Filemobile

CrowdSpark Ltd. (formerly Newzulu and Filemobile) is a privately owned software development company that develops Software as a Service (SaaS) applications for rich media experiences online. Many major media companies in the US, Canada and Europe (e.g. USA Today, WSJ, The Weather Network, ITV, Scottish TV, RTS (Swiss TV), CTV, CBC, Transcontinental, The World Bank) and a variety of digital agencies, brands, educational institutions and enterprise clients use Filemobile's software.[1] Filemobile was founded in 2006 by Chris Becker, Steve Hulford, Greg Prince, K.C. Tsui, and Ron Watson. On 23 October 2014 Newzulu announced it had acquired Filemobile and on 9 February 2015 Filemobile became a wholly owned subsidiary of Newzulu.[2][3] In October 2017, it was announced that Newzulu would be rebranding as CrowdSpark Ltd.[4] In 2018, Crowdspark went into administration, subsequently rescued and rebranded New Spark Media Inc.

Platform

Filemobile's platform is called Media Factory and it is a hosted solution that powers a suite of social media white label applications and API's. Media Factory is a rich media, user-generated content (UGC) and community platform. Additional applications include UGC widgets, UGC news, UGC Community and Rich Media Workflow Automation.

Filemobile's products are designed for use by international media companies, advertising agencies, large brands, enterprise-level firms, and content producers to facilitate interaction with various constituencies through a variety of mediums including video, social networks, mobile and the web.

The Media Factory platform allows for easy deployment of complex web applications. Filemobile works with clients in one of two ways: i) By offering white label applications, or ii) Through a REST or SOAP API. ii) Through a mobile SDK.

Media Factory and other applications are built on an open source LAMP stack with public APIs to enable broad integration and configuration.

Products

Filemobile's products include:

  • UGC Widgets
  • UGC Community
  • UGC News
  • Rich Media Workflow Automation
  • API & SDK's

History

Filemobile was incubated out of the offices of Fantasy Sports Network and PoolExpert in the summer of 2005 as a ’bootstrapped’ research and development project to produce consumer websites that would allow users to upload digital files and share them with blogs and friends. In February 2006 the firm launched a user generated content community under the domain www.filemobile.com.[5] By late 2006, the firm changed its strategic approach and began a business-to-business focus with white label software tools. In January, 2007, Filemobile launched the first version of its Media Factory online community management platform and in the fall, Ron Watson and Steve Hulford hired Chris Becker to act as CEO full-time in the company. The following year Marc Milgrom was hired for his media connections having worked as a worked as a tax lawyer. Ron Watson, joined to lead Filemobile's growth as Managing Director upon the completion of his successful sale of Poolexpert to Rogers Canada in August 2008.

Filemobile has received some media attention since its inception in 2006. The company was ranked 8th on PROFIT Magazine's HOT 50 list in 2008[6] and 21st on the HOT 50 list in 2009,[7] Backbone Magazine ranked Filemobile 6th on its annual list of ‘20 companies that are driving innovation and changing the way we use the Internet’.[8] Founder Steve Hulford was featured as "Digital Media People to Watch in Ontario in 2010" by technology publisher Techvibes.[9] Filemobile was featured in 2011 in the National Post article discussing the unique nature of the founders relationships and their international expansion.[10]

In June 2008 after the loss of the well-known The Hockey Theme to CTV, CBC proceeded with a nationwide contest powered by the Filemobile Media Factory platform[11] for a new theme in collaboration with music label Nettwerk.[12] The contest began June 10, 2008, and at the end of the submissions period on August 31, the network had received over 14,000 entries. These entries were reduced to five semi-finalists, whose themes were re-arranged by producer Bob Rock and presented for public voting. Taken from Finding a new theme: Canada's Hockey Anthem Challenge

Founders Ron Watson and Steve Hulford owned and operated PoolExpert.com from 2005 to 2008 prior to selling the business to Rogers Media.[13]

In August 2009 Filemobile was credited for helping Toronto-based TV news station CP24 break a viewership record with over 1.2 million viewers.[14]

From 2009 to 2014 Filemobile expanded sales internationally with clients in Canada, the US, and Europe including: FOX News, Wall Street Journal, CBC News, USA Today, iTV, The Seattle Times, The Weather Network, Hearst TV, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, CTV, Scientific American, TC Media, RTS (Swiss TV), STV (Scottish TV) Morris Communications, London Live, Cottage Life, Canadian Geographic, Rogers Media, Charlie Rose. Under Armour, JC Penney, Cisco, Honda, Farmers Insurance, Tim Horton's, Kraft, Life is Good, Thomas Cook, Columbia, Ben and Jerry's, WagJag, Klondike, Lincoln Financial Group, Unitron, Molson / Coors, Maxim, Baby Center, Active.com, Allrecipes.com, and GAdventures.

On 23 October 2014 Newzulu announced it had acquired Filemobile for C$5,000,000 in cash.[2]

gollark: Please pick one of the random projects on my git server/github profile. For purposes only.
gollark: The reason why my lisp interpreter is so weird and quirky is because I just had vague memories of what lisp was meant to be like and tried to implement it in the easiest way possible.
gollark: Wow, they are MUCH better at guessing than me.
gollark: Didn't you read it?
gollark: Wonderful.

References
  1. The Globe and Mail - Filemobile capitalizes on active marketing - February 16, 2010
  2. "Australian startup Newzulu acquires Filemobile". Startup Daily. 23 October 2014. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  3. "Australian startup Newzulu just paid $5 million for content marketer Filemobile to help it crack the US". Business Insider. 10 February 2015.
  4. "CrowdSpark to be the new name for Newzulu". Proactiveinvestors UK. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  5. Techcrunch - FileMobile raises the bar for multimedia sharing - Jul 3, 2006
  6. "Profit Magazine Hot 50 - Sept 17, 2008". Archived from the original on 2010-08-13. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  7. "Profit Magazine Hot 50 - Sept 17, 2009". Archived from the original on 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  8. "Backbone Magazine - 20 companies that are driving innovation and changing the way we use the Internet - July 28, 2009". Archived from the original on March 26, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  9. Techvibes - Digital Media People to Watch in Ontario in 2010 - January 5, 2010
  10. Four Friends and an Idea
  11. Area Startups - CBC's Hockey Anthem Challenge launches on Filemobile's Media Factory platform - Jul 11, 2008 Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
  12. CBC press release, June 6, 2008
  13. Techvibes - PoolExpert Exits to Grow Rogers Sports Empire - August 5, 2008
  14. "CP24's Breaking Storm Coverage: 1.2 Million Viewers Set a Prime-Time Record for CP24 Most Watched Night in Station's History - August 21, 2009". Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
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