SAN FRANCISCO, CA, September 22, 2009 — Zuora, Inc., the fastest growing on-demand billing and payments service, today announced Z-Commerce for Media, a new product that allows media companies to quickly and easily charge for online content. Z-Commerce for Media builds on Zuora’s two years of success providing commerce solutions for the technology industry, and delivers to publishers a monetization platform that is proven, flexible and immediately available.

Publishers Need To Start Charging for Online Content

For years, publishers have given online content away for free. As a result, newspapers and magazines are experiencing a dramatic decrease in revenues, even as their audience reach grows online. The media industry now recognizes it needs to start charging for online content. A recent study by the American Press Institute found 58 percent of the responding newspapers are considering online fees.

However, although everyone now agrees publishers need to charge for online content, there is not yet consensus as to the best approach, nor the best pricing model. Some publishers, like The Financial Times, provide a tiered pricing model to readers, offering a set number of articles for free and then charging when the limit has been met. Other content providers, such as the Wall Street Journal, charge a subscription fee for premium content.

“Chances are, whatever model they start off with will be completely different a year from now,” said Denis Pombriant, Managing Principal, Beagle Research. “That’s why newspaper businesses need a flexible monetization platform that allows them to experiment with different packages, bundles, and pricing plans.”

Introducing Z-Commerce for Media

Zuora, already the de-facto subscription platform for the technology industry, has now added the critical pieces to deliver exactly what the media industry needs.

“There are many organizations talking about providing a viable online billing and payments solution for the media industry, but Zuora is the only one with a proven commerce solution available now,” said Tien Tzuo, CEO, Zuora.

Z-Commerce for Media is the first online commerce solution for media companies and includes:

• Product Catalog: Zuora gives publishers an easy way to define new price plans, charge for content the way they want, and quickly launch new products to market.
• Online Access Controls: Zuora provides online content mapping tools to determine which premium content to charge for. Through an open set of APIs, Z-Commerce for Media can be integrated into any content management system.
• Subscription Management: Zuora centralizes all processes for new and repeat subscribers, including processing upgrades and renewals.
• Billing & Payments: Zuora gives publishers a simple way to manage recurring billing and payment processes, including tracking usage, processing credit cards and handling exceptions such as refunds and failed transactions.

Z-Commerce for Media combines the power of Zuora’s industry-leading Z-Billing and Z-Payments solutions with new capabilities specifically designed for online publishers. Z-Commerce for Media is the only solution available today that offers all these capabilities to newspapers, magazines and online publishers.

Zuora customer Paul Walborsky, CEO of The GigaOM Network, a business media company says, “The writing is on the wall for media companies — ‘free’ is not a sustainable business model. It’s time to evolve the way we distribute content online, offering customers premium subscription products, in addition to high-quality ad-supported content. Zuora has a deep understanding of what it takes for all companies to make money online.”

“Zuora was one of the few solutions we found that really addressed the issue of subscription management and billing in a flexible and efficient way,” said Dan Olley, CIO, Reed Business Information. “Coupled with the cost, implementation and on-going benefits of a SaaS solution, Zuora was the obvious choice.”

In April 2009, Zuora launched Z-Billing 2.0, the most powerful and customizable on-demand billing platform available anywhere. Z-Billing is the first billing application designed specifically for subscription companies, giving them the flexibility and power to create, manage, and grow their business. Within one year of launching, Zuora completed its suite of products, including Z-Payments, a complete payment solution built for subscription businesses that includes the ability to accept PayPal payments; Z-Force, the first billing and payment system fully integrated with salesforce.com and 100% native to the Force.com platform; Z-Commerce, the Business Cloud developer platform; and Z-Commerce for Facebook.

Zuora has more than 100 customers, including CVSDude, Marketo and Box.net.

For more information, go to zuorainternprd.wpengine.com.

About Zuora, Inc.

Zuora is the fastest-growing on-demand subscription billing and payment service. The Zuora platform changes the way subscription businesses manage and sell to customers, and allows them to bring new products to market in less time, with less hassle. Zuora is built from the ground up by SaaS industry visionaries and veterans from salesforce.com, eBay, WebEx, Accenture, Google, and Oracle. The company is based in Redwood City, California. To learn more about Zuora, please visit zuorainternprd.wpengine.com.