from Multichannel News International 6/26/01

SHENZHEN, China (Business Wire) -- OpenTV, the interactive TV solutions provider and Tencent, the company behind 'QQ' China's most popular IM service, are joining forces. The companies will develop interactive TV andinstant messaging services to be delivered to TV network operators and their subscribers in China. The solution would provide TV network operators to offer their subscribers the optiopn to send and receive messages between televisions and other devices such as mobile phones, PCs and wireless pagers. 'As a communication tool, instant messaging has grown at a considerable pace in China. ' James Ackerman, CEO of OpenTV, said in a prepared statement. 'We believe we can offer network operators an important new value-add application with the ability to attract and retain new subscribers and generate new revenues,' he adds. Tencent is China's leading instant messaging services provider, with its QQ platform serving over 18 million active users.