Sina.com built China's largest digital music service

Chinese web portal Sina.com has announced cooperation with five foreign record labels to establish the largest digital music platform in the country.

Shanghai Securities News quoted Sina.com as saying that the digital music platform will provide services including online music, music downloads, wireless value-added services.

Sina.com CEO Charles Chao

Sina.com signed an agreement with five partners: Sony BMG, Universal, Warner, EMI and Rock Records - currently accounting for about 80% of the global recording market. The cooperation agreement between Sina.com and these companies also includes a plan to share profits from advertising, music download fees and income from wireless value-added services.

The agreement between Sina.com and its partners was signed amid growing numbers of mobile users on the Internet in the world's most populous country. According to Chinese government figures, by the end of 2006, the number of mobile users in the country had surpassed 460 million, and the number of Internet users was more than 130 million.

Research firm iSupply predicts last year that the digital music market will become "lucrative" for both the recording industry and Internet giants in the coming years. The global digital music market by 2010 is expected to reach $ 14.9 billion, 6 times more than in 2006.