The launch of mainland China's first voice portal service has given
advertisers something to talk about.
Launched by Tom.com, the service has created a new channel for
advertising, and is expected to help the Chinese portal boost much
needed revenue.
The voice portal, which is already in operation, uses the Internet as a
platform to combine voice differentiation and transformation to allow
users voice activated access to the Internet.
Developed by Beijing Super Channel Network, a subsidiary of Tom.com's
Beijing operation, Tom Voice offers users information over mobile phones
on personal finance, voice mail, flight schedules, hotel reservations in
Beijing, meal order services, transport services, international news,
film reviews and weather forecasts.
Tom.com corporate communications executive Helen Lam told CREATION it
was "too early" to give a revenue projection, but added Tom Voice had
received an enthusiastic response from the advertising sector in
mainland China.
Ms Lam said the service presented two main streams of advertising
revenue for Tom.com.
"Advertisers can merge the ad into the message to the users. For
example, if someone is looking for restaurants, a company can sponsor it
so users will hear their advertising message when they are looking for
restaurants.
"The other way is for users to pay to line up the ad. This means they
can have the name of their business listed, so a hotel can pay to have
its name on the list of hotels offered. We really see potential here,"
she added.
Tom.com is to dedicate further research resources to the development of
wireless Internet-related applications.
Mainland China mobile phone users have reached an estimated 65
million.
According to the company, the voice portal market should be worth
USdollars 12 billion by 2005, with mainland China representing a huge
market potential.
Tom Voice was developed with IBM and Intel Dialogic.
