By Daisy Ku
LONDON (Reuters) -
Sina, China's top Internet portal,
is spending "a few million dollars" on infrastructure and
online video content for this summer's Olympic Games, said one
of its top executives on Thursday.
The Beijing Games sees the first online video rights
viewable only in China granted by the International Olympic
Committee (IOC). In many markets, such as the U.S., the IOC
bundles together web broadcast and TV rights.
"We expect 10 to 20 million internet users in total to
watch the Olympic Games in China via video streaming
simultaneously. And we are investing tens of millions yuan to
upscale our bandwidth to cope with the demand," said Chen Tong,
executive vice-president and editor-in-chief at Sina.
China, home to the world's biggest internet market in terms
of users, will have an online population of 300 million by the
end of this year, according to the State Council Information
Office (SCIO), the country's internet regulator, up from 230
million at the end of February.
Internet firms are scrambling to provide video streaming
and see the Games as an opportunity to grab a slice of the
country's soaring online advertising spend, worth $1.3 billion
last year.
Chen expects online advertising to make up 3 percent of the
country's total ad spend this year, 1 percentage point above
the current level.
Sina will be able to handle up to four million internet
users simultaneously accessing its video services by the time
of the Games in August, against one million now.
The company is paying "a few million U.S. dollars" to
state-owned CCTV for the rights and is adding 200 to 300
editorial staff to prepare for the event.
Analysts expect Sina to benefit from Olympic activity and
generate around 30 percent revenue growth over the next few
years.
(Editing by David Hulmes)
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