Sina and Samsung launches social TV

Samsung TV expands its partnership with Sina Weibo in a real-time interactive platform – meshing the experiences of watching television and browsing Weibo on one screen.Dubbed Weibo Interactive Zone Smart TV App, the new collaboration leverages on the existing mobile partnership as well as on last year’s TV platform.It feeds viewers relevant Sina Weibo posts on the bottom of the television screen in a subtitle format. It also offers on-screen QR codes that takes users to designated Weibo accounts for which they can follow.The television scrollbar also supports emoticons, which goes to show the two brands’ efforts in “providing the best user experience”, said a representative from Samsung.“Samsung would like to work out a three-win situation through this collaboration. Customers can enjoy a brand-new TV watching experience, also Samsung and Sina can leverage the marketing channel in order to increase the awareness of the Weibo Interactive Zone."“Samsung and Sina team put a lot of effort to work out the app design which fit to Smart TV. Moreover, we also apply the cross device concept and let user to interact between the Smart TV and mobile device.”The app has garnered more than 10,000 downloads since debut, which Sina Hong Kong's head of marketing Salina Ghafur said was proof that users are thirsty for cross-platform entertainment.“As the most influential platform in China, we’re always looking for ways to better communicate with our users through different platforms and let them share on different platforms,” she said.She added that more interactive elements like commenting and posts sharing will be the aim of the next phase of the partnership.