DigitalGlobe , a leading global provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, today announced that Tencent, one of the world’s largest online communities and Internet services portals, has signed a multi-year agreement for the use of DigitalGlobe high-resolution imagery. Under the terms of the agreement, DigitalGlobe will provide Tencent with images of 350 major Chinese cities via DigitalGlobe’s exclusive distributor in China, China Siwei.Tencent offers its more than 700 million online customers a range of services, including online gaming, social networking and instant messaging. DigitalGlobe’s imagery will first be integrated into Tencent’s online mapping service, enabling Tencent to provide a superior end-user experience, increase its subscription base, and expand the location-based features it can offer its customers.
“Tencent is excited to incorporate DigitalGlobe’s industry-leading content into one of our most promising applications, the mapping service,” said Wang Jianyu, head of Tencent’s mapping service. “The launch of this service represents an important step in achieving our strategic goal of providing users with ‘one-stop online lifestyle services.’ High-resolution satellite imagery is now a basic requirement for any online mapping portal, because it enables a very intuitive user experience.”
Moving forward, Tencent will have the ability to integrate the imagery across the full range of their social media and entertainment services, including their QQ instant messaging service, which is today one of the most widely used social media applications in China.
“DigitalGlobe is honored to be Tencent’s key provider of high-resolution satellite imagery,” said Takayuki Odawara, vice president of Asia Pacific commercial operations at DigitalGlobe. “With the addition of Tencent, one of the world’s most influential and rapidly growing technology companies, DigitalGlobe now has relationships with the three largest internet companies in China. This will give us exposure to over half of the Chinese population.”
About DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe is a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services. Sourced from our own advanced satellite constellation, our imagery solutions support a wide variety of uses within defense and intelligence, civil agencies, mapping and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management, Internet portals and navigation technology. With our collection sources and comprehensive ImageLibrary (containing more than two billion square kilometers of earth imagery and imagery products) we offer a range of on- and off-line products and services designed to enable customers to easily access and integrate our imagery into their business operations and applications. For more information, visit www.digitalglobe.com .
About Tencent Founded in November, 1998, Tencent has grown into one of China’s largest and most used Internet services portals. Since its establishment over the last decade, Tencent has maintained steady growth under its user-oriented operating strategies. On June 16, 2004, Tencent Holdings Limited (SEHK 700) went public on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It is Tencent’s mission to enhance the quality of human life through Internet services. Presently, Tencent is providing value-added Internet, mobile and telecom services and online advertising under the strategic goal of providing users with “one-stop online lifestyle services.” Tencent’s leading Internet platforms in China — QQ (QQ Instant Messenger), QQ.com, QQ Games, Qzone, 3g.QQ.com, SoSo, PaiPai and Tenpay — have brought together China’s largest Internet community, to meet the various needs of Internet users including communication, information, entertainment, e-commerce and others. As of Sep 30, 2011, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM amounted to 711.7 million while its peak concurrent users reached 145.4 million. The development of Tencent has profoundly influenced the ways hundreds of millions of Internet users communicate with one another as well as their lifestyles. It also brings possibilities of a wider range of applications to China’s Internet industry.
