Apartments.com Launches in Chinese on SINANET.com

Apartment listing site Apartments.com and SINA Inc., an Internet portal for Chinese users worldwide, launched Apartments.com as the preferred apartment service on SINANET.

Now available at realestate.sinanet.com/, Apartments.com said it is the first national online apartment guide to be translated to Chinese and integrated into SINANET.com’s range of information and service offerings. It is the first foreign language Web site for Apartments.com.

Under the agreement, users of SINANET.com will be able to take virtual tours of the 800,000 apartments represented by Apartments.com, reviewing hundreds of pieces of information, expandable floorplans, more than 40 exterior and interior photos and video of many listings. Financial arrangements were not disclosed.

Apartments.com and SINANET.com have also introduced a Chinese version of the Moving Center, Apartments.com’s one- stop relocation resource. The Moving Center enables consumers to arrange truck and furniture rental, calculate their salary in different cities, check their credit report online, and change their address.

“Apartments.com’s listings and services will be a key addition to SINANET.com’s extensive rental and home buying information,” said Daniel Chiang, chairman and CEO of SINA. “SINANET.com now can give our huge population of Chinese Internet users the easiest, fastest and most convenient way to find a home–online, and in their native language.”

Based in Chicago, Apartments.com currently represents approximately 800,000 apartments in major markets across 41 states and Washington, D.C., and is also featured on the Web sites of nearly 20 newspaper sites, with more than 110 more to follow in the coming months. It is owned by newspaper consortium Classified Ventures.

SINA provides news, information, financial services, entertainment, educational and job opportunities, and Web services, including email, search capabilities, e-commerce and chat rooms to Chinese users worldwide. It has a staff of 220 in Beijing, Taipei and Cupertino, CA.

Currently, SINA operates three Internet portals: www.sinanet.com serving North America, www.sina.com.cn for China, and http://www.sina.com.tw for Taiwan.