Citation
(2004), "Chinese letters", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 53 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2004.07953aab.002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Chinese letters
Chinese letters
3721, the pioneer and market leader of Chinese Keyword search and navigation services, is promoting "Cmail", a Chinese character e-mail address application and service. Launched just last July, the number of registered users for "Cmail" has already reached ten million.
Mr Hongyi Zhou, president and founder of 3721, said, "'Cmail' represents the next generation of Chinese language-based Internet usage, as it allows users to create personalised e-mail addresses entirely in Chinese. While the Internet is growing at great speed in China, it can also pose problems to non-English speakers, who often have difficulty remembering and telling others cumbersome e-mail and URL addresses. 3721's new 'Cmail' overcomes this problem as all but the '@' symbol are in Chinese characters, thereby creating a more simple, user-friendly and localised Internet service for millions of Chinese people."
Shi Xiaohong, 3721's VP of Technology, explained, "A 'Cmail' address consists of two parts, a person's name and a suffix, (name@suffix) which are both in Chinese. The name and suffix are entirely personalisable and can be made up of any Chinese words such as a nickname, hobby, region or profession, all depending on the user's personal preference. This approach is much more direct and intuitive to Chinese speakers. This Chinese ID can then be linked to a person's real e-mail address which remains in the traditional Roman alphabet format (e.g name@company.com) also, allowing users to maintain a long-lasting Internet identity."
Initially, "Cmail" is free of charge to Internet users. By allowing millions of Chinese users to enjoy the Internet in their native language, 3721 believes the popularity and prevalence of Internet use in China will increase at even greater rates. China currently has 68 million Internet users, second only to the USA, and that number is expected to grow to 300 million by 2007 when Chinese is also expected to be the number one Internet language.
To sign up for a "Cmail", users need only visit the registration Web page at http://cmail.3721.com/