Zooba Moves Into Net Marketing Territory

Zooba.com wants to thrive in a marketing space the Internet promises to refine into art — the blend of content and commerce.

The Boston-based company, a subsidiary of Transactive Solutions Inc., has today launched its website: a free, opt-in service designed to deliver millions of personalized e-mails with content and e-commerce offerings based on topics a member selects.

Zooba is attempting to become an Internet channel for cultural content — what the company is calling an “infomediary.” It is designed to give publishers, content owners and e-tailers a cheap, targeted marketing and distribution channel.

Zooba creates and delivers e-mails with products linked to the topical content that its members have selected to know more about. The service aims to generate millions of merchandising opportunitiess.

To supply content the company has established partnerships with several publishing houses and university presses, including Simon & Schuster, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Columbia University Press, Taschen and Stanford University Press. Those publishers are looking for not just a new marketing channel but access to subscriber psychographic and demographic data.

The site has more than 46 topic areas, including food and cuisine, designations, thinkers and thought, fitness, nutrition and diet and world music.

Zooba uses proprietary “microcast” e-mail technology developed by its parent firm, TransactiveSolutions Inc., which allows it to send millions of personalized e-mail messages simultaneously.

Jeffrey Glass, Zooba’s president and co-founder, said, “Zooba combines the assets of several businesses — content, e-mail marketing and e-commerce — into one cohesive direct marketing platform.