The OgilvyOne-created web portal, which caters to a Chinese market and offers variants in Hong Kong and Taiwan, also saw traffic peak at 250 million users, according to Ian Chapman-Banks, Motorola Asia-Pacific's vice-president and general manager. "Motorola agreed to be Linkin Park's exclusive distribution partner free of charge," said Chapman-Banks.
Through the exclusive deal with Linkin Park that Chapman-Banks purportedly landed when he bumped into the band at a conference, he now says he receives daily calls from artistes such as Jay-Z and the Black Eyed Peas. "Motomusic is kickstarting the music industry. I think people are realising that this is a way to make money in China," said Chapman-Banks.
Motomusic launched in 2004 and has since attracted increasing star power from both local and foreign properties as the industry looks towards China's massive, untapped audience. The site has outlived Club Nokia, a similar venture which fizzled within a year in 2004.
An analyst pointed to Motorola's healthy working relationships with local carriers as key to the site's success. According to Chapman-Banks, Motomusic works with China Mobile and awards them 15 per cent of the site's downloading profits. "Labels, publishers and artistes get all the rest," he said.
Meanwhile, Chapman-Banks also indicated that the web portal would be launched outside of Greater China in the future.
