A popular online music website in China: 1ting.com

August 5th, 2008

I had mentioned in an earlier blog post that listening to music online is a very popular activity for Chinese Internet users. 1ting.com is one such online music website that Chinese users love. In general I’m quite impressed by 1ting.com’s functionality and ease of use. A search box at the top of the homepage lets users search for music by name, album title, singer or lyrics. A tabbed navigation bar exposes most of the website’s functionality:

• Music (the homepage). Sub-tabs allow users to select different categories of music: Hong Kong and Taiwan Male Singers, Hong Kong and Taiwan Female Singers, Hong Kong and Taiwan Groups, Mainland Male Singers, Mainland Female Singers, Mainland Groups, Popular Western Music, Japanese, Korean, MTVs, Movie soundtracks, Korean Drama soundtracks and Other.
• Top Music Charts. Sub-tabs allow users to select different categories of music (same as above)
• Spaces. A social/user-oriented section where users can share favorite music, albums, singers with other registered users.
• Original Creations. A section where registered users can upload and share recordings of their own singing.
• Dance Music. A section dedicated to dance music.
• Pictures. Contains many pictures of pretty Asian pop music stars.
• Gossip. The latest gossip/news about Asian pop music stars.
• Radio. 1ting.com’s own online radio station.

The website appears to have a very extensive, up to date, well-organized and complete database of music. It’s super easy to find music using their search box, or to just browse around for all kinds of music – there are all sorts of categories and sub-categories on the website (i.e. music organized by genre, singer, album, etc). A little “mobile phone” icon next to the most popular songs lets users send the song to their mobile phones for a small fee.

Best of all, you can listen to any complete song or even whole albums for free online. No downloads are required as the website uses Windows Media Player. The audio stream appears to be CD-quality. Try for yourself – click here to listen to Tupac’s “Greatest Hits” album. Or what about some Craig David? : )

I haven’t researched their revenue model, however it’s apparent that they are at least earning some revenue from ads on their website and fees for sending songs to mobile phones.

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Entry Filed under: Internet