WPP ups commitment to Chinese market with stake in HDT Technologies

Strengthening both its position in China and in the digital arena, WPP Group‘s digital investment arm WPP Digital has acquired a minority stake in rich media advertising and technology firm HDT Holdings Technologies Inc.

HDT was founded in 1999 and has offices in Shanghai, Beijing and GuangZhou, employing more than 270 people. The company's product portfolio includes iCast, a rich media ad-serving product with distribution agreements with portal and vertical sites in China; iStreaming, a video ad-serving product which has distribution agreements with video sites in China; iFocus, a contextual targeting advertising product; and T2C, an advertising network with over 200,000 sites.

Greater China is one of the fastest growth markets for WPP, generating revenues of over $600 million, almost one-quarter of the company's Asian revenues. The group currently employs 9,000 people across Greater China.

Other investors in HDT Technologies include CA-JAIC China Internet Fund, Cheng Wei Ventures, Manitou Ventures and Sequoia.