Luxembourg, Jan. 26 – Skype™, the global Internet communications company, and Chinagate, the world’s largest overseas Chinese community portal, today announced an agreement that will enable Chinagate members to connect with overseas friends and relatives for free using Skype’s Internet calling software. The new offering will be made available through the new co-branded Web site skype.chinagate.com.
The new Web site offers the first Chinese version of Skype outside of China and serves the vast majority of Chinagate members who use simplified Chinese. The Skype service enables users to make unlimited voice and video calls for free. Also included with the service is SkypeOut™, a feature which allows users to call from Skype to landlines and mobile phones, and SkypeIn™ which offers users a local phone number wherever their friends and contacts are based.
“We are delighted to work with Skype in bringing our users the first simplified Chinese version of Skype outside of China” said Wayne Lin, president of Gatechina Inc., the company behind the Chinagate portal. “I am confident that our community members will benefit immensely from this unique opportunity to communicate in their native language to loved ones in China and across the world.”
The Chinagate portal well-known as wenxuecity.com hosts the largest Chinese ex-pat community and currently attracts an estimated 700,000 unique visitors every day. The site provides a broad range of information relevant to the Chinese community including late breaking news, community forums and literature. Most Chinagate members are originally from China and now reside in 95 countries with most members residing in the United States and Canada.
In order to use the service, Chinagate members simply click to download the Chinagate/Skype software at skype.chinagate.com and start making calls immediately to anywhere in the world.
“The global reach and appeal of Skype is growing at an unprecedented rate and we are particularly excited to extend our service offerings to the Chinagate community,” said James Bilefield, VP of business development, Skype. “We are also very proud to offer new language capabilities through our co-branded website and we look forward to further developing our relationship with Chinagate.”
About Skype
Skype is the world’s fastest-growing service for Internet communication, allowing people everywhere to make unlimited voice calls for free. Skype is available in 27 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Skype generates revenue through its premium service offerings such as making and receiving calls to and from landline and mobile phones, as well as voicemail and call forwarding services. Skype also has relationships with a growing network of hardware and software providers. Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY). To learn more visit skype.com.
Skype is not a telephony replacement service and cannot be used for emergency calling.
