Medio Systems has announced a partnership with Shanghai based mInfo to deliver a mobile search, advertising and content delivery platform for the Chinese market. mInfo offers natural-language mobile search in both Chinese and English via SMS, WAP and instant messaging.

The partnership will involve both companies working together on both technical and business levels in order to deliver increased value for Chinese operators, advertisers and mobile subscribers.

“In China, there are four times as many mobile phone users as Internet users. Very soon, when people on the street talk about search, they will mean mobile search,” said Alvin Wang Graylin, CEO of mInfo. “Search advertising will fuel the mobile internet just as it has on the Web. mInfo’s strength in messaging-based search and operational experience in the world’s largest mobile market, together with Medio’s rich mobile internet search technology and International deployment experience, makes for a truly complementary relationship that will give both parties an edge in our respective markets.”

One of the main differences with search in China is that as most people have never used a PC they are not use to searching using keywords. Having said that, they are use to texting a search query, in the same way as they would text a friend. For instance, if you are looking for directions to “O’malley’s Irish Pub” in Shanghai, you just need to text the question to the short code. You then receive a message with the address, directions to give to the taxi, the phone number, and an option to find out what is going on at the bar. The mInfo/Medio search solution gives consumers direct answers to search queries instead of links.

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 today’s 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,” said Medio CEO Brian Lent.

Full press release HERE

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