 | |
| Company type | Private[1] |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electronic commerce |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Defunct | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
Key people | Robert Hall, Founder and Chairman Christina Beavis, CEO |
| Products | Online DVD rental Movie rental kiosks |
| Revenue | Not disclosed |
Number of employees | ~50 |
Zip.ca was an onlineDVD rental andmovie rental kiosk company operating inCanada. It had a database of over 82,000[2] unique titles.
Zip.ca was a member of the privately held Momentous Group of companies and was the owner of theOttawa Rapidzbaseball team until its first-seasonbankruptcy.[3][4]
On August 17, 2014, Zip.ca announced on its website that it was closing its doors and was no longer shipping discs to its members.[5]
Zip.ca began its rental operations in February 2004,[6] from its base of operations inOttawa,Ontario. In July 2005 it arranged to provide the fulfillment services forRogers Video Direct, a new online subsidiary of one of Canada's largest video store chains. By February 2006, Zip.ca had over 30,000[7] subscribers. In December 2006, Zip.ca announced passing the 6,000,000[8] disc rental milestone.
Zip.ca'smovie rental kiosks were introduced in 2010.
In July 2009, Zip.ca announced it had partnered withSonic Solutions as it prepared to offer astreamingvideo on demand (VOD) service similar to that introduced in the U.S. in 2007 by its largest American counterpart,Netflix.[9] In May 2011, after Netflix's 2010 Canadian launch as a streaming-only service, Zip.ca announced a further partnership withSamsung, and said its service would launch as a transactional VOD platform, not as a subscription service.[10] The service remained unlaunched at the time of the company's closure in 2014.
| Monthly disc shipments | Discs included | Blu-ray |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 2 | 1 | No |
| Unlimited | 1 | No |
| Unlimited | 2 | Yes |
| Unlimited | 3 | Yes |
| Up to 11 | 4 | Yes |
| Up to 16 | 6 | Yes |
| Up to 22 | 8 | Yes |
Zip.ca imposed a free shipping limit per month, unless the customer chose the special "Unlimited" plan. When the DVD shipment limit was reached, the customer had to pay for additional shipments ($2.49 per DVD) in the billing month or wait until the next billing month before Zip.ca would continue shipments. In November 2011, Zip.ca began charging a $1 rental fee for eachBlu-ray disc.[11] The Blu-ray fee was removed in October 2012. Blu-ray was not available on either of the 1-DVD plans.
On August 30, 2005, Zip.ca announced[12] that it was buying out the online operations of its then main Canadian rival, VHQonline.ca, and has also picked up assets from other companies going out of business.
45°19′58″N75°42′17″W / 45.33278°N 75.70472°W /45.33278; -75.70472