Chinese portal and instant messenger service provider Tencent Holdings yesterday launched a product to improve its service to online advertisers.

 

The company's advertising method is based on targeting customers by monitoring Chinese web users' web activities.

 

It's part of the country's No.1 instant messenger service operator's efforts to grab a bigger share of China's booming ads market, separate to selling virtual items such as personal icons.

 

Tencent MIND Targeting Tools, based on Tencent's huge data base that covers 90 percent of China's estimated 170 million Web users, will allow marketers to send ads to the most likely potential customers whose interests and viewing habits are tracked, the company said yesterday in Shanghai.

 

"It's to help advertisers send the right message to the right people at the right time and right place," said Michael Jiang, general manager of its advertising platform and products division.

 

The Shenzen, southern Guangdong Province-based company launched the Tencent MIND service in October at industry fair Ad Tech in Beijing.

 

Yesterday's launch was a targeting tool to complete MIND, which stands for measurement, interactive, navigation and differentiation.

 

The ads will appear at the chat site QQ (QQ.com), China's most popular instant messenger which claims to have nearly 300 million active accounts.

 

Advertisers can choose what to display, to whom, and whether the target audience is at home, in the office or in a net cafe.

 

Jiang said a number of advertisers had showed interest in MIND, mostly some overseas brands, and Tencent is also in talks with some ads agencies like Energy Source Communications (China) Ltd for promotion.

 

Similar services centering on sending ads to a selected group based on their online activities are already available and the providers range from the fretting adware and spyware spreaders, email system operators, telecom operators and search engines.

 

China's online ads market is expected to generate sales of more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.35 billion) this year, according to a report from Nielsen Netrating.

 

The online ads will see a further boost next year due to the Olympic Games in Beijing.

 

(Shanghai Daily December 7, 2007)