Leading Chinese Mobile Search Provider Acquires Leading English Mobile Search Services in China
SHANGHAI, China, June 13 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- mInfo(R) Inc.
( http://www.minfo.com ), a leading Chinese mobile search provider, announces acquisition of Guanxi SMS, the most popular mobile search service for foreigners in China. The combined company takes a dominant lead in the China market by integrating the local market prowess and resources of mInfo with the proven revenue model, brand recognition and loyal user base of the Guanxi service.
"Adding Guanxi to the mInfo family is all about value creation for our users and customers," said Alvin Wang Graylin, CEO, mInfo Inc. "By combining forces, we are solidifying mInfo’s lead in the marketplace and expanding mInfo’s reach into hundreds of thousands of high-valued expatriate users and thousands of partner merchants around the country."
mInfo is the leading mobile search service provider in China, and the only company offering mobile search services via SMS, WAP, IM and embedded client with support for natural language queries in Chinese pinyin and English. Since its founding in 2005, mInfo has extended to over three dozen life oriented mobile search services and has expanded geographical coverage to 59 of the largest cities throughout China. Guanxi has been the preferred mobile search service for foreign expatriates in China since 2002 offering local directory services using English and Chinese in 20 major cities in China via SMS. As a benefit of this transaction, Guanxi will now have a new unified SMS code of 95882929 across all four mobile carriers in China.
"We are truly excited about this deal with mInfo," said Kirk Jobsz, CEO, Mailman Media Group. "We’ve been the leader in English mobile search in China since 2002 and always had aspirations to offer much more. Now with the backing of mInfo we can realize Guanxi’s true potential. It’s definitely a win-win for both companies as well as for our current users and advertisers."
With the Summer Olympic Games approaching in 2008, the English content and search capabilities offered by the Guanxi service will be invaluable to ensuring an enjoyable stay by the masses of foreign visitors expected to arrive in China. “With the Guanxi acquisition and the breadth of mInfo’s mobile service offerings (ie. sports scores, news, venues, entertainment, travel, etc.), we will certainly be well prepared to meet the needs of even the most demanding Olympic visitor next year,” said, Mr. Graylin.
About mInfo Inc.
mInfo Inc. is the leading provider of natural language mobile search services to China’s 450 million wireless subscribers and a leading mobile advertising platform for branded and SME advertisers throughout China. mInfo delivers over 30 categories of search content, and its services are available at no cost nationwide on both China Mobile and Unicom via SMS, WAP, kJava, Pushmail and IM. mInfo’s free mobile search services are based on numerous patent-pending technologies making its services truly intuitive to use and its search results highly relevant. mInfo was founded in early 2005 and headquartered in Shanghai, with offices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. For more information on mInfo, please visit http://www.minfo.com .
About Guanxi Mobile Search
The Guanxi SMS service was launched in early 2002 and has been an indispensable part of expatriate survival in China ever since. The Guanxi service was a business unit of Mailman Ltd., a recognized pioneer in the alternative media industry. Kirk Jobsz & Mailman Ltd. have created and operate a plethora of well known companies and brands in China, Sri Lanka and Australia including: Guanxi SMS, postKard, plaKard, Kommune, REDdot, BlueCasting.com and others. For more information on Mailman Ltd., please visit http://www.MailmanChina.com .
