Protest in Guangzhou: Why would you burn garbage?
Barbie Spa: For the cosmopolitan plastic beauty in you
Obama in China: Long gone, and still headlinin'
Cinematheque: Mulan is finally Chinese again! (and other film news)
Lot o' Hotpot: Three Travellers
In the last quarter of 2006 Google's business in China was quickly spiraling down. But Googlers don't give up so easily, even if they did quit some efforts in the Chinese market already (China Herald summarised it before). This week, Google made its first step back into the market and announced their long rumoured mobile phone search collaboration with China Mobile:
Google will provide its search engine technology to China Mobile to enable “mobile search” on China Mobile’s Monternet WAP portal.China Mobile users will be able to easily search Monternet and its vast content, including sports and entertainment news, ringtones, games, images, videos and novels.
Users will be able to access the service via a search box or search link on Monternet’s homepage, or through a dedicated mobile search homepage on Monternet.
The first-phase service has been partially put into trial operation in December 2006 and will be launched broadly in the early part of 2007.
Monternet actually has been around for some six years. The service is very interesting and Chinese only — so pick up your Chinese textbooks! Or get Pera-kun to translate for you.
Related
Even With China Mobile Deal, Google's Got A Tough Sell In Mobile Search (Information Week)
Google invests in Chinese video site (Bloomberg)
Image from addict3d.org.
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Still more recent is the investment in Xunlei, a "P2P video software company" that is sorta like a commercialized BitTorrent. To me, it's one of those companies that puts the WTF in the Chinese internet.
I too am getting the sense Google is doing this recent rash of China deals to strengthen itself, as opposed to eBay which seems to be doing their deals in a desperate effort to save face.
Where did they get the name "monternet"?