Chinese portal and instant messenger service provider Tencent
Holdings yesterday launched a product to improve its service to
online advertisers.
The company's advertising method is based on targeting customers
by monitoring Chinese web users' web activities.
It's part of the country's No.1 instant messenger service
operator's efforts to grab a bigger share of China's booming ads
market, separate to selling virtual items such as personal
icons.
Tencent MIND Targeting Tools, based on Tencent's huge data base
that covers 90 percent of China's estimated 170 million Web users,
will allow marketers to send ads to the most likely potential
customers whose interests and viewing habits are tracked, the
company said yesterday in Shanghai.
"It's to help advertisers send the right message to the right
people at the right time and right place," said Michael Jiang,
general manager of its advertising platform and products
division.
The Shenzen, southern Guangdong Province-based company launched
the Tencent MIND service in October at industry fair Ad Tech in
Beijing.
Yesterday's launch was a targeting tool to complete MIND, which
stands for measurement, interactive, navigation and
differentiation.
The ads will appear at the chat site QQ (QQ.com), China's most
popular instant messenger which claims to have nearly 300 million
active accounts.
Advertisers can choose what to display, to whom, and whether the
target audience is at home, in the office or in a net cafe.
Jiang said a number of advertisers had showed interest in MIND,
mostly some overseas brands, and Tencent is also in talks with some
ads agencies like Energy Source Communications (China) Ltd for
promotion.
Similar services centering on sending ads to a selected group
based on their online activities are already available and the
providers range from the fretting adware and spyware spreaders,
email system operators, telecom operators and search engines.
China's online ads market is expected to generate sales of more
than 10 billion yuan (US$1.35 billion) this year, according to a
report from Nielsen Netrating.
The online ads will see a further boost next year due to the
Olympic Games in Beijing.
(Shanghai Daily December 7, 2007)
