LOS ANGELES, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The leading U.S. Latin Social Entertainment Network, as ranked by Forrester Research in its latest study of Hispanic Social Networking launched VOYPlaza.com, a comprehensive digital service for the new generation of Latinos and those discovering Latin culture. VOYPlaza.com offers consumers a wide variety of content and social applications: the first Latin-themed virtual reality world, news, blogging, music, video, and powerful tools to communicate and enable a community.
"VOYPlaza.com serves Latinos' deep desire to connect with both our culture and each other. Based upon the feedback of our audience we've created innovative product additions to further deepen this connection among Latinos and our friends through the best tools, relevant content and organic Latin design that VOY Plaza embodies," said Fernando Espuelas, Chairman and CEO of VOY.
"VOY Plaza is the preferred(1) Latin social network for both English and Spanish dominant Latinos in the U.S. We will innovate relentlessly in order to best serve our community of sophisticated and demanding consumers," added Espuelas.
Some of the key features of VOYPlaza.com are:
VOY Plaza Virtual - VOY consumers enter into a fully 3D version of the VOY Plaza experience. At VOY Plaza Virtual consumers create a personalized avatar, find a whole range of virtual environments in which to socialize, chat with friends, listen to music, dance, watch video and participate in special programmed events. Gartner Research projected in May of this year that by 2011 80% of "active" internet users will regularly use non-gaming worlds(2). The launch of VOY Plaza Virtual dovetails with the Latin Grammy Awards, taking place tomorrow. In partnership with vSide, VOY will bring exclusive interviews and red-carpet access of the Grammys beginning from 6pm-7:30pm PDT this Thursday.
VOY Scout (TM) - For a generation that wants to be informed and connected with the rest of the world, a powerful personalized blog and news portal, updated in real-time and providing over 3 million blog and news articles a day in English, Spanish and Portuguese. VOY Scout gives VOY Plaza users the ability to Scout for information - search, view, share and vote on news and blog content, from a broad-range of interest categories, and millions of individual information sources.
Music - The largest network of 40 originally-programmed free radio stations on the Internet, featuring crystal clear Latin music of all genres and for all tastes. Users create, broadcast and syndicate their own customized stations, rank music, send songs to their friends and listen to stations created by other VOY Plaza community members.
Games - Games have been embraced by Latinos as another of the key mechanisms for community building - VOY Plaza Games is a place to connect with other Latino gamers and with hundreds of games of all genres, from action, adventure, strategy, arcade and more.
Video - Large, diverse library of relevant content across variety of high- interest genres - music, sports, cooking, travel, films, TV, celebrities, and urban-Latino culture. Video channels are also available throughout VOY Plaza Virtual. VOY Plaza media players can be embedded into users' blogs either as single clips or full channels. VOY Plaza is also syndicated across Verizon's VCAST network, Vuze and Joost.
eLabel - The digital revolution has made it possible for musicians to make music without the help of traditional record companies. VOY eLabel is a world stage where new talent can catapult themselves directly to the forefront of exposure - reaching VOY Plaza's users to get known, develop a fan base that can sample the music through free downloads, and eventually buy it.
VOY Plaza is globally available and has an audience from over 150 countries. People access VOY Plaza services through a wide variety of means - from voyplaza.com on the Internet, to Verizon's VCAST Mobile TV service, to IPTV services such as Joost and Vuze.
About VOY Plaza
VOY(R) Plaza. is a leading social entertainment network focused on today's new generation of Latinos and those discovering Latin culture. VOY Plaza connects with its global audience through a broad range of traditional and emerging platforms, including the Internet, broadband and wireless. For more information, visit http://voyplaza.com/.
(1) "Hispanic Social Computing Takes Off" by Tamara Barber, Forrester Research Study June 22, 2007. (2) "Five Laws for Virtual Worlds," Symposium/ITxpo: Emerging Trends, Gartner Research, April 2007.
The VOY(R) brand is a registered trademark used under license. All rights reserved.
Contact: Danika Berry/Roxanne Romero 5W Public Relations 323.556.7077 dberry@5wpr.com / rromero@5wpr.comVOY Plaza
Web site: http://voyplaza.com/
