PacificNet Inc. , a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM), e-commerce, gaming, and Value-Added Services (VAS) in China, announced today that its subsidiary, Guangzhou 3G has formed an alliance with China Central Television (CCTV, http://www.cctv.com/), China''s largest national TV network. Through this partnership Guangzhou 3G will offer various value-added and information services for The China Cultural Chart, including Multimedia Message Service (MMS), Color Ring Back Tone (CRBT), IVR, picture and ring tone downloads, and others.

The China Cultural Chart is the leading Chinese cultural pageant similar to the academy awards in the US. Top Chinese actors, singers, and other performing artists perform and are recognized for their work. Performers come from Mainland China as well as Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and other areas around the globe. The China Cultural Chart consists of seven main categories, or charts, and 44 sub-charts including movies, TV plays, music, TV variety, folk art, drama, and online originality. After each performance the public is allowed to vote for their favorite artist by mobile Short Messaging Service (SMS) or through the CCTV International website.

The VAS services provided by Guangzhou 3G will offer the fans of the performers a new and enhanced real time experience while suggesting mobile participation in the process itself rather than simply watching it on live TV. From voting for their favorite act to downloading ring tones from the performing artists, this mobile phone-based wireless entertainment will change the way that enthusiasts are entertained and will provide a vast assortment of new products and services associated with the artists that they enjoy.

"Different from the traditional media based programming, the China Cultural Chart will feature interactive entertainment and encourage public participation, combining the unique advantages of web media and mobile VAS and tapping into the hundreds of millions of online and mobile users of Mainland China. In cooperation with PacificNet and Guangzhou 3G, we intend to continually communicate representations of Chinese mainstream culture to people from all walks of life through VAS offerings," said one CCTV official. "Our concerted efforts, I believe, will exert a broad and profound impact on society as a whole."

"As China''s leading mobile information service provider, Guangzhou 3G has continued to focus on the promotion of VAS in all aspects including wireless entertainment. We are very excited to partner with CCTV to provide mobile VAS services. This takes us forward one great step toward marching into the culture and entertainment industry," stated Super Yongchao Wang, General Manager of Guangzhou 3G. "To date, we have created a wide variety of handset- based VAS offerings which we hope will further enhance our long-term growth potential."

Tony Tong, Chairman and CEO of PacificNet, stated: "This is an excellent opportunity for PacificNet to leverage our expertise in customer relationship management and the vast cross-selling opportunities between the customers of the two media platforms: TV network and mobile wireless network. We continue to believe in the huge market opportunities in customer acquisition via cross- selling of wireless content and TV content. China has the world''s largest TV audience and the largest mobile population, with over 1.1 billion TV viewers, over 400 million mobile phone users and over 110 million computer internet users. Our partnership with CCTV and the leading telecom operators such as China Mobile , China Unicom , and China Telecom in China should give us a clear advantage to bridge the two media platforms and capture their growing customer base."


(source:Xinhua-PRNewswire)

Tags:3G | MMS | IVR | Bridge