Mobile search companies Medio Systems, based in Seattle, and Shanghai-based mInfo, have jointly announced a long-term strategic partnership. Under the agreement, Medio and mInfo will work together on both technical and business levels to develop a flexible mobile search, advertising and content delivery platform for the Chinese market. The companies say the partnership will combine the technical and operational strengths of both companies to deliver unsurpassed value for Chinese operators, advertisers and over 520 million mobile subscribers in the worlds fastest growing market.
The strategic agreement will help both companies to extend their reach into new markets. Medios exclusive focus on mobile has, it says, helped it become the leading white-label provider of mobile search in North America and Europe, delivering content recommendations and search advertising solutions for mobile operators including Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile USA, T-Mobile International and Telus Mobility.
mInfo, which is exclusively focused on the Chinese mobile arena, has deployed mobile search services designed from the ground up to meet the needs of Chinese mobile subscribers. mInfo is the only mobile search company to offer natural-language mobile search in both Chinese and English via SMS, WAP and instant messaging. Its services are accessible through every Chinese operator, including China Mobile, China Unicom, China Netcom and China Telecom.
In China, there are four times as many mobile phone users as Internet users, says mInfo CEO, Alvin Wang Graylin. Very soon, when people on the street talk about search, they will mean mobile search. Search advertising will fuel the mobile Internet just as it has on the Web.
With a combined mobile search platform that fuses both companies technical and operational strengths, our joint offering will offer unmatched value to operators, consumers and advertisers. This partnership between two market leaders is truly a win-win situation.
Graylin adds that mInfos strength in messaging-based search and operational experience in the worlds largest mobile market, together with Medios rich mobile Internet search technology and international deployment experience, make for a complementary relationship that will give both parties an edge in their respective markets.
While natural language queries are seldom used in searches by Western subscribers, this is not the case in China. In the Chinese market, most subscribers have never used a PC or typed keywords into a search box, but they all use SMS and are comfortable phrasing mobile search queries the way they would ask a friend. By returning direct answers to search queries instead of links, and by personalising recommendations and advertising for each user, mobile subscribers using the mInfo/Medio search solution in China will find a simple-to-use experience and highly relevant results when and where they need them, the companies say.
The combined Medio/mInfo solution delivers the information or content the subscribers need within seconds. The combined search platform will also benefit mobile operators, enabling them to generate enhanced revenues from advertisers through highly targeted advertising that leverages consumer behavioural data.
In the context of todays fast-growing mobile data market, Medio and mInfo will deliver a mobile search and advertising platform to enable Chinese mobile operators to establish an important new revenue channel and create a path for  advertisers to reach the largest consumer market in the world with highly relevant messages,” says Medio CEO Brian Lent. With a best-in-class consumer search and advertising offering that delivers a seamless, navigationally and graphically rich mobile experience optimized specifically for the mobile phone and the Chinese marketplace, this partnership will enhance discovery of mobile content for subscribers, while also delivering long-term benefit to operators.”