Japan
Internet
- All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) announced their shift to IP telephone systems, a move aimed at cutting costs and improving efficiency. ANA said it will adopt IP technology at certain domestic call centres, while JAL said it has already made the switch to an IP phone system at its maintenance facilities at Haneda airport, with the plan to evaluate the system before going into expansion. ANA disclosed its plan to introduce the technology to four of its domestic call centers that handle flight reservations and other business. The adoption of IP technology can also enable the centralization of the receipt of phone calls at data centre.
- Gourmet Navigator, a major operator of restaurant web sites, announced its plan to enter the Chinese market, with the company preparing to set up a joint venture in Shanghai with other Japanese firms. To be capitalized at about 150 million yen ($1.3 million), the venture will be one-third owned by Gourmet Navigator. The planned site will provide for its initial offering information on several hundred local restaurants and is target 1,000 member restaurants by next spring. It will aim to offer information on 5,000 to 10,000 restaurants in three years. Both the launch and the operation of the web site will, however, be given to a local company because of Chinese regulations on foreign capital.
- All About Inc., an information service company, said it would go public on the JASDAQ Securities Exchange. The company, a subsidiary of Recruit Co., operates a web site that gives information on about 330 subjects. The company earns revenues from the advertisements on related merchandize. Experts that are called guides and recruited from the public write articles on the subjects. The firm checks the content of each article and how it is often browsed. After the listing, Recruit Co. will have an equity stake of 50 percent in the firm and Yahoo Japan becoming its second-largest shareholder with a 37 percent stake. The company is expected to announce a 20 percent increase in its pretax profit of 360 million yen ($3.2 million) in the year through March 2006.
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- Major internet advertising firms reported double-digit on-the-year sales increases for the April-June quarter, results ascribed to solid market expansion. Cyber Communications posted 83 percent in its sales to 8.4 billion yen ($76.4 million), and its operating profit surged 178 percent to 345 million yen ($3.1 million). D.A Consortium whose earnings cover the March-May period posted an 88 percent surge to 6.7 billion yen ($61 million), and its operating profit soared 128 percent to 366 million yen ($3.3 million). The two companies explained the results to aggressive advertising by beverage and cosmetics companies together with robust demand from clients in the telecom and financial industries. Opt Inc.'s sales went up 67 percent to 3.6 billion yen ($32.7 million) because of strong demand for advertising space on the Yahoo Japan web site. Its operating profit posted 19 percent increase to 146 million yen ($1.3 million). Cyber Agent Ltd.'s operating profit was reported with a 33 percent increase to 628 million yen ($5.7 million) on sales that went up 60 percent to 11.3 billion yen ($102.8 million). Septeni Co's operating profit, however, showed a 14 percent decline to 103 million yen ($938,000) while its sales went up 29 percent to 3.8 billion yen ($34.6 million). Maglick Inc.'s, the only earnings figures here not on consolidated basis, saw its parent-only sales rise 64 percent to 1.6 billion yen ($145.6 million), and its operating profit fall 19 percent to 21 million yen ($191,000).
Mobile/Wireless
- Shicoh Engineering Co. announced its launching in China of a start-to-finish production of auto focus lens motors for mobile phone cameras. The company said it is expanding its Shanghai plant, with the new building to house three clean rooms that would allow the factory to handle everything from parts production to final assembly. The expansion at the Shanghai plant is valued at 700 million yen ($6.3 million), and is expected to raise its production capacity 10 times to 3 million units a month.
- NTT DoCoMo announced its production of a prototype for a fourth-generation mobile phone. The company said the next generation of mobile telephony will enable users to enjoy high-definition video and CD-quality music. The prototype's transmission speed is described as about 2,500 times faster than that of the firm's 3G FOMA phone service and its thoroughput is roughly equal to that of a high-speed internet connection using fiber-optic cable. The company said it is forecasting the commercial viability of the models by 2010.
Software
- Softbank Technology Corp., a system solution service provider, disclosed its plan to boost its consulting business for companies seeking for a better protection for personal information stored on computers. In this regard, the company said it is establishing a wholly owned subsidiary, to be called SBT Consulting, with a capital of 50 million yen ($455,000). Through this subsidiary Softbank will help firms obtain qualifications for information protection as well as design security systems.
Hardware
- Sony Corp. said it plans to expand its built-to-order online sales of its Vaio line of personal computers together with the unveiling of 45 new models. The company said it is strengthening its online sales, a strategy that brings it to the area that has Dell as the leader. The offering will allow customers to place orders by telephone or internet and specify the computer's configuration, including the type of processor and the operating system. The move is expected to respond to the customers' needs more appropriately and at the same time create more efficient sales through mass retailers. Sony is also moving from orders of PCs being limited to certain models to one that will have nine new lines released ahead of the end-of-the-year shopping season.
- Casio, which makes TFT (thin-film transistor) liquid crystal panels, has formed a partnership in small and midsize liquid crystal panels with Taiwan's HannStar Display Corp. Under the partnership, critical panel procedures will be outsourced to HannStar, while Casio is tasked with handle design and assembly. The two firms will jointly spearhead the market for panels used in industrial equipment. Casio, the world's leading producer of liquid crystal panels for digital cameras, is aiming to use the new partnership to expand its mobile phone liquid crystal panel business and garner a 10 percent market share or more. HannStar is looking to the tie-up a chance to learn from Casio technology and production know-how for smaller panels.
