Million-2-1 Breaks Into The Largest Telecoms Market In The World

The UK's leading SMS soft gaming business today announced a formal partnership agreement with IW Technologies for the development, distribution and operation of new mobile entertainment in China and across other territories in Asia.

The partnership between IWT, a major player in China's rapidly developing mobile and lotteries market and Million-2-1 is expected to see the development of 4Kjava games which will be used to create mobile communities and delivery of other products in line with Chinese regulations.

IWT and Million-2-1 have already collaborated on the successful launch of Hao Lao (based on the Million-2-1's UK market-leading How Lo? reverse auction concept) in China. This is currently running on provincial radio stations and is available to subscribers of all mobile and fixed line networks with live telephone support being delivered by one of the company joint ventures, China Telecom.

IWT's international relations director, Daniel Levine said that Million-2-1 met the criteria for partnership. "We wanted a company in the UK who had the necessary legal accreditations and corporate philosophy with whom we could build a long-term relationship." (Million-2-1 is fully certified by the Gambling Commission)

"Million-2-1 will bring superb, proven content and experience together with marketing and promotional expertise. They have a commitment to China and a genuine enthusiasm for its culture and a thorough grasp of how to drive play across a range of gaming formats and media channels to deliver sustained revenue. That is what we are keen to replicate in Asian markets. China is not a quick win scenario - many companies have arrived and failed to sustain impact."

Million-2-1 CEO Chris Sheffield said he was particularly delighted with the partnership as China is such a tough market to penetrate. "IWT already have access to the marketplace and are hugely respected. They will take our product concepts, localise the content and promote it to relevant markets."

China is the largest telecommunications market in the world. Fixed line users exceed 366 million with mobile users around 431 million. Internet users top 111 million. Both fixed and mobile penetration is, however, lower than developed countries at about 30% of the population and Internet user penetration is less than 10%.