You may have heard that ShoZu is going from “free” to “fee.” At the Mobile 2.0 Europe 2009 show here, ShoZu, the award-winning social media hub, announced more details about its corporate strategy, including leveraging the rapidly growing selection of mobile application stores to distribute and charge for the ShoZu application. The updated version of the ShoZu app is currently available through Apple’s iTunes application store.

Distribution through additional stores such as Nokia’s Ovi, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry App World and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Marketplace will be announced.

Although mobile application stores have been available for years, the sector is in the midst of a rapid expansion, with new or forthcoming app stores from China Mobile, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and many other wireless carriers, handset manufacturers and operating system (OS) vendors.

The new stores – along with existing ones such as Apple’s App Store, which to date has more than 1 billion downloads – all share a common goal: to provide a central location that makes it convenient for companies such as ShoZu to display and distribute innovative apps and for consumers to find and pay for them.

ShoZu’s new strategy also reflects the company’s decision not to sell ad space in order to support the rapidly expanding demand for its service. Instead, ShoZu’s financial model will include a modest, one-time download charge for new users of the application.

The ShoZu application currently is available from Apple’s App Store for $4.99. The app also is available directly from ShoZu at no charge for smartphones running the Symbian Series 60, Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6, as well as on select BlackBerry models. As ShoZu begins or resumes distributing the app through BlackBerry App World, Ovi and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the download charge will apply to those applications.

The ShoZu mobile application is part of the ShoZu media hub service. The ShoZu media hub service will remain free for both existing and new users through the recent introduction of new ways to access the ShoZu service, including through picture messaging/(MMS), mobile e-mail, desktop e-mail and ShoZu Desktop, based on the Adobe Air platform, that works on both Macs and Windows PCs.