China’s Ganji.com Gains USD20 Million Investment From Nokia, BlueRun

Chinese lifestyle information and classifieds listings website Ganji.com has announced that it has gained joint investments of USD20 million from Nokia Growth Partners and BlueRun Ventures.

Yang Haoyong, founder and CEO of Ganji.com, told local media that the company will enhance the applications of its lifestyle information on the mobile Internet. No matter where the users are and no matter what kind of terminals they use, the company hopes to provide seamless and convenient experiences to them.

Paul Asel, managing partner of Nokia Growth Partners, told local media that they believe that with the extensive coverage of the 3G network in China and the launch of the next-generation smartphones, location-based information services will become a key mobile Internet application in China.

Jui Tan, partner from BlueRun Ventures, said that Ganji.com has been improving the authenticity and effectiveness of information it provided to meet the demands of users. This is why they are optimistic about this Chinese website.

According to Ganji.com, by May 2010, about 200,000 people published posts on its website each day and the average number of daily visits of the pages of the website reached 20 million. Since the founding of the website in 2005, Ganji.com has been focusing on the Chinese lifestyle information sector. In July 2007, it set up a join venture, Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Company, with Google China. In 2008, Google’s stake in the joint venture was reportedly acquired by BlueRun Ventures for USD6 million.