Japan
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- Softbank Technology and Imagica Digix said they will be jointly selling systems that will allow the instant sending of high-definition TV programming and other video content through fiber-optic networks running from TV studios to broadcast stations. The two companies said the systems will be using fiber-optic lines owned by NTT East Corp, NTT West Corp. and others. The video content will be sent at a maximum speed of 10 gigabits per second. The system can reduce the amount of time needed to edit videos as it eliminates the physical handling of videotapes from one location to another. Through the system, films can be distributed to movie theaters.
Information Technology
- Dai Nippon disclosed a system that will allow users of smart credit cards to quickly change their PINS, without going through a card reissuance. Through the new system, the new numbers can be changed through a special terminal at credit card companies' service sites. The company said it will begin offering the system in November as an ASP (application service provider), with the cost valued at 10 million yen ($91,000) annually. Dai Nippon expects a number of credit card companies to adopt the system with sales predicted at 300 million yen ($2.7 million) in three years. The system consists of special terminals and server equipment.
Hardware
- Future System Consulting Corp. said it has received orders from Shizuoka Bank for consulting services aimed at helping boost the efficiency of the bank's computer systems. To do this, the company will set up first a system that unifies the common data of several information systems present in the bank but currently running separately. A unified database will be created to enable the bank to use existing systems while expanding the range of applications.
- Softbank Technology disclosed its plans to initiate the offering of a low-priced computer data security service package for businesses. The package covers checking the server's vulnerability against intrusions from outside hackers, personnel training, implementation of corrective measures and maintenance. The company said fees for the nine services will be about half of those of the similar services provided by other firms. The company cited the vulnerability detection service as an example: it costs about 1 million yen ($9,000) when done by other firms but will be available for about 500,000 yen ($4,500) from Softbank Technology.
Korea
Internet
- Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's key news agency, announced the launching of its internet broadcasting service. The service is dubbed "Yonhap U&I News" and provides what is described as much more diversified multimedia contents. Already, Yonhap offers text, photo and video news services. As the nation's largest news agency with extensive news coverage networks at home at abroad, Yonhap is expected to increase its potentials and capabilities in the Internet broadcasting sector.
- CinTel Corp, Korea's leading internet Traffic Management solution provider, announced a new security solution that is able to filter outgoing web traffic. Through this new technology, CinTel is expected to disclose another new product that will include a web catching solution and content filtering proxy solution. CinTel's new security solution prevents leakage of confidential information via web mail, e-mail, web hard, blog or bulletin boards. Samsung Networks Inc. and Hyundai HDS have already field-tested the network solution with the company describing the test as successful. CinTel Corp. is based in the US although its main business operations are in Korea.
Software
- Microsoft announced its plans to increase its spending in South Korea by 40 percent for fiscal 2006. Without disclosing details, Microsoft's move is seen as its way of strengthening its presence in Asia's third-largest economy. The announcement came even as there remains a pending antitrust ruling on Microsoft's activities in South Korea. The country's regulator The Fair Trade Commission has still to decide whether Microsoft has violated the nation's fair trade laws and abused its dominant market position to ease out smaller companies providing competition. Daum, another South Korean company, has also filed a lawsuit against Microsoft with the Seoul District Court accusing the software giant of violating fair trade laws.
China
Internet
- Yahoo has agreed to contribute its China business to Alibaba, and Yahoo would be paying $1 billion in cash to acquire a 40 percent stake in the Chinese e-commerce firm. This means that the two companies will also have under its wings 3721.com, a Chinese language search engine acquired by Yahoo last year. The alliance is recognized as one of the biggest deals amidst the many investments of foreign Internet companies in China, making Yahoo the largest strategic investor in Alibaba. Alibaba has not made any statement detailing its use of the $1 billion investment from Yahoo.
- Google announced an agreement it has entered into three Chinese companies to sell keyword-based advertisements for its China site. The companies are China Enterprise, China Source and Hotsales. Selected for their national reach to small and medium-sized businesses and offering high levels of support to advertising clients, the companies will receive training from Google. The companies will then be directly selling price-per-click keywords on Google's China site. According to iResearch of Shanghai, the search advertising market in China, with its total ad revenue of some $148 million last year, is considered small. Still, online advertising has shown strong growth. The move of Google is seen as part of its strategy to increase the pace of its expansion in China.
- Tom Online announced a net profit of $10.2 million in the three months to June, compared with $10.1 million a year earlier. The company, which is one of China's largest Internet companies, said its revenue went up to $42.8 million from $30.9 million.
- Shanda Interactive Entertainment reported net income surging from Rmb141 million ($17.4 million) in last year's second quarter to Rmb223 million ($27.5 million) this year. The company's total revenue went up from Rmb287 million ($35.4 million) to Rmb539.5 million ($65.2 million) this year.
