Chinese Internet TV Company PPTV Signs with Windows Azure
Microsoft and PPTV, a Chinese online TV service provider, attended a signing ceremony in Shanghai, China, today to launch a partnership between the two companies. The two signed a strategic partnership memorandum that makes Azure the core infrastructure platform for PPTV.
PPTV streams television programming, including sports, entertainment, and news, within China. It delivers content online to computers, mobile devices, smart TVs, and set-top boxes.
According to PPTV's CEO Chuang Tao, his company went with Windows Azure thanks to the platform's reliability, scalability, and global availability. PPTV has plans on expanding internationally, and partnering with Windows Azure is an important part of that. He cites the ability to avoid "unpredictable resource and demand fluctuations globally" as one reason PPTV signed with Microsoft.
Microsoft is making inroads in China by working with local partners, says Ya-Qin Zhang, Microsoft's corporate vice president and the chairman of Microsoft's Asia-Pacific R&D group. This partnership is the first time Microsoft has entered into a cloud-based collaboration with a Chinese new media company.
"We are very pleased to see that Windows Azure enables PPTV to deliver a global online TV service platform. It's a great example of how Microsoft supports China internet companies' innovation, efficiency, and sustainable growth in the global market," says Zhang.