Chinese portal Sina.com will form a new venture with online real estate agency E-House (China) Holdings Ltd to build the country's largest online real estate portal, the companies said yesterday.

Sina will spin off its real estate and home decoration channels and contribute related advertising into the new firm, in which it will hold about two-thirds of the stake. A new web address will be launched soon for the combined business.

The new portal will use E-House's China Real Estate Information Circle system, which contains transaction data on land and residences, offices and commercial buildings in 30 major cities in China.

E-House will also develop online products and related fee-based services for the new firm.

"This partnership is an extension of Sina's pursuit to provide the best quality content and services to high-end Internet users in China by co-operating with industry leaders in vertical areas," said Charles Chao, chief executive officer of Sina.

He added that E-House's nationwide network of real estate developers "will be instrumental in building the largest real estate portal in China." There now are about 5,000 real estate developers using E-House's database. Real estate related advertising ranks among the top two revenue sources for Sina, China's most popular portal, after automobiles.

Also yesterday, NetEase.com, China's second largest online game operator which also runs a portal, said it has inked a strategic partnership with Nettop.cn. The online ads agency will operate NetEase's apartment sales, rental and decorating channels.

(Shanghai Daily, February 26, 2008)