Beijing Founder Apabi Technology Ltd. (Founder Apabi) and Taiwanese Cité Media Holding Group (Cité Media) announced on July 9 they had joined hands in developing electronic publication.

Through the cooperation, Cité Media said, it seeks to expand its presence in the electronic publication world based on Founder Apabi's cutting-edge digital publishing technology; while in return, Founder Apabi gains access to Cité Media's rich content of publications.

Regarding sensitive issues such as copyright protection, Founder Apabi guarantees that their core technology Digital Rights Management (DRM) will provide tailor-made distribution permissions to end users, and it's trustworthy, the joint announcement stated.

He Feipeng, Cité Media's vice president, said: "At present, Adobe is the only provider of digital publishing services, and the traditional Chinese character edition is not quite user friendly. Therefore, we need a partner with the professional capabilities to design a system for us."

He added that he expected the deal would be highly profitable and would boost Cité Media's recognition amongst Chinese readers.

The two parties agreed that protection of traditional Chinese culture was an urgent matter. Citing Disney's animated pictures, Hao Guangcai, president of Taiwanese Grimm Press, a branch company under Cité Media, said 'Mulan", and "Kung Fu Panda" were examples of this.

"These are our stories, our culture, but the world didn't get to know of them from us, but from Disney. While focusing on the technology, we are giving equal attention to the content, since this is what we exclusively possess."

Established in April 2006, Founder Apabi was previously the digital content department of Beijing Founder Electronics Co., Ltd., set up in 2001. Taking advantage of Founder's traditional publishing and printing technologies, Founder Apabi has developed digital publishing technologies and comprehensive solutions, and has become a global leading provider of digital publishing technologies.

(China.org.cn by Maverick Chen, July 10, 2009)