America Online said that it has launched a public test of a Chinese-language version of its U.S. website to court Chinese Americans, offering features that in some ways are more ambitious than its main U.S. site.
AOL Chinese-language Web portal, which brings together Web search, blogs, and e-mail features with news and entertainment from North America, Europe, and Asia.
The site targets an estimated 2.7 million Chinese Americans and offers full-length features and episodes of TV series from China, viewable directly off the site. AOL’s main U.S. site plans to offer vintage TV shows, but does not offer full-length movies.
Available at chinese.aol.com, the portal will also offer as many as 20 hours of video content and programming at any given time, including free, full-length movies and episodes of popular TV shows from China, and Webcasts of sports events from China.
The online unit of Time Warner, the world’s largest media company, is racing to bolster its online advertising business by making more video and services available free as it staves off losses at its paid subscription Internet service.
The portal will initially carry the same ad inventory as AOL’s English portal, but that will likely change as advertising seeks to target the Chinese-American and Chinese-speaking community in the United States directly, according to David Liu, vice president and general manager, AOL.com.
A spokeswoman said AOL plans to focus on its U.S.-based target audience and has not announced intentions to re-enter the China market.
The company, which has more than 25.5 million subscribers in the United States and Europe, announced a joint venture with Chinese PC manufacturer Legend Holdings in June 2001 to court China’s growing market. But it abandoned the venture a year later.
By 2004, Jonathan Miller, chief executive of AOL, told Reuters at the time that the company was in discussions to enter the Chinese market again.
AOL worked with ChinaPortal.com–a division of MediaZone, a provider of broadband video programming for overseas Chinese–to provide the majority of content for the new portal site covering news, sports, and entertainment–including exclusive programs and event Webcasts from China.
Technology and Internet companies Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Cisco Systems have come under fire in recent months for concessions they have made to comply with Chinese government policies in the world’s fastest growing market.
Yahoo gave information to Chinese authorities that led to the imprisonment of an Internet writer, according to defense lawyers. Google in recent weeks launched a China-version of its site that edits politically sensitive search results.
Google has been criticized for creating a version of its site that blocks politically sensitive terms. Microsoft has been taken to task for shutting down a blog critical of China.
For now, AOL is focused on the U.S. market through a U.S.-based MediaZone, owners of ChinaPortal.com, which provides high speed Internet video programming geared toward overseas Chinese viewers.
The site will offer full-length episodes of TV series from China, including the popular drama "Love Story of Hero & Beauty," and the Chinese sitcom "I Love My Family." Full-length movies include "Shanghai Story" and "Five Golden Flowers," among others.
AOL’s Web-based e-mail services will also available in Chinese, the company said.
The site and its services feature pages in traditional and simplified Chinese characters