Two of China’s largest internet service providers, SINA and Tencent, are Nokia’s latest partners to avail its Ovi Maps services. Customers of these ISPs can now share their location with friends and communities on their favorite social network. Moreover, users of SINA microblog and Tencent’s online community (QQ) can make use of these services on their Nokia mobile devices as well. It gives user the ability to check-in to locations and be able to upload location-based content such as recommendations and comments of restaurants, shops and movie theaters.
“This collaboration with SINA and Tencent marks a significant milestone, as we bring together mobile internet and location based services in China. More than 250 million people are using a Nokia device in China and with this partnership, we can help people share their location with their friends and communities through Ovi Maps on their favorite social network,” said Phil Kemp, Vice President, Services, Nokia.
“With Nokia’s Ovi Maps and Sina’s location based services we will be able to offer SINA netizens new dimensions to their social networking. The mobile internet in China is growing rapidly and location based services will increase user generated content, making services more interactive and fun to use,” said Wang Gaofei, Vice President of SINA.
As a leading online media company for China and global Chinese communities, SINA boasts a pile of services to cater consumer demands for value-added services such as region-focused online portals, MVAS, social networking service (SNS), blog, audio and video streaming, album, online games, email, search, classified listings, fee-based services, e- commerce and enterprise e-solutions. Tencent, on the other hand, is the largest and most used Internet service portal in China. It owns some of China’s leading internet platforms such as QQ Instant Messenger, QQ.com, QQ Games, Qzone, 3g.QQ.com, SoSo, PaiPai and Tenpay.
Global partnerships will continue to be important for Nokia, as it seeks to regain a stronger hold on the mobile market, especially from a platform perspective. The company had a disappointing earnings report earlier this week, witnessing a 21% drop in profits for Q4 2010. Hinting at support for outside platforms like Android, CEO Stephen Elop noted that Nokia may need to consider this as a short-term solution to a long-term process.
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