KUALA LUMPUR: Media Prima Digital (MPD) has been selected as among 18 organisations to represent Malaysia in the Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge.
MPD's e-sports and gaming portal, MyGameOn with GNI support, was chosen to build a content recommendation engine to increase consumption of content from its community of gamers through personalisation.
GNI is a global effort by Google to work with the news industry to help journalism thrive in the digital age.
The GNI innovation challenge is aimed to empower news innovators from around the world to demonstrate new thinking in online journalism and the development of new publishing business models.
MPD's Chief Executive Officer Rafiq Razali said MPD was honoured to be selected for an initiative that believes in the empowerment of news innovators, particularly during these challenging times.
"We believe this initiative is aligned with our commitment to be a leading digital-first media company and with Google's trust and support, we will continue to work towards shaping the news industry.
"Apart from MyGameOn, MPD also recently took over the operations of IGN Southeast Asia to expand its e-sports and gaming portfolio as well as its digital presence regionally," he said in a statement.
MPD group general manager Nicholas Sagau said MPD was committed to work hand-in-hand with both public and private sectors to further expand e-sports while advocating the healthy and professional side of it.
"With Google's support, we strive to continue delivering valuable content to our audience and are confident that we'll be able to take our vision for e-sports to the next level," he said.
Meanwhile Google APAC News and Publishing Lead Fazal Ashfaq said Asia Pacific GNI Innovation Challenge was looking for creative ways newsrooms could increase reader engagement.
"Selected among 255 applicants across Asia-Pacific, Media Prima's proposal showcased an actionable solution, and we're eager to see the outcome of the project," he added.