LONDON—The owners of Vizzavi Europe, a mobile portal formed in May 2000, announced a revised revenue model, along with the departure of the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) and a reduction in 100 jobs across Europe.
Vodafone Group and Vivendi Universal said their joint venture Vizzavi will now receive 5 percent of the revenue generated by mobile operators for access airtime to Vizzavi content and 80 percent of all revenues generated through “premium” content.
Premium content includes ring tones, logos, games and other downloads, according to a Vodafone press statement. “In this way, Vizzavi and the partners’ mobile operators will benefit from a targeted focus on a premium content platform aimed at increasing customer usage and revenue,” the statement said.
The previous revenue model had evenly split revenues between Vizzavi and mobile operators. The new model is aimed at achieving Vizzavi’s target to break even by the end of 2003.
Evan Newmark, Vizzavi CEO, will leave the business at the end of January. Guy Laurence, currently the chief marketing officer, will take over the CEO responsibilities. The company also will lay off 100 employees in its eight European offices.
At the end of December, Vizzavi had 6.3 million customers, 4.1 million average daily Web page views and 2.1 million average daily Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) page views.
