Latest news with #Zozo
The Citizen
09-05-2025
- Health
- The Citizen
At the lowest point in life, ever
Despite being hospitalised for a broken leg 10 times and after six operations more than a year later, Jonathan Willemse is at the lowest ever point in his life. • Also read: 'In and out of hell' The Krugersdorp News first reported on Willemse's struggles in August, following an accident where he broke his leg in March 2024 and his continued battles with, according to him, inadequate public healthcare. Providing the News with an update, Willemse explained that the pain is unbearable and worse than ever, and requires proper medical assistance. 'It's so painful I battle to move around or even move my leg when I lie down,' he said. With all this constant pain and inability to move, Willemse added that his life has come to a standstill. My life feels like a joke, and as I said before, I lost everything. 'I haven't started to work and I can't even stand properly. With the last operation, one leg is shorter than the other, thus I cannot balance myself. Now I can't even go to the toilet properly because as I stand up, I lose balance and feel like I want to fall all the time,' he added. Willemse revealed he used to have everything and even lived in an estate; however, with his loss of income, and subsequently his home, he had to resort to living in a Zozo hut at the moment. 'The toilet is in a separate building, and when I want to bathe, there is no warm water. I can only wash myself every couple of days, as I need someone to carry me around and cannot help myself to walk,' he stated. His only form of income is a government grant, and with expenses like rent and electricity, he struggles to get through the month. Willemse thus needs funds to seek medical attention for his leg or even advice from any local doctors. 'I want my leg and life back – that's all.' A friend of Willemse's has since launched a BackABuddy campaign titled Help save Jonathan's leg, where any resident can help financially assist him. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lyst sells for $154M
This story was originally published on Fashion Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Fashion Dive newsletter. E-commerce platform and fashion technology company Lyst will be sold to Zozo for $154 million, the companies announced Wednesday. Zozo, which operates Japan-based e-commerce platform Zozotown, is positioning the deal with Lyst as a way to transform fashion discovery through artificial intelligence, as well as a way for both businesses to extend their reach, per the release. Under the deal, the companies said that Lyst will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Zozo. The transaction is expected to close this month. Lyst will continue to operate as a standalone business based in London, and Emma McFerran will remain CEO. Lyst's sale price is considerably cheaper than what the company was valued at in 2021 ($700 million, per TechCrunch) when it was weighing a potential IPO bid. The IPO never came to fruition, however. Buying Lyst fits into Zozo's international expansion strategy, particularly because of Lyst's strong presence in the U.S., U.K. and Europe, per the release. Both companies will use each other's tech, and Zozo said it would invest in accelerating Lyst's AI discovery tool. In addition, Lyst could benefit from Zozo's sizing and fit tech, per the release. Zozo didn't provide specific details on what this entails. 'Lyst has built an exceptional platform that aligns perfectly with our vision of creating more inspiring, joyful shopping experiences,' Utahiro Inui, Zozo executive director, said in the release. 'Lyst's industry credibility and unique brand voice, coupled with market-leading technology and scale, means they are uniquely positioned to redefine the space.' Lyst services 160 million shoppers, per the release, and serves as a discovery platform for 27,000 fashion brands and retailers. Meanwhile, Zozo reaches 12 million users annually. Lyst additionally produces the Lyst Index, a quarterly ranking of the world's most popular fashion brands, products and trends. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Japan's E-commerce Group Zozo to Acquire Lyst for $154 Million
