Washington, D.C., January 25, 2010 – The Voice of America (VOA) launched a web-based service for its Swahili audience that allows users to access video, audio and graphic news content on their mobile devices.
Users around the world can now receive VOA's Swahili content supported by their mobile devices by simply going to www.Swahili.voa.mobi.
"VOA understands its listeners lead busy lives," said Gwen Dillard, director of VOA's Africa Division. "We know that when news breaks our listeners want to know about it wherever they are. Swahili mobile gives them news on demand and goes where they go," she said.
VOA teamed up with Mobiletech, a European company, to improve the ability of mobile device users to access VOA Swahili's content. There are an estimated 50 million Swahili speakers in the world, primarily in East Africa.
Plans are under way to provide mobile device users VOA content in French, Hausa and Somali, allowing them to find accurate news and information with the click of a button.
As one of the world's largest international broadcasters, VOA has been on the forefront of making its content easily available to mobile users with audio newscasts, short messaging alerts and applications that allow users to send content to VOA.
The Swahili Service broadcasts 9.5 hours of radio programming weekly, reaching audiences in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Service is also available 24 hours a day on the Internet at www.VOANews.com/Swahili.
The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more than 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 125 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages and are intended exclusively for audiences outside of the United States.
For more information, please call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.
