Zip.ca Adds 40,000th Title to Video Rental Library
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - Dec. 6, 2005) -
ATTN: General News, Entertainment and Lifestyle Media
Canada's Largest Selection of DVD Titles
At 7:35 AM ET today, with the addition of Idole instantanee, Zip.ca (www.Zip.ca) passed the 40,000-title milestone in the spectacular growth of its industry-leading DVD library. Starring in Idole instantanee, Claudine Mercier gives a humorous look into the lives of four Quebec women competing in a singing competition.
Zip.ca, Canada's leading online video service, offers video entertainment lovers the country's largest selection of films, TV shows, documentaries, music videos and more - a selection ten times as extensive as traditional rental stores. The addition of the 40,000 title is a major milestone for Zip.ca, which opened its virtual doors in early 2004 and has quickly grown to be the Canadian leader in online video entertainment.
"Since our launch in February 2004, one of our priorities has been to create the most comprehensive library of DVD titles, and to make that entire library readily available to Canadians from coast to coast to coast," said Rick Anderson, President and CEO of Zip.ca. "With the help of the thousands of members whose suggestions drive the growth of our library, we reached 40,000 titles even faster than we anticipated."
"Zip.ca offers Canadians the "Long Tail"(a) of online video rentals," said Anderson. "We give movie lovers what they are looking for - new releases of movies and TV series as well as more obscure and harder to find titles; classics, documentaries, festival entries, indie films - even films that don't screen in theatres."
In addition to its vast inventory, the company recently expanded its services, products and features, opening distribution centres in both Calgary and Toronto to improve delivery services to the Western provinces, the Territories and the GTA.
About Zip.ca: Zip.ca (www.zip.ca) is Canada's leading online video service, offering the largest selection, best service and best value in DVD rentals. Zip.ca offers Canada's most extensive DVD library (40,000 titles and growing) and best prices for DVD rentals. Zip.ca provides members with 24/7 online convenience for creating and managing their own personal ZipLists of must-see DVDs, and daily delivers thousands of DVDs right to members' doors across Canada. With a variety of low-priced monthly membership plans, Zip.ca provides DVD rentals with no deadlines, no late fees and prepaid two-way shipping. DVDs can also be purchased at discounted member prices. Since opening its virtual doors to Canadian movie lovers on February 11, 2004, Zip.ca has shipped over 3 million rental DVDs to members, from highly-automated distribution centres in Ottawa, Calgary and Toronto. Zip.ca is part of the Momentous.ca family of online enterprises, providing customers with high-quality high-value online services.
(a) The Long Tail, a concept popularized by Chris Anderson in a 2004 article in Wired magazine, describes the phenomenon of tremendously expanded consumer choice enabled by online businesses. Traditional distribution methods for video, music and books are constrained by inventory economics to the relatively-limited selection supported by mass demand, whereas the Long Tail marketplace addressed by firms such as Zip.ca and Amazon.com include a vastly-broader selection. For instance, in Zip.ca's case, roughly 50% of the 5 million title requests made by Zip.ca subscribers to date are for the most-popular 2,005 titles, 25% for the next 5,340 titles - and another 25% (the "long tail") are for the other 32,665 titles in Zip.ca's library.
The Long Tail: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html
The Best of the Eras...
Since launching 22 months ago, Zip.ca subscribers have ZipListed over
5,000,000 requests.
Here are Zip.ca members' most-requested DVDs for each decade
(Zip.ca offers all of these titles - and 39,955 others - for your
viewing pleasure)
2000s
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Wedding Crashers
Million Dollar Baby
War of the Worlds
The Interpreter
1990s
Schindler's List
Seinfeld Season 3
Ed Wood
Aladdin
The Red Violin
1980s
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc
Star Wars V
Star Wars VI
Seinfeld Seasons 1 and 2
Raging Bull
1970s
Star Wars IV
THX1138
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Taxi Driver
The Godfather
1960s
Mary Poppins
Bonnie and Clyde
Doctor Zhivago
To Kill a Mockingbird
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1950s
A Streetcar Named Desire
On the Waterfront
North by Northwest
All About Eve
Rear Window
1940s
Citizen Kane
Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon
It's a Wonderful Life
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1930s
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Gone with the Wind
It Happened One Night
The Wizard of Oz
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1920s
The Gold Rush
The Battleship Potemkin
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The General
Steamboat Bill Jr.
For more information, please contact
Media Contacts:Zip.ca
Shelagh O'Connor
(613) 866-9956
shelagh@zip.ca
or
Zip.ca
Susannah Kilroy
(416) 515-7517 (ext. 249)
Susannah@zip.ca
www.zip.ca
