August 20, 2001 – For Asia mobile users who are as obsessed with calorie-counting, dating and self-help as Bridget Jones – the pop heroine of Helen Fielding's best-selling novel – Riot Entertainment is offering daily dairy updates.

First launched in the U.K. in April, Riot-E's Bridget Jones's Diary SMS updates provide fans with dating advice, dieting techniques, and self-help theories. In addition to Bridget's often hilarious approach to life detailed in the book, Riot-E said Helen Fielding will provide Asia mobile fans with original content.

To provide the service, Riot-E, a wireless entertainment provider, is partnering with mobile operators NTT DoCoMo and J-Phone in Japan, Telstra in Australia, and Globe in the Philippines.

Riot-E said it is using the successful Bridget Jones brand for its new Asia service because of the popularity of the book, currently the biggest selling English-language novel in Japan. Overall, Bridget Jones's Diary, which has sold six million copies, has been translated into 25 different languages and published in 33 countries.

Riot-E said it has identified a huge potential market, with 47 million mobile phone subscribers in Japan, 11 million subscribers in Australia, and 6 million subscribers in the Philippines. Asian users are increasingly using the text message as an entertainment tool as well as a method of communication with more than 5 billion text messages sent every month in the region, according to research firm Mobile Streams.

"The introduction of games like X-Men, The Punisher and SMS Murderer in the Asian market has shown us the potential that is there," said Riot-E CEO Jan Wellmann. "This market is huge and still growing, and branded content has become the key driver."

The content for the entertainment service is provided through an exclusive agreement between Riot-E and Fielding, the creator of Bridget Jones, said Wellman.