Zuora Launches Z-Payments 2.0 at Innovate09 - Built with PayPal X

by K. V. Rao

In our last post, we mentioned that we’d be launching our next product at PayPal’s first developer conference, Innovate09. Today we’re thrilled to announce Z-Payments 2.0 – the first online subscription commerce solution built with PayPal X.

You may recall that Zuora first launched Z-Payments back in October of last year, and announced a strategic partnership with PayPal. The first complete payment solution for subscription businesses, Z-Payments 2.0 enables subscription companies to manage the entire recurring payment lifecycle, accept any form of payment including traditional payments, like check or wire transfer, handle payment exceptions, and more. In short, Z-Payments is how subscription businesses get paid.

Today, the relationship between Zuora and PayPal takes another step forward, as Z-Payments 2.0 leverages the Adaptive Payments capabilities in PayPal X to offer Zuora’s customers even greater flexibility in their payment operations.

We’re thrilled to be held up as an example of a successful business built with PayPal’s X platform (we’re told that Osama Bedier, PayPal’s VP Product Development, is going to mention us in his keynote) and we’re excited to see what other innovative products will be launched at Innovate09.

To read the full press release, click here.

To stay up to date with the Zuora team, follow us on Twitter @Zuora.

To hear what all the fuss is about, check out the Tweets about the event (#changehowwepay)

Zuora Launches Next Product at Paypal’s Innovate09

by Erik Haus

In the spirit of Halloween, we at Zuora have a few tricks up our sleeves and a few new treats to offer customers. We'll be launching our next offering at PayPal's Innovate09, their first dedicated developer conference.

We’re proud to support one of our premier partners as their Platinum Sponsor for the inaugural event. While we can’t spill the beans about we’re launching until the actual event, rest assured that the name "Innovate" is well deserved. PayPal, who pioneered online payments, is continuing its leadership in the payments space with its Open Platform X. Zuora’s state-of-the-art subscription commerce platform already seamlessly integrates with PayPal's products, but stay tuned for the next phase of our integration.

Come check us out at the conference. It takes place November 3-4, 2009 in San Francisco. Register online at: https://www.paypal-communications.com/innovate2009/index.html.

Or, to learn more about Zuora's developer tools, check out the Zuora Developer Network.

Looking forward to seeing you there, and be sure to see our new offering!

Facebook Developers Make Money Through Subscriptions Thanks to Zuora’s Cloud Commerce Platform

by Erik Haus

Zuora’s Launch at DEMO 2009 was a huge success! First and foremost, we launched our latest product,

a really simple solution for Facebook developers looking for a better way to make money. Advertising and one-time purchases aren’t ideal for certain applications, but until now it was too difficult to offer subscription-based applications. But Z-Commerce for Facebook gives developers the tools they need to do just that –

• A subscription console,
• Plug-and-play commerce widgets,
• Access control API,
• User self-service subscription management.

Developers can now transform their applications into subscription based services with only a few lines of code.

Second, DEMO provided us with a great environment to spread the word out about Z-Commerce for Facebook. And judging by the great response we’ve had so far in the press, it seems that we’re doing something right.

Last, and most importantly, we were able to reach Facebook developers themselves. In addition to launching our product, we have also announced our "Subscribe, Don’t Advertise" contest. We are seeking innovative developers who want to turn their existing applications into subscription services with Z-Commerce for Facebook. We’ll select five winners, with each winning a free year of Z-Commerce for Facebook. The universe of possibilities of what you can do with Facebook applications just exploded.

I think Charles Cooper from CNET summed it up best, noting that Z-Commerce for Facebook makes Facebook a cloud computing platform ripe for innovation. If you’re a developer with a great idea for Facebook and need a better way to monetize, enter our contest!

Monetize Facebook Apps with Z-Commerce for Facebook: Subscribe, Don’t Advertise

by Tien Tzuo

This week, we’re in Palm Springs at the DEMO 2009 event to launch our latest product, Z-Commerce for Facebook and our first developer contest, ‘Subscribe, Don’t Advertise.’ What’s it all about? First, some context:

Today, there are over 660,000 Facebook developers who collectively have built over 52,000 applications, and are adding 140 new applications every day. As impressive as these numbers are – the fact remains that, with a few exceptions, Facebook developers are not making any money.

Today, Facebook developers rely primarily on advertising to generate cash – and we all know that ads just don’t work. Think about it – do you click on ads in Gmail?....I didn’t think so.

But, what if Facebook developers had another choice? What if it was easy for them to sell their applications as monthly fees, quarterly fees, or even, crazy as it sounds, based on how much the application is used. This idea really got us thinking (and you know how we feel about subscriptions).

At Zuora, we imagine a world where every Facebook user pays some developer one dollar, per month, for some application that they found valuable. That’s 2 billion dollars a year that Facebook developers could be making.

That’s the world that is now possible, with our new Z-Commerce for Facebook. We’re so excited about this concept that we’ve also launched our first developer contest named ‘Subscribe, Don’t Advertise.’ We’re looking for five Facebook developers to be the very first to build a subscription-based application with Z-Commerce for Facebook.

All developers are encouraged to apply. Selected developers will receive free access to Z-Commerce for Facebook for one year.

More information about the product and the contest is available here: http://developer.zuora.com/facebook.

You can watch our presentation live at 9.30am on February March 2nd.

And, we’ll be posting videos and pictures from our on-stage presentation at DEMO 2009. Stay tuned!

The Business Cloud: Powered by the Z-Commerce Platform

by Tien Tzuo

We're starting off 2009 with a bang.

Today, we are launching our fourth and – in my opinion – our most important product to date: the Z-Commerce Platform. Following up on our Z-Billing, Z-Payments and Z-Force offerings, the Z-Commerce Platform is the very first development environment dedicated to helping developers monetize their cloud-based services.

Why did we do this now?

The 'Cloud Wars' are upon us – Microsoft, salesforce.com, Amazon, Google, HP, IBM, you name it – these companies are duking it out for ownership of the cloud. In the same way that Java, .NET, PHP and other languages fought for the hearts and minds of developers ten years ago, in 2009, we're going to see developers identify with major cloud platforms such as Force.com, AppEngine, AWS or Azure.

However, as exciting as this vision is, it's missing one big thing: how will these developers monetize all these services they build for the cloud? How will they get paid? Without a commerce component to fuel its growth, cloud computing cannot fulfill its true potential.

What developers need is a Business Cloud -- any easy way to add commerce capabilities such as subscription billing and recurring payments to the services they are building, and they need it in the same way that they use services from Amazon, or Google, or Force.com.

That's where the Z-Commerce Platform comes in.

The Z-Commerce Platform is the first example of the Business Cloud -- a set of cloud-based services dedicated to giving developers the tools they need to monetize the services they are building on cloud platforms.

You can learn more about the Z-Commerce Platform and get involved in the Z-Developer Network.

2009 is indeed shaping up to be the Year of the Cloud, and we are ready…