Online activity heats up as Olympics near

Hong Kong - With just 50 days left until the Olympic Games, online activity continues to gain strength as a media channel, with MSN launching a UPS-branded multimedia site.

The site is the latest in a line of online activity from the logistics company, which also includes an MSN supported instant messenger service, which gives real-time Olympic updates to MSN's two million active subscribers in Hong Kong.

The latest Olympic-dedicated channel will also get access to MSN's database from Hong Kong and its partners in China and will boast a swath of information like on Olympic history, information on the Chinese cities co-hosting the games and stories behind Olympic mascots.

Leslie Chu, country manager of Microsoft's Online Services Group for Hong Kong and Macao, said there would be more collaboration between UPS and Microsoft leading up to the games, adding that the two brands were a great fit.

Chu added that the Beijing Olympics will be the first Olympics where individual sporting events will be broadcasted over the internet and mobile platforms.

A host of media and online brands are taking advantage of this local media groups the South China Morning Post, TVB.com, CCTV and MySpace all launching dedicated Olympic sites.

"Unlike conventional TV and print media, the internet allows real-time interaction, giving the public all the convenience of instant access to the latest Olympic news," Chu said.

"The interactive multimedia channel we launched today represents an extension of the aspiration of Beijing Olympics - ‘One World, One Dream', and is one of the three key concepts in Beijing's bid to host the event, namely to stage a technologically excellent Olympics."