Dailymotion launches in the UK with Kate Burns as Managing Director

PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 04, 2008 – Dailymotion, the world's largest independent video sharing site, has appointed former Google Director, Kate Burns as its first Managing Director for the UK. Burns will build the business in the UK to increase market share and revenue. This includes growing the user base to increase visitor traffic and add more user-generated and official content to the site, as well as building an advertising sales operation and creating commercial partnerships with brands and advertising agencies.
Dailymotion is well-established in France and America with 32.2 million unique users per month and 15,000 video uploads every day. It has High Definition capability and offers a mix of official content from partners such as Channel 4, Turner Broadcasting, Viacom/MTV Networks and Universal Music, and user-generated content, and moderated content from approved users or ‘Motionmakers’, which is enhanced by Dailymotion’s programming team.

The move ends a period of consulting for Burns which followed her departure from Google in 2007. Burns joined Google in 2001 as its first employee outside the US and went on to develop the company’s most profitable and fastest growing, region rising to become Director, UK, Ireland and Benelux. She has over a decade of new media experience from leading digital companies including Doubleclick, Altavista and Yahoo!

Burns will report to Mark Zaleski, the former CEO of QXL Ricardo, who was appointed as Chairman and CEO of Dailymotion in July 2007. Under Zaleski’s leadership QXL achieved profitability for the first time and became the best performing stock on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market in 2004 and 2005. He developed the business to become the market leader in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland as well as having a growing presence in several other Eastern European countries. Prior to joining QXL, Zaleski was President of Webvan Operations and part of the team involved with the company's Initial Public Offering in 1999, and Senior Vice President/Group Managing Director for ACNielsen Corporation before that.

Commenting on the appointment, Mark Zaleski, Chairman and CEO, Dailymotion, explains, ‘Kate Burns was an obvious choice for Dailymotion because of her track record in launching three global online organisations into the UK market and taking them to become successful public companies. Burns is creative and dynamic and has an excellent network of industry contacts. She will develop the UK market to deliver the best entertainment experience for customers as well as the best business experience for our commercial partners’.

Kate Burns, UK Managing Director, Dailymotion, adds, ‘Dailymotion is committed to finding and showcasing Britain’s creative talent. I will raise brand awareness so that we can attract more Motionmakers to upload their work and increase our footprint in the UK. The site’s innovative combination of official, moderated and user-generated content increases engagement from visitors and offers a compelling platform for advertisers and partners. I’m keen to talk to brands about these new ways to reach and approach consumers and create new opportunities for through-the-line interaction.’

At Google, Burns pioneered a new sales structure that was adopted globally and built a significant team to localise and promote new products. She left to offer consultancy services to internet businesses such as SearchRev, Signature, AdLink and buy.at. Prior to joining Google in 2001, Burns was Pan-European Sales Director for Altavista and before that she spent three years at Doubleclick joining as their first sales person in the UK. She has also worked for Ziff Davis and New International.

Burns will recruit an account management team and further programmers and entertainment developers for Dailymotion’s UK operation as well as working on brand building activity.

About Dailymotion
A top 30 website worldwide (source: Alexa), Dailymotion is the world's largest independent provider of premium user generated and licensed online video entertainment (Source: Alexa and ComScore) with 2billion page views per month. Every day, 15,000 new videos are uploaded into Dailymotion's global network of localised video entertainment sites, where a programming team turns the user generated and licenced content into a high quality, entertainment experience for the 3.32 million monthly unique visitors.

Using the most advanced technology for both users and content creators, Dailymotion provides a high quality video in a fast, easy to use Web site that also automatically filters infringing material using technical finger-printing technology. Dailymotion's mission is to provide the best possible entertainment experience for users and the best business experience for content owners.


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For more information, visit www.dailymotion.com or contact

Joanna Burton
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