Jesta Digital
| Jesta Digital GmbH
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 2000 |
| resolution | 2014 |
| Reason for dissolution | Takeover by freenet AG |
| Seat | Berlin , Germany |
| management |
|
| Number of employees | approx. 380 |
| Website | www.jestadigital.com |
Jesta Digital GmbH , based in Berlin (formerly Fox Mobile Distribution GmbH), was an international company for ring tones , mobile phone applications and formerly the largest independent provider of mobile content in Germany in the field of mobile phone games . In 2014, Jesta Digital was completely taken over by freenet AG .
development
Fox Mobile Distribution used the brand name “Jamba” in German-speaking countries . Jamba GmbH , based in Berlin, operated under this name until October 2008 and was at times the international market leader for mobile content. At the beginning of October 2008 Jamba was taken over by Rupert Murdochs News Corporation and renamed Fox Mobile Distribution GmbH . The products from Jamba were integrated into the structures of the purchaser; the brand, however, continued to exist and appeared unchanged to the customer.
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Eric Aintabi, Judah Bendayan and Markus Peuler were managing directors of the company belonging to the Fox Mobile Group . On January 13, 2011, Fox Mobile Distribution GmbH was sold to the Jesta Group and has since operated as Jesta Digital GmbH. The brands used by the former Fox Mobile Distribution were retained. In 2014, Jesta Digital was completely taken over by freenet AG .
history
The three Samwer brothers Marc, Oliver and Alexander founded Jamba GmbH in 2000 and brought their first products onto the market at the end of the same year. Eight weeks later, the joint venture between debitel , MediaSaturn and Electronic Partner had over 300,000 users and up to 4,000 new customers every day. After nine months the limit of one million registered users was exceeded.
In September 2001 the company introduced content billing via the telephone bill as the first mobile portal in Germany and from December 2001 offered Java games for download .
Jamba mainly operated aggressive advertising on music TV channels such as MTV or VIVA . In 2004 the company invested 90 million euros in German television advertising, surpassing McDonald’s and Beiersdorf . According to media reports, the ringtones for the advertising character Crazy Frog are said to have generated more than 15 million euros in sales. In some cases massive criticism was leveled at the garish and repetitive advertising, for example in the form of an online petition to reduce advertising “to a tolerable level”, which collected over 150,000 electronic signatures.
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Over the years, Jamba has worked with and provided services to more than a dozen network operators in Europe. In early 2005, Jamba services were also introduced in North America . Outside Europe and in Great Britain, Jamba appeared under the brand name “Jamster”.
In May 2004, Jamba was sold to VeriSign for 273 million US dollars (then approx. 228 million euros) . In March 2005, a second brand was created with Ringtoneking , which included the same content as Jamba in a slightly different form. The marketing of Jamba and ring toneking was controlled centrally by the Jamba-affiliated agency “Lorena Media”.
In September 2006, the Australian-US media mogul Rupert Murdoch bought a total of 51% of the shares in Jamba through his company News Corporation for around $ 188 million; VeriSign kept the remainder. The aim was to build targeted synergetic marketing strategies within Murdoch's company, for example with FOX , MySpace.com, etc. In October 2008 News Corp also acquired the remaining shares in Jamba. While the company was converted to Fox Mobile Distribution GmbH , the Jamba brand remained .
Despite its reputation, the company was counted among the hidden champions because of its importance on the world market .
At the end of 2008 Fox Mobile Distribution had around 750 employees, 700 of whom were based in Berlin. The managing directors were Kaj Hagros ( Chief Operating Officer ) and Markus Peuler. These reported from Berlin to Mauro Montanaro, CEO of the Fox Mobile Group , in the USA. On September 25, 2009, Montanaro announced his resignation.
In March 2010 only around 600 people were still working in the company. One month later, the company announced that in autumn 2009 the global workforce had been reduced by around twelve percent, which corresponds to around 70 employees.
watch TV
On October 1, 2005, Jamba started its own television station called “Jamba! TV “on Astra Digital . Initially, it sent music clips twelve hours a day without commercial breaks, but with the SMS shortcut numbers for the corresponding ringtones permanently displayed. During the rest of the time (10: 00-10: 00), mobile phone wallpapers or mobile games were advertised. From 2008, several-minute commercials from the Jamba product portfolio were shown between the clips. In April 2009 the transmitter was switched from the digital network. On October 1, 2010, “Jamba! TV "renamed" Ojom ". On September 30, 2012, broadcasting was discontinued without prior notice.
criticism
Monthly subscriptions
In the advertising of Jamba, individual ring tones, images and logos are usually placed in the foreground. Instead of a single purchase, however, a monthly subscription is usually made when purchasing . To cancel the subscription, the buyer can subsequently send an SMS with the text STOPALLE to 33333. However, this information is not included in the official Jamba! FAQ (as of November 2009). Instead, the customer is prompted there to first create a user account with Jamba in order to then manage his subscriptions and, if necessary, cancel them.
