AFP BB News, the interactive website in Japan developed with Agence France-Presse and Internet giant Softbank, on April 4 announced an expanded alliance that will reach some 10 million bloggers.
AFP BB (http://www.afpbb.com) said it would link to 11 other Japanese blogging services to provide free access to its photos and stories, which are drawn from the global network of Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"We hope this will fuel greater interest in global affairs by stimulating wider discussion of what's happening around us," AFP managing director Jean-Pierre Vignolle told a news conference in Tokyo.
An estimated 10 million bloggers will "now be able to access AFP content without fear of infringing on our copyright," Vignolle said. "What they will get is a reliable and trusted source of archival and current information - much of it close to real-time - to enrich and substantiate their blogs," he said.
AFP has a pool of 2,000 reporters, photographers, editors and graphic artists working in 170 countries and territories. AFP BB uses a "one-click" technology that allows bloggers to integrate AFP photographs into their postings.
"It's not always easy to put photos on a blog and it takes time, so many blogs are nothing but text," said Hidetsugu Tonomura of Yahoo Japan! Blog, part of the alliance.
"We think the new possibilities offered by AFP BB News will give birth to blogs of better quality with superb, professional photos," he said. Yoshiya Taniwaki of fellow blog service Jugem said the alliance was "a way for AFP to give more visibility to its pictures and for us to draw in more blog creators to start a new community."
"In that, it's a real Web 2.0 service," he said. AFP BB is a venture between AFP and Movida Entertainment, a unit of Softbank whose Yahoo broadband service covers five million households in Japan.
A third partner is technology firm Creative Link, whose shareholders include trading house Itochu and Japan's top toymaker Bandai.
Comments
Comments are closed.