As I mentioned in my post over the weekend, I’ve been doing business development consulting for a cool company based in Latin America called Movile, and today, they’re launching something pretty cool…Zeewe 2.0.  Here’s the press release:

Today Movile, the leading mobile services company, announces Zeewe 2.0 (go.zeewe.com), the new version of the pioneering HTML5 app store and directory for smartphones and tablets. Zeewe has more than 1.5 million users worldwide, and these users typically use at least 5 web apps that they discover on Zeewe.  Movile also announces the launch of several exciting new features for Zeewe including off-line mode which enables users to use the Zeewe store and select apps without an internet connection on iOS devices. Beside this, Zeewe also now offers developers a payment API that enables them to charge for Apps and transact in-app purchases.

In the ten months since Zeewe launched, a robust community of users and developers has embraced it as the best place to discover, share and recommend cross-platform, HTML5-based mobile apps including games, music and videos, books, entertainment, business and more.

Eduardo Lins Henrique, Head of Innovations at Movile and Zeewe Product Lead describes Zeewe’s viral growth:
Since Zeewe’s launch last December, many well-respected companies have developed cross-platform HTML5 web apps including: The Financial Times (ft.com), Google (plus.google.com and Chrome Store), Pandora (Pandora.com), and others. Many more companies, including Facebook, are rumored to be next. Movile is accelerating its leadership position in Smartphone, Tablet and converged web applications by investing in Zeewe and other products that leverage HTML5.

Zeewe 2.0 uses HTML5 offline resources based on cache features to enable a seamless offline HTML5 app browsing experience, initially for iOS Safari users with support for Android users coming soon. Zeewe also now supports HTML5 apps designed to work offline like Block Dream, Blast Effect, Checklist, Card Flip. Movile expects this enhancement will significantly improve the Zeewe experience. Henrique continues:

Zeewe users will interact more with our application because the time to load each page in the system is 10 times faster than before. In user tests, this dramatically improved the Zeewe navigation experience and click through rates.

Dario Sciacca, DS Effect´s CEO says,

This announcement is very important for the HTML5 market. We tried Zeewe 2.0 and we agreed that the user experience is much better than the first iteration. About billing, all developers are interested in monetizing their business. At DS Effect, this is not different and we will certainly use Zeewe payments APIs soon.

Zeewe 2.0’s new billing APIs, which launched today using Movile´s own connections and Zong, a PayPal service and a leading provider of payments through mobile carrier billing. It is initially available in the United States of America and Brazil and will roll out to additional countries including the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, and Mexico in the coming months.

According to PayPal’s Senior Director of Mobile Stephane Kasriel, “It´s fantastic to have an App Store based on HTML5 technology in Zong´s portfolio. HTML5 web apps are a growing trend amongst mobile developers and they are being widely adopted in the market. We’re excited to to be Zeewe’s exclusive in-app payments solution.”

Movile believes that the future of mobile apps is based on the open web standards of HTML5 and driving cross-platform mobile experiences that leverage the social graph. Zeewe is boosting the discovery and usage of HTML5 apps and enabling mobile users to share and pay for experiences seamlessly across OSes.

Zeewe by Movile is a cross-platform mobile app store based on the open web standards of HTML5. Zeewe is the best place to discover and share cross-platform mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. Any mobile user with an HTML5-enabled browser can visit: http://zeewe.com and start using free apps in seconds, without registration or credit cards.
Zeewe’s “FriendZee” feature provides push notifications and social discovery through Facebook and Twitter, so users can easily see which apps their friends are using and try them out.
Zeewe launched in late December, 2010 and just achieved 1.5 million users worldwide, with most users in the US, UK, Mexico, China, and Brazil. Zeewe was developed by Movile, the leading mobile services company based in Latin America.
Zeewe is simple to use:

• Visit Zeewe.com from an iOS or Android device, and discover tons of free apps.
• Click on an app that sounds interesting and see ratings and comments from other users.
• Download apps in seconds.
• Share apps with friends, and invite them to play games with you.