The Huffington Post launched an Indian version of its news website Monday, seeking to tap the country’s exploding number of Internet users, and announced its next big goal was a Chinese edition.

The AOL-owned website featuring, news, entertainment, health and blogs, has allied with the Times of India Group to launch HuffPost India, its 13th edition worldwide.

It hopes to gain new readers in the world’s second-most-populous nation of 1.25 billion, where smartphones and other Internet-enabled devices are proliferating.

“This is a wonderful chance for us,” said editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington, who founded the website in 2005, adding she wanted HuffPost India to “tell the stories that matter most” to the country.

“More and more people will be able to access news on their mobile devices,” Huffington added, on a day when the government announced India has become the world’s second-largest mobile-phone user with more than 900 million users.

But the Huffington Post faces fierce competition in India’s crowded online media scene as it jostles for readers with a host of local newspaper sites and international offerings such as Buzzfeed and Quartz. The Greek-born editor said India held “special significance” for her as she studied there in her late teens.

The Indian edition led with a story headlined “Uber and Out” ― about the U.S.-based cab service being banned in New Delhi over the alleged rape of a female customer by a driver booked through the company. (AFP)