For immediate release (Calgary, AB Canada)
May 28, 1999

		Three Months Ended March 31
		1999	1998
Revenue		$ 230,904	$ 874,804
Operating Costs and Expenses
	Operating costs	710,125	372,794
	General and administrative	415,897	274,069
	Depreciation and amortization	281,032	55,653
		1,407,054	702,516
Operating income (loss) before undernoted		(1,176,149)	172,288
	Interest and other income	2,273	149,119
	Interest expense	(9,863)	(3,616)
Net income (loss)		$ (1,183,739)	$ 317,791
Earnings (loss) per share		$ (0.042)	$ 0.011
Common shares outstanding at end of period (weighted average)		28,368,817	28,134,117

Financial Review

Revenue in the first quarter amounted to $230,904, primarily from license fees. This is a reduction from last year’s revenue, which included a significant portion of the license fees from the Ericsson contract.

While all areas of operating costs and expenses are higher than the comparative quarter, there were anomalies relating to the first quarter of 1998 which gave rise to the differences. On a normalized basis the total operating costs and expenses this quarter are 30% lower than 1998.

The Company recently issued 1,950,000 common shares by way of private placements, which raised CAD$3.7 million. The proceeds will fund the company’s ongoing operations.

Operations Review

Further to a previously announced licensing and royalty agreement with Ericsson, Zi assisted its strategic partner in a Technology Announcement introducing its new Chinese language technology for mobile phones. The event took place at the China World Hotel in Beijing on February 3, 1999. The formal part of the program featured a briefing on the new Ericsson Chinese language technology and a demonstration of the Zi enabled Chinese language functions on a mobile phone simulator. Following the presentation, a joint Ericsson-Zi team staffed a number of demonstration areas to allow attendees at the event to try the Chinese text input on a mobile phone simulator.

On March 10, 1999, Zi filed a patent infringement claim against Tegic Communications, Inc., a Seattle, Washington company. This claim states that Tegic and Tegic’s customers and licensees infringe a patent owned by Zi. This is part of an active ongoing process where Zi is protecting the integrity of its intellectual property against unauthorized use and infringement.

In April, the Company announced that it had entered into a licensing and royalty agreement with Planetweb Inc. ("Planetweb"). Planetweb will integrate Zi’s Chinese Smart Text Input Software technology into its small-footprint Internet software products, thereby making it easy for consumer electronics manufacturers to design and build set-top boxes, screen phones, video game consoles, video phones, DVD players, and wireless home networking systems for the Chinese market.

Outlook

The Company is looking forward to the launch of commercialized products in 1999. In addition to the much-anticipated Ericsson mobile phone, other products may include a TV set top box that brings the Internet to an estimated 75 million cable subscribers in China and Taiwan. In the meantime, Zi is actively pursuing the use of its proprietary technology as it relates to a range of different languages. Although the market for our key input technology as applied to Chinese characters is enormous, it is but one of the opportunities available to the Company.

Zi Corporation’s goal is to make modern electronic technology more accessible to people in a way that is consistent with their language and culture. By connecting technology to language, Zi Corporation brings smart text input to the mass market for devices such as mobile phones, TV set top boxes, computers and Internet appliances.

NEITHER THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE NOR NASDAQ HAVE APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Zi Corporation
Carol Kim
Manager, Investor/Media Relations
403.233.8875
Web site: http://www.zicorp.com/