Next stop: Norway

On our way to conquer the rest of Europe we’re putting in a stop in the land of gravlaks, lingonberries, geitost, akvavit, and pickled herring. (Just to get something straight here: no, we do not choose launch countries by their culinary offering. Not that I would mind. For sushi it would be Japan, for lemon meringue pie the US, the Jewish Diaspora for matzah ball soup …) .

Now that all the tourists are gone and darkness is descending for the next few months, our Norwegian friends need an additional distraction. It’s bad enough to be stuck in front of the computer with work, emails etc., and not to be able to catch up on your favorite show or a major sports event. What if night also reigns for most of the day? That sucks. That’s just plain unfunny. Zattoo fights broken marriages, unhappy children and run-away pets by bringing a shiny and cheerful orange light onto Norwegian PCs with NRK1, NRK2, and a broad selection of international channels.

Zattoo – Fight the darkness. Download now!

… and here’s Ann Arbor celebrating the big moment

As a truly global company we’ve got offices on two continents: a US office in Ann Arbor, near the University of Michigan, headed by Sugih (co-founder, CTO, Chairman, professor of computer science at U of M, fifth from the right), and a Swiss office in Zurich, Switzerland, headed by Beat (co-founder, CEO, President, nothing else).

The techies (see above) are based in Ann Arbor, while the business people (see entry below, clearly distinguishable by their sophisticated clothing) sit in Zurich. Well, okay, the only thing that distinguishes us in Zurich from our better half in Ann Arbor is our higher women to men ratio. (Ann Arbor might point out some additional differences to do with analytical thinking, BUT DON’T LISTEN TO THEM.)

By the way, the above photo was taken at last Friday’s beer-thirty event, in commemoration (nice word, Helen) of our 1-million user milestone.

Zattoo – Bringing you TV for the next generation.

1 million users!!!!!

This is the Zurich team celebrating. We still look a little dazed, which is only partly due to the Prosecco we’d been downing sipping. Ok, it’s only part of the Zurich team. Some vital members are missing because they were actually working when the big moment arrived. Sugih, our co-founder slash Chairman slash CTO, was in Ann Arbor with the rest of the US team (am working on getting their photo up as well), Beat, co-founder slash CEO slash President, was on the road in the UK, Francesco, marketing wiz, dito, Thomas, head of business operations (whatever that is – all I know is that it’s important), was on a secret mission in Zurich.

Back to the major moment. At 5:09 pm sharp the total user number jumped from 999,999 to 1,000,000. Pop went the bottles and the run on the tortilla chips began. We tried to persuade Fredy, most senior member of staff present, to make a speech, but he somehow weasled out of it. It all eventually ended in a cheerful blur on a very uplifting note. To be honest, it’s a great feeling to know that 1 million people are now using Zattoo. Thanks for believing in us!

Zattoo – Now working on the next million.