LONDON – Lyst, the London-based shopping platform, said Wednesday it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Zozo, Inc., a Japanese fashion e-commerce platform operator, for $154 million. The acquisition, advised by Rothschild & Co, is expected to be completed before the end of April 2025. More from WWD Dior Teases Pre-fall Show in Japan With Poetic Campaign Taraji P. Henson Buys Brand From Maesa Can Hailey Bieber Break Beauty's M&A Slowdown? Following the acquisition, Lyst will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Zozo. It will continue to operate as a standalone business based in London, with Emma McFerran continuing to serve as chief executive officer. Zozo said the acquisition of Lyst will form the cornerstone of its international expansion strategy, while Lyst's brand authority and intelligence will be further strengthened by leveraging Zozo's market leadership in Japan. Since 2019, Lyst has become a credible source for the fashion industry on what's trending with its quarterly brand and product rankings. On several occasions, the rankings predicted the financial performance of certain brands, such as the soaring popularity of Miu Miu in recent quarters. Utahiro Inui, executive director at Zozo, said: 'Lyst has built an exceptional platform that aligns perfectly with our vision of creating more inspiring, joyful shopping experiences. 'Lyst's industry credibility and unique brand voice, coupled with market-leading technology and scale, means they are uniquely positioned to redefine the space. Together, we will transform the future of fashion shopping online as part of our ambition to 'Inspire the world. Deliver joy every day,'' Inui added. McFerran, who led Lyst to achieve profitability for the first time in 2024 amid the recent downfall of several luxury e-tailers, called Zozo's acquisition a win-win for its fashion ecosystem of shoppers and partners. 'Our space is evolving fast, and we share a vision with Zozo to build a better, brighter future for the industry, using AI and technology. With Zozo's scale, expertise, and support, Lyst will be in an even stronger position to reimagine fashion discovery online,' she added. With Zozo's support, McFerran said Lyst will accelerate its growth and investment in AI discovery technology while maintaining its business in the U.S., the U.K., and Europe; three of its biggest markets among the 190 countries and regions it serves, representing 30 percent, 25 percent, and 20 percent of the business, respectively. With 160 million annual active users, Lyst said it has the largest fashion assortment, with almost 10 million in-stock products on the platform. It partners with 27,000 brands and retailers and exceeded a gross merchandise value of 600 million pounds in the last financial year. 'We've got deep tech at our core, particularly in AI-driven personalization. Zozo has lots of strengths and things like UI and size and fit tech. There are opportunities for us to partner together and invest in our growth,' said McFerran, who joined Lyst in 2014 and has since risen through the ranks to become CEO in 2022. 'I'm proud of my team and what they've built to date. They deserve all the praise and celebration, so we will find the right ways to honor them,' added McFerran, who is part of a 'small but mighty' team of 150 people working from an office situated not far from the Tower of London. In Japan, Zozo runs Zozotown, a fashion e-commerce platform with 12 million annual customers. It provides novel shopping experiences through its proprietary measurement technologies, including Zozomat and Zozoglass. It also operates services including Zozofit, a 3D body scan technology, and Wear by Zozo, an outfit-sharing app. Best of WWD EXCLUSIVE: Sean Combs Regains Control of Sean John Brand Isabel Marant Said in Play Again: Sources Holding Industriale Invests in Shoe Specialist Valmor
The Guardian
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘No micro transactions, no bullshit': Josef Fares on Split Fiction and the joy of co-op video games
There aren't many video game developers as outspoken as Hazelight's Josef Fares. Infamous for his expletive-laden viral rants at livestreamed awards shows, Fares is a refreshingly firy and unpredictable voice in an all too corporate industry. As he puts it, 'It doesn't matter where I work or what I do, I will always say what I want. People say to me that that's refreshing – but isn't it weird that you cannot say what you think in interviews? Do we live in a fucking communist country? Obviously, you have got to respect certain boundaries, but to not even be able to express what you think personally about stuff? People are too afraid!' Yet while gamers know him as a grinning chaos merchant and passionate ambassador of co-op gameplay, in Fares' adopted homeland of Sweden, he is best known as an award-winning film director. His goofy 2000 comedy Jalla! Jalla! was a domestic box office success, while his 2005 drama Zozo was a more introspective work about his childhood experience of fleeing the Lebanese civil war. Twenty years, five feature films and three video games later, Zozo was just one of many cathartic endeavours for Fares. 'I've always been a storyteller,' he says. 'When I was young, I'd draw my own comics. The first time I got a camera I borrowed it from a friend's father, and that was that.' With no formal training, he learned by doing. 