South African media sharing site Zoopy.com has entered into an international partnership deal with leading online video distribution and analytics service, TubeMogul. Zoopy is the first African company to partner with the Silicon Valley company, alongside media heavyweights such as YouTube, Microsoft, and MySpace.

Under the terms of the deal, Zoopy will be added as a syndication partner on TubeMogul, which allows users to upload a video once and then automatically deploy it to the Web’s top video sites. The partnership forms part of TubeMogul’s growth across the globe, with Zoopy being added to a select list of top video sites.

Brett Wilson, CEO and founder of TubeMogul, comments: “Zoopy provides advertisers and content creators a unique opportunity to reach the African continent, which is obviously exciting.”

Java mobile application

In addition to the partnership with TubeMogul, Zoopy has also released a java application that makes it possible for anyone to easily share videos, photos and audio clips from their mobile phones. The J2ME application, which is about 260KB in size, gives you convenient access to Zoopy’s content, including ZoopyTV, Zoopy’s professionally produced channels covering everything from movie reviews and fashion to current affairs and news.

“People love using their phones to take videos and photos, and Zoopy makes it really easy for them to share it, anytime, anywhere” says Jason Elk, CEO of Zoopy. “With the development of new technologies in this field, we’re making these services accessible to all people with mobile phones. It started with our mobile WAP site and will now grow into a richer experience with our java app.

Local Internet service provider, RSAWEB, has announced that, effective immediately, consumers of its broadband offerings will be privy to price cuts of up to 60 percent on select packages! These include the company’s Super, Premium and Ultra DSL packages. This is great news for broadband consumers.

Amidst similar announcements by competitive providers, Rob Gilmour, MD of RSAWEB says “Our message differs in that going forward, we will only offer price cuts that are sustainable. This means that we continue to provide consistent, reliable access and support to our customer.”

Gilmour says, “In addition, RSAWEB’s Hosting and Data Centre products, which all rely heavily on bandwidth usage, will also become more accessible to customers. The move also means that we will be well placed to offer faster access to online spaces to new customers for less, in a consistent and sustainable manner”.

Here are some of the highlights from the newly release pricing structure:

Premium DSL at R49/GB (10GB package)
Super DSL at R56/GB (3GB package)
Ultra DSL, unshaped at R109/GB (10GB package)
Top up per GB at R59/GB (Premium DSL packages)

As of today, new detailed maps of many South African cities and towns, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and East London, are accessible on Google Maps through any web browser or via Google Maps for Mobile on data enabled handsets. Although already available in South Africa, the map data has been improved dramatically and is now available with additional features. In addition to searching online Maps, Google Maps users will now be able to find businesses and check driving directions. Businesses will be able to add their own business listings for free via Google Maps Local Business Centre.

The map data includes a substantial amount of user generated content provided via Google Map Maker as well as thousands of business listings for South African cities. The new maps also include ‘My Maps’ and hotspots of a number of South African artists and experts such as music favourites Freshlyground and Thandiswa Mazwai, and designer Desre Buirski.

Google Maps in South Africa can be viewed in several ways. The “Map” button shows the traditional map view, ideal for finding an address or planning directions between points A and B. To explore in more detail users can choose the “Satellite” button, which includes satellite and aerial photographs. The “Terrain” view shows the physical geography of a place (such as hills and mountains). This button is a great choice if you’re heading out into the countryside.

Stephen Newton, country manager for Google South Africa said:
“Google Maps is an valuable addition to the list of products that we’re launching specifically for South Africans, given the market’s importance to us. Google Maps isn’t only about searchable, digitized maps helping you to find a local place, service or product. Our goal with Maps is to make information with a geographical dimension available to everyone and to allow users to update the maps and develop on top of them. We believe more accurate, representative local information can greatly improve the breadth of information available about a given area and in turn can bolster tourism and business investment.”

Google Maps in your pocket

Information on streets, addresses and local businesses and services will now be accessible via your mobile phone when you’re on the road or in areas you don’t know. Google Maps for Mobile can be downloaded for free. With this tool, users will be able to access detailed maps of South Africa and the world whilst on the go.

Shaun Kirk, Head of Marketing, Samsung Mobile, said, “Samsung is delighted to be partnering with Google to bring Google Maps for Mobile to South Africans. It means you can literally carry your city around in your pocket, and access information at any time you like, be it about businesses, restaurants or other services, whilst you’re on the road or in an unfamiliar area.”

Also commenting on Google Maps for Mobile, Romeo Kumalo, Executive Director: Commercial of Vodacom South Africa, said, “Being able to access Google Maps for Mobile is a great step forward, not only for finding your way around and organising your day-to-day life, but also for businesses to take advantage of the opportunities to showcase themselves to mobile users in time for 2010″.

This just in – Cape Town based Internet Startup, Fashion Evolution Holdings, has raised a further R4M ($0.5M) in its second round of funding, with the aim of commercialising its social network, crowdsourcing, & eCommerce web based software platform, to be used to launch further internal brands, as well as being used for powering 3rd party websites.

Fashion Evolution’s first brand, springleap.com, launched 18 monthsago, and has become the largest crowd sourcing website in South Africa.

Eran Eyal, Fashion Evolution co-founder stated that “we’ve completedstage 1 of our business model, which was the launch ofspringleap.com, and the R4M will allow us to take our vision to thenext level, as we focus on further developing & improving allcomponents of our web platform, in addition to expanding the productrange from T-shirts to multiple products.”

Eric Edelstein, CEO & co-founder added: “Imagine a large company suchas a beer company, creating a new name for a beer. Using our web based platform, in a matter of weeks, not only can they have a fully functioning 100% branded crowdsourcing, social network website centered around their offering, but using our unique methodology,they can also have a community of people wanting to get involved.

We previously covered Springleap here.