A few months ago Ottawa-based Zip.ca shipped its 10 millionth DVD. Quite an accomplishment for the four-year-old start-up that's been dubbed the Canadian equivalent of online video rental behemoth Netflix. Today on itbusiness.ca, Nestor E. Arellano takes a close look at Zip.ca and the movie-picking technology that keeps customers renting. Zip.ca's online ordering system is powered by a "recommendation algorithm" that helps customers decide which movie to watch. Based on a member's profile and a list of previously rented titles, the system provides the customer a list of other movies that might appeal to his or her tastes. It's a powerful marketing tool as it personalizes the movie selection experience for the customer, while giving Zip.ca numerous up-sell opportunities. Zip.ca's inventory exceeds 72,000 individual titles and 250,000 discs which it rents out to more than 35,000 members Canada-wide. Zip.ca is owned by Momentous.ca - a veteran domain name industry company that operates domain name aftermarket Pool.com and a handful of other domain name registrars.
Zip.ca is Canada's leading online video rental service. We offer members access to an ever-growing DVD library of over 72,000 titles to rent. Our... [more]
Rob Lewis
Rob is the President of Techvibes Media Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of Techvibes.com.
His diverse background includes stints in International Trade Finance, Web Development, and Enterprise Software and he is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Simon Fraser University.
When not blogging on...[more]