'I started to make my own movies in the early 90s … and I just kept creating. I made 50 short movies until I did my first feature. So there was a lot of trial and error – just doing, doing, doing, doing until I got it right.' It's this DIY, inquisitive approach that guided Fares towards game-making, his pivot into interactive entertainment born from that same unflappable curiosity. 'I've always been a huge gamer,' Fares says. ' I was lucky. I had the first [console] in Lebanon, an Atari. I played Pong and I was like, wow! I was just utterly fascinated with it. Games have always been my first love.' Once Fares finished work on his fifth feature film, a friend encouraged him to pursue his love of games, and convinced him to participate in a student-led game jam. 'I was so excited! I came up with the concept of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons the same night' Fares says. ' I couldn't sleep that night because I was like, I want to do this! I came up with how you control the two brothers, how it feels to play, everything. All in that same night.' He soon took his evolving prototype to a respected game studio in Stockholm – Starbreeze. 'They were like, 'Well, maybe you can do this as a kind of test project.' But I'm like, fuck a test, I'm going to do the whole thing!' That passion fuelled a year and a half of intense work, with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons being released in 2013. The co-op adventure about siblings embarking on a dangerous journey to find a cure for their sick father has now sold over 10m copies. Despite its success, many in Sweden were baffled by his artistic pivot, a transition for Fares that felt natural. 'With movies, I came to a point where I felt that the passion really wasn't there. Passion lead me to video games. It was very challenging being new in the industry and coming in with a different approach – wanting to create new mechanics. Today it's different because [people] listen to me, but it was very hard in the beginning.' After Brothers' success, Fares started his own gaming studio, Hazelight – a team focused on making story-driven co-op games, a surprisingly rare proposition in our online age. 'Hazelight started because me and a friend tried – and failed – to find a game where it's not just drop-in, drop-out [co-op] but something that you can play together and share a story experience. We couldn't believe that no one was doing this. It's why we don't just make games with a split-screen element at Hazelight – all our games are designed and written right from the beginning to be co-op.' Much like Hideo Kojima, Fares can't code, but instead assumes the role of writer and director on his games, laying out the vision for the story and gameplay mechanics, entrusting his talented team to bring his vision to life. Fast forward 12 years, and a new Hazelight game is now a massive event. Fares' most recent release was the colourful co-op platformer It Takes Two, about two parents who find themselves magically miniaturised and must fight through their home to reach their young daughter. Highly acclaimed by critics, it won game of the year at the 2021 Game Awards. Now Fares is previewing his latest co-op extravaganza, Split Fiction. Much like Hazelight's previous work, it's a thrill ride of exhilarating successive set pieces. As dual protagonists Mio and Zoe battle their way across hostile re-creations of their own sci-fi and fantasy novels, each level throws new ideas at the player with Nintendo-esque abandon. 'Variation and pacing – how things shift all the time, I think that comes from my movie background,' Fares says. 'Other people say, 'If you have this crazy scene, why do you only use it for 10 minutes?' Because if you have a cool scene in a movie, you don't repeat it just because it's cool and costs a lot of money!' Despite his undeniable talent for storytelling, Fares says he finds interactive narratives far more difficult to construct than their Hollywood counterparts. 'It's way harder to make games, because games are interactive and movies are passive. Movies spend much longer in production, writing, everything too – they just have more time for you to figure it all out. I always joke that if I want to go on vacation, I'm going to make a movie.' 'I believe that we're still figuring out how to actually tell a story in games,' he continues. 'But that's the fun part! Even the movie industry is now realising that great shit is happening in video games.' What Fares finds less fun, however, is the direction in which the games industry has been heading in recent years. 'I don't like live service games – I think that they're bad for the industry,' he says. 'I understand that money is important, and that we live in a capitalist society, but creativity and money have to meet somewhere in the middle. It can't be either too much creativity or too much money. We should focus on pushing our medium forward: no micro transactions, no bullshit, just pure gaming love – because, ultimately, great games will do well.' Split Fiction is released on PC, PS5 and Xbox on 6 March
