"We are delighted to welcome Tencent to the FIFA sponsor family. Tencent will play an important role in the promotion and support of the FIFA Women's World Cup and the official website, www.FIFA.com, throughout China. With its leading instant messaging technologies, Tencent will also provide essential internet communication services to the Local Organising Committee. We look forward to a strong and beneficial partnership with Tencent," said FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi. Tencent will leverage the portal leadership of QQ.com and 221 million active user accounts of QQ Instant Messaging to promote the event and the official event website, www.FIFA.com, across China.
"Sports, and football in particular, are extremely popular with our QQ user base. This is a fantastic opportunity for China to host these spectacular players from around the globe, and we are very honoured to support FIFA and all the stakeholders in the Women's World Cup 2007 with our internet service platforms. The spirit of international competition embodied by FIFA and the participating teams is a great inspiration to all of us at Tencent," explained the senior executive vice-president of Tencent, David Wallerstein.
In addition, Tencent will provide mobile communication solutions through its instant messaging platforms to facilitate internal communication within the Local Organising Committee and its volunteer network across China. "We are very pleased to know that Tencent has become the first National Supporter. Tencent's vast popularity and its renowned online instant messaging service in China will definitely help to promote the event further to a much more extensive audience group beyond sports fans. Tencent is the ideal partner to provide supportive internet communication services for the organisation of the event. We sincerely hope that more domestic corporations will join Tencent as the event's National Supporter," said vice-president of the Chinese Football Association and executive chairman of the Organising Committee Xie Yalong.
The FIFA Women's World Cup 2007 will bring together the top sixteen teams from the six confederations at five different venues (Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Tianjin and Wuhan), where they will compete for the ultimate prize in women's football. Organised every four years, the FIFA Women's World Cup has come on in leaps and bounds over the last decade in terms of both live and television audiences. In 1999, the FIFA Women's World Cup was broadcast to 67 countries. In 2003, the same event was broadcast to 144 countries worldwide, covering nearly 3,000 hours of tournament play, and with a total cumulative TV audience of 526 million worldwide.
Visit www.FIFA.com for more information on the FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007, including the match schedule, results and fixtures in the preliminary competition and the final draw, which will take place in Wuhan on 22 April 2007.
FIFA Media Department
Posted December 21st, 2006 by COBA