In December 2004, Johnny Haeusler published a widely acclaimed satire on his blog Spreeblick that criticized Jamba's business practices. In the Jamba advertising, the viewer's attention is deliberately drawn to shrill or erotic animations and tones in order to conceal the essential information, which is difficult to read on the screen, that a monthly subscription instead of a ringtone order in the majority of cases a single purchase. Haeusler emphasized that children and young people are the main target group of the Jamba advertising.
This criticism also triggered significant media coverage outside of the Internet. In addition to the lack of transparency when concluding a purchase, critics also pointed out that it is comparatively difficult for the mostly young customers to even identify the cause of the costs incurred without an individual proof of connection. This criticism was not limited to Germany. In Great Britain, for example, where Jamba operates under the brand name “Jamster”, there was also greater resistance to the practice of immediate monthly subscriptions when purchasing a single ringtone.
The daily newspaper The Mail on Sunday ran the headline in April 2005 with the headline “Save our children from this ringtone rip-off” (“Save our children from this ringtone rip-off”). Here, too, it was criticized that children in particular could not be expected to recognize the consequences of a purchase beyond the directly promised service.
The computer magazine c't criticized that Jamba! insufficiently informs its customers of the costs incurred and the subscription contracts concluded. To confirm the subscription, the provider sends disguising short messages such as: “Cool games / software for your mobile phone! 3 vouchers in the Jamba TopApp Sparabo (4.99 / week). No information? Send OUT to 33333. www.jamba.de “(as of November 2011). If you are not aware that you have taken out a subscription, this message will be interpreted as advertising.
It is legally unclear whether parents have to pay for ringtones ordered by their children. So far, only two judgments by the Düsseldorf District Court have been published. While liability was affirmed in one judgment, it was denied in the second judgment. A judgment by the Berlin-Mitte district court also denies Jamba's claims. The Düsseldorf lawyer Udo Vetter argues in his blog that, at least in Germany, contracts for monthly subscriptions with minors are temporarily ineffective and all costs incurred can be reclaimed by the parents.
Protection of minors
In June 2005 the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media, after checking 53 different television spots for ring tones, provisionally determined that not a single commercial complied with the rules of the protection of minors in the media and therefore should not have been broadcast in this form at all.
insurance
Jamba Service GmbH, which was founded in January 2003 as a subsidiary of Jamba AG, launched insurance for electronic devices, especially for cell phones, in cooperation with the insurer AXA . In August 2008 the company changed its name to assona GmbH and has been independent of Jamba since then. Today the insurance service provider offers, among other things, mobile communications, electronics and bicycle protection letters.
Web links
- Stefan Niggemeier : Mobile phone downloads - every note a billion . FAZ , February 12, 2005
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Stefan Weil: Marketing strategies in the mobile gaming market. Dissertation. Karlsruhe 2007, p. 149.
- ↑ a b freenet AG strengthens its digital lifestyle activities with the takeover of the Jesta Digital Group . freenet-group.de, December 16, 2013
- ↑ Jamba becomes Fox Mobile . ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. handyzweinull.com
- ^ A b Fox Mobile Distribution - Company Profile. jamba.de
- ↑ a b Imprint of the Jesta Digital website
- ↑ jestadigital.com
- ↑ Exchange rate USD EUR in May 2004
- ↑ Verisign swallows Jamba . Handelsblatt
- ^ VeriSign acquires wireless services provider Jamba . networkworld.com
- ↑ Murdoch takes over majority of ringtone provider Jamba . ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Handelsblatt , September 12, 2006
- ↑ it-times.de
- ↑ Hermann Simon: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century: The Success Strategies of Unknown World Market Leaders. Campus, Frankfurt a. M. 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-38380-4 , p. 25.
- ↑ Jamba is now called Fox Mobile . ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. mobile-zeitgeist.com, October 2008
- ↑ New man for day-to-day business . manager-magazin.de, May 2008
- ↑ Working with us. jamba.de
- ↑ Fox Mobile is laying off a large part of its workforce . Gruenderszene.de, April 2010
- ↑ Music channel Ojom TV stops broadcasting. digitalfernsehen.de. October 2, 2012, accessed October 17, 2017.
- ↑ Official Jamba! FAQ
- ↑ Jamba! Course. Spreeblick satire
- ^ Save our children from this ringtone rip-off . The Mail on Sunday
- ↑ Holger Bleich: WAPzocke . With smartphone subscription traps, cash continues. In: c't - magazine for computer technology . No. 24 , November 7, 2011, pp. 80 .
- ^ AG Düsseldorf, judgment of March 23, 2006 , Az. 232 C 13967/05, full text.
- ^ AG Düsseldorf, judgment of August 2, 2006 , Az. 52 C 17756/05, full text.
- ^ AG Berlin-Mitte, judgment of July 28, 2008 , Az. 12 C 52/08, full text.
- ↑ Post by Udo Vetter on lawblog.de: "Geld zurück von Jamba & Co."
- ↑ assona.com
