Very recently we featured Zoopy – the South African video and photo sharing social site – for their new iPhone app.
On July 4th, the site won the “Highway Africa New Media award” in the corporate category. The award is aimed at promoting the use of new media to advance press freedom on the continent and encourage new innovation in new media on the continent
Zoopy has further announced that they’ve hired one of the top media people in South Africa – Juanita Williams – to lead up one of their in house ‘Zoopy TV’ shows: I’ve Got News:
After 11 years at Independent Online (IOL), acting deputy portal manager Juanita Williams will be taking up the newly created role of news editor at South Africa’s award-winning social media community Zoopy, effective 1 August 2010…
Zoopy CEO Jason Elk (@JasonZoopy on Twitter) sees the appointment as an important part of the growth strategy driving their online and mobile TV platform, Zoopy TV…
“Juanita’s role will focus on taking our I’ve Got News show to greater heights, with richer stories and an even wider audience through syndication across Africa and the globe. We can’t wait.”
Up until recently, I’d always seen Zoopy as something a little lightweight (no offence intended to the guys involved).
But earlier this year (I’m pretty sure it was at the FNB / PayPay announcement) they were being treated as part of the recognised mainstream media and when the chief executives of international organisations are giving them the time of day, you realise that they are becoming a genuine media player.
Nice to see them moving forward.