Mobile/Wireless
- China Mobile (Hong Kong) announced a 36 percent increase in second-quarter profit, which the company attributed to the discounts it gave that helped boost the number of subscribers in the countryside. The company posted a net income that went up to Rmb12.8 billion ($1.5 billion), from Rmb9.4 billion ($1.1 billion) a year earlier. China Mobile added 19.6 million users in the first half, a figure that represents a 69.4 increase a year ago. As of June 30, China Mobile had 223.8 million users. In a separate report, China Mobile revealed its plans to invest Rmb110 billion ($13.5 billion) in the next two years to build a 3G network that would cover 80 percent of China.
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- Focus Media Holdings, a Shanghai-based commercial building advertiser, announced a second-quarter profit of $4.3 million, a figure more than double the $2 million reported a year earlier and the $2.6 million in the previous quarter. The company posted for the second quarter revenue of $14.6 million, which represents a 128 percent increase from a year ago and 52 percent from the first quarter. Given China's fast-growing outdoor advertising market, the company predicts strong growth for the third quarter. It forecasts for the third quarter profit of $6.3 million to $6.5 million.
Hardware
- In its first quarterly report after the acquisition of IBM's computing unit, Lenovo disclosed its net profit seeing a 6 percent growth year on year to $48.2 million. The company said its revenues posted a triple increase to $2.5 billion from $746.5 million. Operated mainly in mainland China, Lenovo's mobile handset business showed a 27 percent increase to $105.5 million and turned in some $3.2 million of profits the first time. Its worldwide computer shipments had a 7 percent increase year on year to 3.5 million units in the quarter, with the company attributing the good performance to its solid domestic growth. Its notebook business, getting a huge boost from IBM ThinkPad sales to firms, contributed 47.2 percent of the firm's quarterly revenues of $1.1 billion.
- The desktop computer market in China marked a growth of 17.8 percent year on year and 5.9 percent quarter on quarter, with shipment reaching 3.4 million units in the second quarter of 2005. China's desktop computer market has a value of Rmb19.3 billion, with domestic producers still at the top three places. Lenovo Group holds the No. 1 position, with a market share of 31.2 percent. Founder Technology Co. follows, with 12.1 percent, and Tsinghua Tongfang Co at No. 3, with 8.8 percent of the market share.
Software
- China's software market will gain a value of about $6.2 billion in 2009, with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.7 percent in the next five years, according to International Data Corp. (IDC). The latest market research from IDC stated that China's software market size had a value of $2.6 billion in 2004. Placed against the CAGR of 11.2 for the Asia Pacific software market in the next five years, China's software market is perceived to possess huge growth potential, IDC said.
Taiwan
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- With Carlyle Group demanding NT$24 billion $751.3 million) and with the leading bidder, the Tom Group of Hong Kong, bent on giving only NT$22 billion ($689.2million), the proposed sale of shares in Taiwan Broadband Communications has reached a deadlock. In most reports, the Tom Group has been described as "walking away" from the deal, this after three months of talks. The Hong Kong firm had tendered is bid with the ChinaTrust Group, a move necessitated by Taiwan's law on maintaining a ceiling of 60 percent on foreign shareholding in cable-TV networks. Industry observers underscore the fact that the penetration rate of cable TV in Taiwan is reaching almost 100 percent, with about 85 percent of all households as legal subscribers, with only about 15 percent illegally connected. Given this condition, the only way for a new investor to penetrate the market or for an existing network to increase its market share is to acquire an existing network.
Hardware
- AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), Taiwan's No. 1 manufacturer of large-sized TFT-LCD panels, reported pretax earnings of NT$467 million ($14.6 million) in the second quarter. Surpassing the corresponding figures posted by No. 1 Samsung Electronics and No. 2 LG Philips LCD, this makes AUO the world's most profitable panel maker since it started its mass production in 1997.
Telecommunications
- Despite strong protests from its labor unions, Chungwa Telecom announced the completion of its partial privatization plan. The company said a 14 percent stake of the company was sold through American Depositary Receipts in the US, with a 3 percent stake auctioned on the domestic market. The union has been fighting against the privatization of the Chungwa for fear that the move would jeopardize employee benefits.
Hong Kong
Mobile/Wireless
- CSL reported a 21.4 percent decline in its earning for the year to June 30 to HK$375 million ($48.2 million) compared with HK$477 million ($61.3 million) a year ago. The company, wholly owned by Telstra of Australia, said revenues went up 7.1 percent to HK$4.3 billion ($553.4 million) from HK$4 billion ($514.8 million). Increased subsidies on handsets and sales commissions were some of the factors used by the company to explain its less than rosy performance. Competition had also been intense in the market.
Singapore/Malaysia/Philippines/Indonesia
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- With a net loss of $31.9 million, Creative Technology went into red in the fourth quarter to June. The digital entertainment products maker posted sales in the June quarter of $305.4 million, a 51 percent increase from $201.8 million in the same period a year earlier. Observers as well as the company explain the "dismal" performance as brought about by the ongoing competition provided by Apple's iPod. Inventory write-downs are seen as having affected the company. Creative became famous when it launched its Soundblaster cards that transformed personal computers into entertainment machines. The company, aiming to increase its portfolio, went into the digital entertainment segment.
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