G'day Beijing

I had missed interesting activity in China by those tele-boys from down-under, Telstra. According to "Now we are talking", the company has "acquired 55 per cent of two Chinese internet businesses with leading positions in the fast-growing online auto and digital device advertising sectors".

The businesses concerned are Norstar Media and Autohome/PCPop. No price was disclosed. Norstar, the post continues, "operates the popular auto site Che168.com and leading digital device site IT168.com" while "Autohome/PCPop operates the leading auto site Autohome.com.cn and popular digital device site PCPop.com".

The piece goes on to mention that Telstra had already bought 51% of the real estate site SouFun back in 2006.

Meanwhile, it may be "Hyvä aamu Beijing" for those fun Finns from Nokia. Staying on the telco/media theme, we see that they're linking-up with Baidu for a new mobile search service. According to the report "Baidu will provide a China mobile search platform for Nokia's new 'Widsets' service, and the product will be pre-loaded in Nokia handsets".

The boundaries between the telcos and media really are blurring rapidly. Long discussed, finally happening.

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