2 Million US Dollars along with new zanox Application Store in San Francisco next week

San Francisco/Berlin, March 25, 2009– zanox, a global leader for performance-based online marketing, today announced the company will be launching the new zanox Application Store as well as officially kicking off its

title="$2 million zanox Application Store Contest">$2 million zanox Application Store Contest

at the Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco, March 31 - April 3, 2009. The start-up contest, which is being held in conjunction with the M&A advisory company Corporate Finance Partners, will award the winning business model(s) an investment of up to two million US-Dollars for the best monetizing application based on zanox Web Services. Having wrapped up the company’s first 1 Million Euro zanox Web Services Contest in October 2008, the Application Store Contest is another step for zanox toward helping developers and start-ups monetize the Internet.

At the Web 2.0 Expo, zanox will also introduce the new zanox Application Store, an innovative platform for developers to introduce and distribute their applications directly to zanox’s network of more than one million publishers and over 2,000 international advertisers. The zanox Application Store, which will hold more than 50 million product offers that can be retrieved automatically via zanox Web Services, was designed to help developers monetize their innovations, such as applications or widgets for the Internet and mobile, including the iPhone, Facebook and iGoogle, as well as all other platforms. Promising contributions may also include in-game or video advertising, contextual ads, behavioral targeting, Web analytics, bid management solutions, recommendation systems and review tools, as well as social community features and social commerce.

“After receiving so many impressive entries for our first contest last Autumn, zanox and our partners are keen to give start-ups a second opportunity to successfully monetize their business models with zanox Web Services,” said Thomas Hessler, CEO and founder of zanox. “With the current state of the worldwide economy, it’s become increasingly difficult for many of these companies to secure follow-up financing for their projects – this is where we would like to help.”

In January 2009, zanox launched the Open Beta of zanox Web Services, an innovative solution for professional Web developers and publishers. zanox Web Services offers access to a wide variety of new functions within the zanox affiliate network as well as the zanox infrastructure. In addition, zanox recently awarded the winner of the first zanox Web Services Contest, Webtrekk, at the zanox headquarters in Berlin on March 24, 2009. Webtrekk, a high-quality provider of Web analytics focusing on online marketing and conversion rate improvement, received one million Euros in growth capital. Along with intelliAd’s Bid Management Tool CPCagent, Webtrekk’s winning application Webtrekk Q3 will be one of the first software-solutions zanox publishers and advertisers will be able to purchase from the zanox Web Services Application Store.

About zanox Publisher Initiative

zanox Web Services and the $2 Million Application Store Contest are part of the zanox Publisher Initiative, which helps publishers in the zanox network to easily monetize their websites’ traffic.  The zanox publisher campaign is focused on enhancing the features of zanox’s affiliate marketing services, steadily extending the zanox Web Services platform as well as the upcoming launch of the zanox VIP Club for top-performing publishers. With its specialized industry-specific expertise, unrivaled international reach and modern “open company” philosophy, zanox aims to become the global publisher network of choice.

Important links:

• title="$2 million zanox Application Store Contest">$2 million zanox Application Store Contest

• title="zanox Web Services">zanox Web Services Landingpage

• title="zanox Web Services Blog">zanox Web Services Blog

• title="Web Services Documentation">zanox Wiki Web Services Documentation

• zanox Official Blog

• target="_self"

  title="zanox Affiliate Marketing">zanox Affiliate Marketing

About zanox

ZANOX.de AG is a global market leader for performance-based online marketing and has established a strong presence in all core markets around the world. More than 2000 prestigious international companies rely on the zanox affiliate network and sector-specific expertise in all sectors where innovation is taking place.

target="_self"

title="zanox Affiliate Marketing (PRM)">Affiliate programmes

provide companies with global solutions for efficiently marketing their products and services on the Internet. zanox attaches great importance to the quality and the continuing development of its affiliate sites, whose owners are in addition being motivated by fast and transparent compensation.

zanox’s international focus is strengthened by its Global Alliance Partner (GAP) programme. Furthermore, in June of 2008, the

target="_self"

title="zanox GAP Campus opening">GAP campus

opened its doors at zanox headquarters in Berlin to serve as an international meeting point for developers and designers.

zanox is owned by Axel Springer AG (52.5 percent) and by PubliGroupe (47.5 percent). Axel Springer AG is Germany’s largest newspaper house, ranks third among her magazine publishers and is also one of the leading European media companies. PubliGroupe AG is an independent, internationally leading group offering marketing, sales and services to media and advertisers, which it assists in the implementation of their communication and media strategies by delivering marketing and technology services to them.

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