Tom.com recently held the 2005 TOM Online Internet Entertainment Awards in Beijing. Contrary to what we might believe as the most entertaining sites, there were no porn related businesses in contention. They are actually celebrating the consolidation of all sorts of entertainment such as music and video onto a digital platform. This is driven by the trends in mobile and Internet technologies, as they become more multimedia capable.

The voters were made up of millions of (Chinese) Internet users voting by Internet or mobile phone for their favorite artist. There were award from best Flash animation to best song, to best Internet video.

It does help that Tom.com is a heavyweight in terms of internet and mobile applications. They are in the top 3 for every segment of the internet enabled entertainment market. With their sway, they brought in over 60 media organizations and more than 20 popular entertainers.

CEO of Tom Online Leilei Wang had this to say:

”2005 was a great year for the China digital entertainment industry. We have seen the rise in popularity of music, Flash and DV content on the Internet and over mobile phones, driving the adoption and mass market appeal of the digital entertainment in China. As the leading integrated entertainment portal and wireless Internet operator in China, TOM Online is proud to be the organizer of this major Internet Entertainment Awards event to honor the people who help shape the future of digital entertainment in China”

The underlying statement is probably, we want to dominate this market, so get on board or get out of the way. Of course they want their business to be a success, and with this sort of behavior, they are well positioned to be the market leader. One has to wonder that how soon it might be before anti-tom.com sentiment starts creeping in, in reaction to their market dominance.

Not suprisingly, there was also a simultaneous webcast of the entire event. You can find the online coverage here(in Chinese): http://ent.tom.com/hero/index.html