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Newspaper, was held yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya, which enables about 17 million Kenyan mobile subscribers to receive news from China’s Xinhua News Agency via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Central Committee’s Political Bureau, attended the ceremony together with Kenyan Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
The mobile newspaper service is jointly operated by Xinhua News Agency as contents provider, China’s leading telecommunications company Huawei as technology supporter, and Safaricom, one of the most influential provider of converged communication solutions in Kenya, as mobile service provider.
Li praised this tripartite cooperation, saying this is a new fruit of Chinese media’s efforts to improve the capacity of international broadcasting.
He also noted that China looks forward to further developing the co-operation in this field in a bid to meet the increasing information demand of Kenyan people.
Wang Chaowen, general director of Xinhua News Agency African Bureau, hosted the ceremony yesterday. He hailed that Xinhua Mobile Newspaper is the fruit of friendly co-operation among Xinhua News Agency, Kenya’s Safaricom and China’s Huawei.
Safaricom boasts a subscriber base of about 17 million, mostly in major Kenyan cities of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru.
These subscribers will be able to receive Xinhua Mobile Newspaper via an MMS every morning, which covers latest news released by Xinhua News Agency in politics, economy, culture, entertainment and other areas, pictures and weather reports.
During its trial period since March this year, the mobile newspaper offered comprehensive coverage on major global issues including Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, conflicts in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire, and gained applauds from African mobile subscribers.
“Better termed in the industry as ‘the fifth media’, the mobile newspaper service combines mobile phones and newspapers, traditional and new media,” Peter Arina, Safaricom’s general manager of consumer business, noted at the ceremony.
“I wish to take this opportunity on behalf of Safaricom to thank the Government of Kenya, the government of China, for their support of this remarkable occasion, as well as the effort from Xinhua News Agency, and Huawei Technologies for the first mobile newspaper in Africa,” Arina said. – Xinhua.