• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

AOL Introduces Beta Test of Chinese Language AOL.Com Portal for United States Market

Posted on: Monday, 13 February 2006, 09:00 CST

America Online, Inc.: Free Web Portal Specifically Geared For Chinese American and Chinese Speaking Community in the U.S. Provides E-Mail, News, Web Search, and Extensive Array of Free Full-Length Video Programming Covering News, Sports and Entertainment

AOL today launched the first beta version of its new Chinese language AOL.com Web portal tailored to serve the needs of the Chinese American and Chinese speaking community in the United States.

Created in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters, this site is available at http://aol.com/chinese and brings together Web search, blogs and e-mail features with news from North America, Europe and Asia. The portal will also offer as many as 20 hours of video content and programming at any given time, including free, full-length movies and episodes of popular TV shows from China, webcasts of sports events from China, and more.

"By creating this free language-specific portal, we can better serve the millions of people in the United States who want access to features like e-mail, search, entertainment, and news in one place, in Chinese," said David Liu, Vice President and General Manager, AOL.com. "This launch represents another phase in the evolution of the U.S. AOL.com Web portal and extends our effort to efficiently leverage our Web products, content, communities and services in a context that brings the most value to different segments of our users who share common languages and cultural bonds."

Chinese Language AOL.com(R) Portal -- Free Features and Functionality

AOL worked with ChinaPortal.com, a division of MediaZone (a subsidiary of Naspers) and a leading global provider of broadband video programming for overseas Chinese, as a strategic partner to provide the majority of content for this site covering news, sports and entertainment, including exclusive programs and event webcasts from China.

"It's truly exciting to be involved in launching this site for the growing Chinese community here in the United States," said Michelle Wu, COO, MediaZone. "We're proud to have been chosen to help craft a rich, compelling offering which dovetails with AOL.com's exceptional features and extends ChinaPortal.com's service to a wider population of this underserved market."

Free features and functionality offered with the beta version of the portal include:

* AOL(R) Web Mail and AIM(R) Mail services, currently in beta, that will work in simplified and traditional Chinese for users to read and write e-mail. Additional translation will be incorporated on the mail interface soon.

* Video programming available for free with hours of new content and entertainment every week in Chinese, including:

-- Full length movies from China that may include such choices as

hit and classic movies, "Shanghai Story" and "Five Golden

Flowers," and others;

-- Full length episodes of TV series from China that may include

the hit drama, "Love Story of Hero & Beauty," the first

Chinese sitcom, "I Love My Family," popular soap operas from

China and Korea, and others;

-- Full length TV programs from China including in-depth news

magazines, talk shows, variety shows, and more;

-- Webcasts of sports events in China covering soccer (FIFA, CSL,

CSL Cup), basketball (CBA), table tennis, swimming, and

others.

* AOL(R) Search, available in simplified and traditional Chinese.

* Popular blogs integrated from the Weblogs media network and available in Chinese, including Engadget about technology topics (http://chinese.engadget.com) and Autoblog, which covers automotive topics (http://chinese.autoblog.com).

* News updated every hour with free text and images covering Chinese language news from North America, Europe, and Asia, including the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Availability: The initial beta version of the Chinese language U.S. portal can be accessed directly at http://aol.com/chinese as well as through the international services area of the free AOL.com web portal (http://aol.com).

About America Online, Inc.

America Online, Inc. and its subsidiaries operate a leading network of Web brands and the largest Internet access subscription service in the United States. Brands include the AOL(R) service, the AOL.com(R) website, and the AIM(R), MapQuest(R), Moviefone(R), Netscape(R), CompuServe(R) and ICQ(R) services. America Online offers a range of digital services including the TotalTalk(TM) voice service. The company also has operations in Canada and Europe. America Online, Inc. is based in Dulles, Virginia, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX).

Source: Business Wire

More News in this Category