Zumbox creates an all-digital alternative to the U.S. Postal Service

February 10, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments | |

The U.S. Postal Service is about to get some competition in the digital world. Zumbox is launching the public beta test today for its all-digital alternative to the paper postal service.

Wait a minute, you’re thinking. Isn’t that email? Nope. Westlake Village, Calif.-based Zumbox lets you send or receive scanned, physical representations of letters, bills or other things you might normally send via paper mail. You can log into your mailbox at the Zumbox site and then receive digital delivery of your mail.

And you don’t have to put a stamp on anything. For now, it’s free for everyone except advertisers and marketers, who can pay for premium service. Consumers can now view online the mail they wish to receive and the service allows them to access it from anywhere at anytime via the Internet. Glen Ward, president, said that Zumbox can deliver mail instantly seven days a week.

Zumbox has created a digital mailbox for every street address in the U.S. So companies can send bills via Zumbox. You open them and they look like scanned versions of the real paper bills. The Zumbox site will let you look at a variety of media in the form of HTML, Flash, audio, and video. Nonprofits, businesses, government entities and consumers can use it for free.

Zumbox mailboxes are secure since the company uses a closed system with security measures that meet the toughest regulations, such as the medical-record HIPAA law. Users get a secure PIN number which they receive from Zumbox via paper mail, just to make sure that scammers don’t hijack your mail. The benefit of the closed system is there’s no junk mail. Consumers can still order and use a variety of electronic payment systems. They can also browse through the catalogs they want to see and order goods.

Zumbox will charge advertisers and marketers because it gives them real-time campaign measurement tools that are unavailable through traditional mail. Marketers and advertisers can also send mail to a single address, a mailing list, or a specific geographic region such as all of the homes in a specific zip code.

The company was founded in 2007. It has 33 employees and has raised $4 million from private investors. The company’s founder, Maury Friedman, is a successful entrepreneur who has sold a number of companies.

Rivals include Earth Class Mail, another provider of alternative mail services. Zumbox currently has only a few thousand users, but the company will now open up the service to all comers.

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About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Now thats a great simple and stupid idea (KISS)! However "So companies can send bills via Zumbox", the challenge would be to get businesses to do that. Do you know how far they are with that and how they plan to get businesses to do that?
  • Troy
    An all-digital alternative, eh? Do you mean we can also scan and send packages or other things like charm bracelets? What of those who do not have a scanner? With a decrease in 1st class mail (due to email) the Postal Service is already hurting big time. They are REQUIRED BY LAW to deliver to every address six days a week. With a growing population (and thus an increasing # of addresses to deliver to) this type of unregulated competition places an even greater burden on the Postal Service. Free up the Postal Service to deliver to whom they choose and for how many days they choose (unshackle them) or require Zumbox to make scanners available to every who signs up, then we'll see a true alternative being offered. The article also said that at first it will be free; does that mean that once irreparable harm to the Postal Service has occurred, that Zumbox will feel free to place a fee upon the service that is more burdensome than a simple stamp. This whole idea is another ridiculous folly that causes greater harm than good.
  • Reader
    With FedEx and UPS already snarfing down traditional postal customers, USPS is already asking for a five-day delivery schedule: http://www.foliomag.com/2009/usps-may-reduce-ma...

    Competition can be a killer.
  • HL
    Zumbox's competitor/predecessor in this space , Earth Class Mail, just announced this week that they are getting OUT of this aspect of the business, at least in the US market. $20M of investor money down the drain...
  • Another Consumer Payed Program
    So let me get this straight. Companies send me bills and advertising and they make me pay for the ink and paper. Great for the consumer. I already have this it is called junk faxes.
  • grouchy markz
    perhaps the worst part of this poorly executed cynical junk mail ploy is the half hearted eco spin buried way way under the rat type. did anyone get past the terms doc which is transparently self serving and, frankly, so poorly written as to be embarrassing to a second year law student.
    not a chance could this work for anything other than JUNK. maybe thats ok. but why not just say its junk.
    check out the bios... an way exMusic retailer from the UK heads it up. so this will be great for selling CDs... remember those spectacular lil gizmos, eh mate?
    HA ha ha right.
  • Heather
    Other companies like C-mail are working on ways to help business customers prioritize their mail. Sounds like something like Zumbox's solution would be taking that one step further, helping you get rid of junk mail (e or otherwise) altogether instead of just placing as a low-priority item.

    More info here: http://www.digitalforumtv.com/Nav_Community_773...
  • Karen
    This sounds like another project that leaves out folks who can't afford to own a computer, let alone a scanner, to receive or send correspondence. It sounds pretty exclusive and class-based for only people with money. I agree with others' comments about the challenge to the US Postal Service (my employer) - email has driven down First Class mail volume and so we now rely on Business Mail (translation - junk) to survive. Yet we are required to deliver to every physical address in the United States with the same 42 cent stamp whether you live in Juneau Alaska or the Grand Canyon or Hawaii. I doubt that this business will offer free service to everyone for much longer, especially as it expands and needs more workers to support the growing size of its digital community.
  • dennisdesmo
    good luck
  • Kaptah825
    Be it a gimmick that requires one to buy toner/ink and paper in order to have hard copies, or not, it's another nail driven into the coffin of what used to be the greatest monopoly in the US. Chances are that if ZUMBOX fails, it will have set the precedent a bit further for any enterprising and committed organization that will step up and take over the reins of the USPS. As it is, the USPS at the highest levels resemble a bunch of Enron chiefs wining and dining at the expense of their internal and external customers. It's only a matter of time before the USPS will be forced to privitize if it is to remain a viable entity.
  • KS
    Hopefully, for all our sakes, the USPS won't privatize. That 42 cent stamp won't get a letter to Juneau Alaska anymore. It will probably cost more just to go from one state to another. They just privatized parking meters in the city of Chicago. It went from 50 cents per hr to 3.50 per hour and climbing. What some call "junk mail" is the bread and butter of not just the USPS, but for advertising companies, direct mail companies, etc. Think twice before wishing privatization on the Postal Service. As for the managers resembling Eron - far from it. You'd be surprised at how little management employees make compared to the private industry. It's time for all industries to tighten their belts and rethink their processes. This is a global economic downturn. Hopefully, the Postal Service will survive and not have to lay off any of its approx 600,000 full and part-time employees.
  • Check out paperlessmail.com, ukpostbox.com, and privatebox.co.nz as well. They are good replacements for earth class mail.