Story by
Kaylene Hong
Kaylene Hong was Asia Reporter for The Next Web between 2013 and 2014, based in Singapore. She is bilingual in English and Mandarin. Stay in Kaylene Hong was Asia Reporter for The Next Web between 2013 and 2014, based in Singapore. She is bilingual in English and Mandarin. Stay in touch via Twitter or Google+.
Nuance Communication, the multinational software maker that powers Apple’s Siri voice recognition feature, is reportedly searching for a partner in China as it seeks to broaden the voice recognition market.
According to a recent Techweb report, Nuance is looking for a social media partner to expand the application of its voice recognition features. High-level executives at Nuance are said to have met with a few social networks including Sina Weibo, but have zoomed in on Kaixin.
Kaixin is often referred to as China’s Facebook. The report cites a source as saying that the two firms have already reached a framework cooperation agreement, which would see Kaixin opening up its application programming interface to Nuance and would allow Kaixin users to interact using voice commands.
Nuance is also said to be holding discussions with Kaixin on launching a related strategic product, though details aren’t available.
According to the most recent figures available, Kaixin’s registered users stood at 130 million as of end-2011. It is markedly behind the more than 400 million registered users on Sina Weibo, as well as the nearly 200 million monthly active user accounts on Tencent’s WeChat.
Besides working with Apple, Nuance also cooperates with Intel, Panasonic and HTC. In China, it currently works with BYD and ZTE – providing voice technologies for BYD sedan vehicles and putting voice recognition technology into ZTE’s Android phones.
Headline Image via Thinkstock
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