Respectance

In 2006 IIZT wanted to do something with the insight that developments in the market were slower than what the normal people were ready for. The newspapers worldwide lost a lot of business because part of their reason of existence had turned online. And the newspapers still strongly embraced paper as the only way to walhalla. They had (have) not opened up to reader participation or online virality. Business models like car sales, dating, real estate sales, second hand products, holidays, sex ads. It all went online. The newspapers reacted slowly or not. The business went out their front door.
A huge part of their business are the obituaries. They still are. For both national as regional businesses. We wanted to take this online. And offer it as an extra service to the newspapers. It also made it possible to extend the business around obituaries and offer people ways to keep and share memories. Both written and visual. In 2007 we got venture capital and launched companies in Amsterdam, Krakow and San Francisco. It was a great success and we gained business deals with Fairfax in Australia and TMG in Holland a.o.
Eventually after some changes in our lives, we ended up with this startup in our lap and IIZT is now reviving it. The content is very valuable, both in quantity and quality. It’s everlasting.