mInfo Inc, the chosen wireless search provider for Beijing Olympics official mobile Website, expects to become profitable next year and is close to finishing a new round of venture capital investment, Shanghai Daily learned yesterday.

Shanghai-based mInfo is one of the leading wireless search firms to benefit from China's booming handset user base of 600 million, the most worldwide and triple the country's Internet users.

"We will announce the third-round investment within two months and it will come from existing investors and new investors," Alvin Wang Graylin, mInfo's chief executive and co-founder, said during an exclusive interview.

Now mInfo has raised investment of about US$10 million from investors such as Staenberg Capital.

The company's revenue will jump four or five times in 2008 and it will become profitable in the first quarter of 2009, Graylin said.

Early this month, mInfo was chosen by the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games as the mobile search provider for the official mobile Internet site of the 2008 Games (wap.beijing2008.cn), in Chinese and English.

In 2008, China's wireless search market revenue is expected to hit 7.85 billion yuan (US$1.15 billion) compared with 890 million yuan in 2006, according to Shanghai-based Internet consulting firm iResearch.

Google and Baidu both aim to penetrate the market by cooperating with giants such as China Mobile and Nokia.

"They have strong brand awareness compared with us but we definitely have advantage in technology and experience in the Chinese wireless search market," Graylin said.

"The Olympics cooperation will improve our brand and coverage in China."

Chinese and foreign users can instantly find a range of information including event schedules, real-time scores, venue information, news, and athletes' profiles by inputting their query into a search box or sending a short message (with a China-based SIM card).

(Shanghai Daily July 24, 2008)