Press Releases

Budapest, July 21, 2009 11:00

Prezi, one of the most promising Hungarian software packages developed in Kitchen Budapest is to be launched on the US market too. Its expected success is the best proven by the fact that the greatest interest for it was raised there for it in the past months, and it was also recognized by numerous professional forums. The company that developed the software, which was also joined by one of the founders of Twitter recently, is currently focusing on innovative enterprises and professionals and targets primarily them with its offers.

Flash-based Prezi, which is completely different from other currently known presentation tools, will now officially enter the international scene: it will first target US users, and then it is expected to be rolled out further to other English-speaking countries. The new application drew much interest in the internet community already after its launch the Hungarian market in March, with many leading industry and online media (Financial Times Germany, TechChrunch, CNET) and professionals calling it one of the most promising developments. Various knowledge centers and universities, such as Institute for the Future (California) already use Prezi, which forecasts the international success of the software.

The project was hatched in 2008 in the innovation, research and development laboratory Kitchen Budapest, which was started by Magyar Telekom and which now continues its operations with the involvement of Sunstone Capital, a venture capital company, to be able to meet the challenges of the international market and become self-supporting.

The past months abounded in successes: in June Prezi was among the 30 invitees selected from 400 applicants to the Startup conference held in Microsoft headquarters. The Prezi team started cooperation with TEDGlobal conference, a major forum known and recognized worldwide, preparing presentations for its speakers. The latest development is that one of Twitter's co-founders Jack Dorsey is involved in Prezi's consulting body, helping the team raise funds and assisting them with the technological developments. Additionally, senior designer / founder Szabolcs Somlai-Fischer has recently received in New York the World Technology Award, art category, sponsored by Fortune, Science and Time magazines.

It seems that Prezi has started its trajectory with high momentum of which Magyar Telekom's Chairman-CEO Christopher Mattheisen, who is always the first to test technological innovation, is very proud of: "We were very pleased to have given support to this exceptional project and helped this innovation, that is expected to achieve international popularity with its very useful features, on its way. Prezi is a very good example that developments can only have real future if they offer an efficient solution to an existing problem - in this case easy preparation of clear and spectacular presentations."
The company's primary objective is to support research and development that contribute to the renewal of the relationships of the society and the communication scene. Experience with Prezi, an initiative with growing popularity and major business potential, shows that the partnership relations between Kitchen Budapest and Magyar Telekom can guarantee the future of such research in the long term.

Prezi
This software is a non-linear presentation tool that offers much greater freedom than earlier devices. It is a virtual screen on which presentation elements can be placed, then freely arranged to create a route. Prezi targets users for whom visual presentation matters and who want to produce the most graphics in a presentation. The strength of its online form is that it enables joint editing and sharing presentations in a very easy way and integrating them in websites and blogs. The program can be used off-line too, its professional version is offered for sale from April on the website www.prezi.com.

Kitchen Budapest
Kitchen Budapest (KIBU) is an innovation laboratory created by Magyar Telekom in 2007; it is a multifunctional space where urban space, mobile communication and internet are addressed, where facilities and tools are offered to young researchers for free thinking and creative team work. One of its basic goals is to search interconnection points between society, art, sciences and new media and give local responses valid in joint international context, too with the help of engineers, artists, designers or laboratory researchers.

Magyar Telekom
Magyar Telekom is the principal provider of telecom services in Hungary. Magyar Telekom provides a full range of telecommunications and ICT services including traditional fixed line and mobile telephony, data transmission, non-voice, SI/IT services. It provides services through its three business units: Consumer Services (T-Home brand for the home and T-Mobile for mobile communications), Business Services (T-Systems brand) and Alternative Businesses and Corporate Development (media and content services). Magyar Telekom is majority shareholder of Makedonski Telekom, Macedonia's biggest fixed and mobile operator and holds majority stake in Crnogorski Telekom, Montenegro's biggest telecom provider. The majority shareholder of Magyar Telekom (59.21%) is MagyarCom, owned exclusively by Deutsche Telekom AG. For more information visit www.telekom.hu.