On April 14, the "Expo Shanghai Online" program, a brand-new program in Expo's 150-year-plus history, was officially launched. At the special seminar on "Expo Shanghai Online" held in Paris, France, Deputy Commissioner General of Switzerland's exhibition section Manuel Salchli handed in the confirmation letter of its participation to Zhu Yonglei, Deputy Director General of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, making it the first country to participate in "Expo Shanghai Online". Mr. Jean-Pierre Lafon, Chairman of BIE and Mr. Vicente Loscertales, Secretary General of BIE attended the seminar.

"Expo Shanghai Online" will allow netizens worldwide to savor the 2010 extravaganza online via advanced technology that will provide three-dimensional images of the expo village and the pavilions. Meanwhile, a network platform featuring the interaction between the visitors and the real-life World Expo will be created.

"Expo Shanghai Online" is an important innovation to the exhibition modes of World Expo in the information age. Alongside the real-life World Expo, the "Online Expo" will undoubtedly play a key role in promoting the Expo concept, widening the coverage and influence of World Expo and attracting more domestic and overseas visitors to Shanghai to appreciate the real-life World Expo. It will help the people who cannot come to Shanghai because of various reasons to experience the colorful Online Expo.

Online World Expo will make Shanghai World Expo an everlasting event. The creativity has been highly praised by BIE and has drawn great attention from many countries and international organizations. Mr. Loscertales hailed the program as a great innovation with historic significance and hoped that more countries and international organizations would take an active part in the construction of Online World Expo.

The Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination has done a lot of preparation work for the wonderful presentation of the Online Expo. Currently, the Bureau has jointly worked out the general blueprint of online World Expo with the world-famous consulting company Capgimini and has confirmed Tencent as the general contractor for Online World Expo operation and maintenance. Beijing-based Crystal CG, a project sponsor of Expo Shanghai, will provide support in digital technology; and some internationally-renowned IT enterprises will also provide professional support. 

At the seminar, Zhu Yonglei, Deputy Director General of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination briefed the progress of preparation work for Online World Expo, and the representatives from Switzerland and Japan introduced plans for setting up a three-dimensional online pavilion and experience in using web technology during World Expo 2005 Aichi respectively. The representatives at the seminar also conducted special discussions on the issues like online participation and confirmation and technical specifications.