Grupa Onet – RAS Polska is the first Polish media company in history to receive the INMA Global Media Awards from the International News Media Association for its Onet news app in the Best Use of Mobile category. The winners were announced on May 23, 2017, at the 87th INMA World Congress in New York City.
In October 2016, Onet launched its mobile app Onet 4.0 with text-to-speech technology, that allows the user to listen to news activated by the “Onet, read!” command. This innovative idea was implemented by the engineers of DreamLab, the technology hub of Grupa Onet-RAS Polska. The app runs on any smartphone and mobile device using iOS or Android.
Onet 4.0 is Poland’s first app to provide this unique “text to speech” feature, enabling each article to be read aloud. It is activated with the “Onet read!” (Onet czytaj!) command. Another innovation is the app’s access to the audio version of the Onet24 news service. The news service is updated automatically several times a day, and each issue brings breaking news headlines from Poland and overseas as events unfold. In this way, the app satisfies the needs of consumers who want to be up to date on current affairs.
Mark Dekan, CEO Ringier Axel Springer Media AG, and CEO of Grupa Onet-RAS Polska: “First and foremost, I feel a deep sense of pride at the achievements of our Polish team. Grupa Onet-RAS Polska is the first Polish publisher in history to receive such a prestigious international award for a mobile application. The Onet App is an achievement which demonstrates our strength to be creative and innovate, and confirms our position as one of the leading digital publishers in this part of the world.”
The INMA Global Media Awards have been presented since 1937 by the International News Media Association to honor the best solutions in the field of innovation and brand development. In 2017, the International Media Association received 655 entries submitted by 196 media companies in 36 countries. Participants include newspaper media, magazine media, digital media, television media, and radio media.
A total of 115 finalists from all over the world were competing for awards in 20 categories. Forty award-winners were selected from among two groups: global and local brands.
Aleksander Kutela, CEO of Onet.pl: “The Onet app strengthens our brand promise, which is to be highly innovative and offer our users access to news and entertainment in the most user-friendly way. Onet is already the most popular Polish web service available on mobile devices, and I believe that the success of our app will only reinforce this position.”
Bartłomiej Pucek, head of mobile and digital projects at Grupa Onet-RAS Polska: “The app had to meet user needs and expectations: breaking news, quality content, fast loading and videos. In the course of doing research on user behavior, we realized that one of the key issues was to deliver news to people on the go, whether they are commuting by public transport or in their cars. Since news consumption has to be automatic in such circumstances, we decided that our ‘wow’ moment would be voice commands and audio delivery of news stories.”
The INMA Global Award 2017 is not the first prestigious award presented to the Onet app. In March 2017, it was named the best mobile app in the Mobile Trends Awards competition, held during the largest conference on mobile and new technologies in Poland. In April 2017, Grupa Onet-RAS Polska received an award in the Innovative Media category by the Association of Advertising Agencies.
Former CEO of ITKeyMedia / Deserted:)
