-- China's Wei Wei aims for one billion song downloads via mobile by 2008
-- New album premiers exclusively on http://weiwei.mobi mobile web site
DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- dotMobi, the company behind the first and only Internet address designed specifically for mobile phones, today announced that China's biggest music star, Wei Wei, has launched http://weiwei.mobi as the sole channel for the global debut of her new album.
This makes her the first musician in the world to premier an anticipated best-selling album via download using a .mobi domain.
The Wei Wei 20X20 Celebration Collection will debut exclusively on the .mobi site, which will take priority over PC-based download music stores and traditional CD sales. In doing so, Wei Wei has taken the lead by exposing her music to the widest audience possible.
"Accessing the internet from mobile phones is the future of the internet and allows me to reach my older fans as well as the younger generation who use mobile phones much more than PCs for accessing the Internet," said Wei Wei.
She added, "I'm also happy that direct-to-consumer downloading helps prevent bootlegged albums -- a major problem in my home country. It's also an environmentally friendly way of distributing my music."
Wei Wei is a national icon in China, familiar to more than a billion people. In her 20-year career, she has sold more than 200 million discs and has recorded hundreds of songs, both in English and Mandarin.
Currently based in Sweden, Wei Wei plans to capitalise on the growing global influence of Chinese popular culture by launching her career in Europe and the US. She is one of China's most important "international faces" for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, where she is anticipated to sing at the opening Olympic ceremonies; these ceremonies are expected to be one of the world's biggest-ever media events.
"Wei Wei is a great example of an independent artist who creates her own channel and content in an easy way, and who wants to reach out directly to as many end users as possible," said Neil Edwards, dotMobi's CEO. "We are delighted Wei Wei is using .mobi to reach her fans and sell her music directly from a mobile device. The .mobi standard enables web developers to create content which is just as exciting and usable as on a mobile as it is on a PC, and we're sure this is first of many such sites."
By accessing weiwei.mobi from their mobile phones, fans will also be able to download ringtones, films, wallpapers and pictures as well as join her community. As a result of her planned performances at the 2008 Olympics, she is expected to sell more than one billion songs, all of which will be available exclusively via mobiles on the http://weiwei.mobi site.
The weiwei.mobi site was created by Swedish mobile portal developers, Adimo (http://adimo.mobi), a company that has highlighted what can be achieved with mobile sites by creating interesting, innovative content and business models using the .mobi domain and its standards.
"The flexibility of the .mobi-compliant Adimo development platform allows us to quickly and easily create and develop compelling content for the mobile Internet. We hope that this site will inspire like-minded developers," said Anna Caracolias, CEO, Adimo.
Wei Wei will make a personal appearance at leading telecommunications conference, 3GSM World Congress, in Barcelona on 14 February (1 p.m.-2 p.m. local time) at the dotMobi booth (Hall 7, Stand 7B62) where she will sign autographs and draw the winner of dotMobi's Mini Cooper giveaway competition.
About dotMobi
dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.), a joint venture company based in Dublin, Ireland with offices in Washington, DC and Beijing, China, is leading the development of Internet usage from mobile phones via the .mobi domain. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices. On-the-go consumers can have confidence that an Internet site or service will work from their mobile device when using the .mobi address.
dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network and device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM and Vodafone. dotMobi is also a sponsor of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative.
For more information on dotMobi domains and registration information, visit http://mtld.mobi . Visit the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi .
