China Literature, one of the leading online literature platforms in the country, announced on Saturday a strategic partnership with Singapore Telecommunications Limited to collaborate in online literature services and content platform businesses in Southeast Asia.
This deal comes shortly after the Chinese company teamed up with China-based phone seller Transsion, which held the largest market share in Africa, to promote online literature in the continent.
Unlike in China Literature’s deal with Transsion, where new phones will come installed with China Literature’s app, the company and the Singaporean carrier will cooperate in areas including content co-production, licensing and distribution, marketing and promotional activities, as well as digital payment services.
The Chinese company said this deal comes as online literature—with content spanning themes such as martial arts, fantasy, and video games—has been growing in popularity in Southeast Asia. It added that popular titles such as historical fiction novels Nirvana in Fire and Ever Night, both of which have been adapted for the small screen, have been in great demand in Southeast Asia’s book stores, and TV series such as Legend of Fuyao have been well-received.
China Literature said that the deal will pave the way for users to access and subscribe to content from China Literature and its global content creation platform, Webnovel, on Singtel’s digital applications, such as its Dash mobile wallet.
Meanwhile, Singtel’s digital payment services like Dash and direct carrier billing will be integrated with China Literature’s digital applications to facilitate transactions for paid content.
China Literature said it has nearly 10,000 writers in Southeast Asia, while the number of translators in the region accounts for over 70% of the Company’s total overseas translators.
China Literature, which has Tencent as its strategic shareholder, distributes its content via the Mobile QQ app, QQ browser, WeChat Reading, Tencent News and Tencent Video. The company also has its own self-operated channels, according to its 2018 financial report.
