For Immediate Release (Calgary, AB Canada)
November 1, 1999

Calgary, AB (Nov. 1, 1999) – Zi Corporation (TSE: ZIC, NASDAQ: ZICA) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Beijing Oz Education Network System Co. Ltd. (Beijing Oz), a Chinese company, from its owner Oz New Media Inc., a private Canadian company.  This transaction included the issue of 100,000 common shares of Zi Corporation in exchange for all the issued shares of Beijing Oz.

“Zi’s acquisition of Beijing Oz not only assures a greater market share for our core technology, it adds an important new income stream through the sale of education and retraining courseware,” says Michael Lobsinger, chairman and chief executive officer, Zi Corporation.

Beijing Oz’s business is developing and distributing Internet-based curriculum specific courseware for both elementary schools and career training in Asia.  The courseware was originally developed in Canada by Oz New Media Inc. and continues to be localized and modified by Beijing Oz to meet local Chinese requirements.  Career courses are marketed under the name COOL (Career Options On-Line) and the elementary courseware is marketed under the name OWL (On-line Webstories for Learning).  Beijing Oz exclusively licenses the courseware and associated trade names for China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.  Beijing Oz will continue an active relationship with Oz New Media; however, Beijing Oz intends to expand its own ability to develop new courseware with its Chinese partners.   

A number of important Chinese ministries have entered into agreements with Beijing Oz.  Each ministry or organization has a specific mandate to educate, retrain or upgrade their constituents and Beijing Oz’s role in each agreement is to create the multimedia educational content and jointly distribute it via the Internet.  The ministries include the Ministry of Information Industry, which in collaboration with the China E-Commerce Association and Beijing Oz, has the national mandate to create a vibrant e-commerce industry in China; and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, who seek to retrain the many Chinese that have become under or un-employed as a result of the restructuring of Chinese state-owned enterprises.  

Distribution is completed through established national digital networks such as CERNET and ChinaNet and through an agreement with Sino-Satellite Communications Company (Sinosat).  Sinosat delivers content via satellite to end-users who lack land-line connectivity.  Beijing Oz also has agreements with the China Central Radio and Television University (CRTVU), which, with 600,000 students, is the largest post-secondary education institute in the world and China’s premier elementary school, Beijing Elementary School.  

CRTVU and Beijing Oz have agreed to create China’s first national on-line university.  Testing began in mid-October and CRTVU and Beijing Oz expect to commercially launch this service in January 2000.  These relationships provide a strong base for Beijing Oz to become an influential player in China’s emerging on-line educational and e-commerce industries.

The sheer size of China, coupled with its stroke-based language, have been barriers to the country’s aspirations of improving access and standardization of education and training across the nation.  Zi’s core technology and its proprietary input system provide the critical first step for the Chinese people to gain access to technology.  Beijing Oz’s curriculum-specific courseware assures both quality and consistency for on-line learning.
Zi Corporation is a software company making modern electronic technology more accessible to people in a way that is consistent with their language and culture.  The company’s eZiTEXT™ input software is licensed in numerous languages for devices ranging from mobile phones to TV set-top boxes.  Zi’s common shares trade on both the Toronto Stock Exchange (ZIC) and the NASDAQ stock market (ZICA).  Zi markets its technology through strategic partnerships worldwide from offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Calgary.

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The information in this press release is based on Zi Corporation’s current expectation and assumptions, and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.  Such risks include, among others, general business and economic conditions and competitive actions as well as the risks and uncertainties referred to in Zi Corporation’s 20-F for the most recent calendar year.

For further information, please contact: 
Karen Attwell
Manager, Investor/Media Relations 
Phone: (403) 233-8875 
Email: mailto:investor@zicorp.com?Subject= About Press Release ONov. 1, 1999
Web site: http://www.zicorp.com/
Oz New Media Website: www.oznewmedia.com