- ULVAC Inc., a leading global supplier of production systems, instrumentation, pumps and vacuum component used in the semiconductor and flat panel display, announced its expansion of investments in Asia, including China and Taiwan, to ensure growth in the future. The firm plans to set up in China a supervising firm that will oversee its operations there. It also disclosed its intention to establish a subsidiary for producing liquid-crystal-display making devices as well as a customer support company. The firm is expected to post 7.9 billion yen ($72 million) in negative free cash flow in the fiscal year ending June 30,2006, a decline from a 500 million yen ($4.5 million) positive free cash flow the year before.
Information Technology
- NTT Data Corp, Hitachi and Fujitsu announced their plan to jointly develop a system for processing deposits, foreign exchange and other information geared for financial institutions. The offering is the first of the three firms' open-type accounting system that would enable clients to combine different kinds of hardware and software with much ease and efficiency. Through the joint move to go into banking system, the firms are looking to a reduction of development costs as well as to a stronger product lines.
Korea
Internet
- Funds belonging to Japan's Gungho Online Entertainment were used to acquire a controlling 52 percent stake in South Korea's online game developer Gravity. The acquisition made from Gravity's top shareholders was valued at $359 million. The move by Gungho is aimed at securing a continuing license of Gravity's principal product Ragnarok Online, according to the two firms. Gungho is a majority owned by Softbank, a wholly owned broadband unit of Softbank.
- Lucent Technologies announced the deployment of its VoIP solution by Hanaro Telecom. The country's second-largest wireline and broadband service provider will be the first to offer carrier-based VoIP services to businesses. The Lucent solution can enable Hanaro to provide both the traditional business voice services as well as the innovative IP-based features, such as interactive voice response, and web-based integrated business features that will allow users to manage their voice services through their computers. Industry observers said that the contract with Hanaro would boost Lucent's leading status in the Korean VoIP market.
Software
- Korea Post said it plans to adopt the Linux software for its internet banking and payment system, a decision that would replace Microsoft's Windows that users believe is more prone to hackers and viruses. The country's postal service agency said it would adopt the free, open-source operating system for its desktop computers and install it in nearly five thousand desktop computers for customer use in its 2,800 branches nationwide. The transfer to Linux is expected to bring Korea savings of about 850 million won ($830,000) per year.
Mobile/Wireless
- Samsung Electronics predicts for the global phone market an increase to about 800 million units next year. A source from its telecommunications network business said mobile phone shipments were expected to post from 6 to 7 percent growth as more data-intensive handsets and technologies are launched. Maintaining its sales target of 100 million sets, Samsung said it forecasts shipments to reach 720 million units globally this year. Market research firms are saying global sales this will reach about 750 million units.
China
Internet
- A consortium of venture capitalists that include Bessemer Venture Partners, Granite Global Ventures, Mobius Venture Capital, and Softbank's Asia Infrastructure Fund raised $10 million for Chinese blog portal Bokee. An investor with Granite Global Ventures point to Beijing-based Bokee as showing the next trend in portal sites for China, a platform for personal expression. The site has 2 million registered users and gets 18 million page views a year. Bokee earns money by serving advertisements and from telecommunications companies selling mobile blogging services. In July, a rumour floated that BlogChina.com, a site that feeds users into Bokee, was going to go public for $1 billion on NASDAQ. According to analysts, this could be one of the reasons for the attractiveness of the portal.
- NetEase.com Inc. announced the launching of 280 Mb free online storage service that would be first integrated with the portal's free e-mail service. The offering will allow users to store copies of important files online that would allow them to send files to others with ease. The announcement comes after the company conducted its largest web site upgrading last month. NetEase has some 225 million registered users able to access free e-mail, chatrooms and personalized homepages.
- Zhaopin.com, a leading Chinese human resource web site, and Sohu.com Inc. have jointly announced the launch of Job.Sohu.com. Zhaopin said it expects to boost the traffic in its web site through this cooperation, which will be available on Sohu's web site while fully adopting Zhaopin's online recruitment service. The announcement notes that Job-Sohu.com will require an estimated total investment of 5 million yuan ($618,000) to 6 million yuan ($741,000). With more than 200 employment web sites in China, the cooperation of Zhaopin and Sohu is expected to increase the competition among the country's online recruitment web sites. Zhaopin said it hopes to launch its IPO at the end of next year.
- Google appears to be losing its market share to its biggest mainland rival, Baidu.com, according to a survey conducted by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). The survey indicated that Baidu.com had increased its market share in Beijing by 10.8 percentage points to 52%, while Google's share was 33%. It appears that Google kept its customer base steady amidst an increase in the overall market. Google and Baidu, when combined, held 80 percent of the market in Beijing and Shanghai and 75 percent in Guangzhou.
Mobile/Wireless
- Ningbo Bird announced a half loss of 106.5 million yuan ($13.1 million), compared to a profit of 111.3 million yuan ($13.7 million) a year earlier. China's biggest domestic mobile phone maker ascribed the results to an increased domestic competition from local and foreign rivals and the flooding of the market with imitation mobile phones in China. The intense competition in China's mobile phone industry is also explained as a result of the government's approval of the nine companies that are producing and selling CDMA and GSM phones to enter the mobile phone market. Included in this group are Huawei Technologies Co. and BenQ Corp.
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- Beijing Media announced a 99% decline in its first half profit on same period last year, ascribing the fall to declining advertising revenue from China's real estate industry. The company, which is the advertising arm of Beijing Youth Daily, China's only overseas-listed newspaper group, said its net profit for the first six months ending June 2005 was 170,000 yuan ($21,000) compared to 66.3 million yuan ($8.1 million) in the same period last year. The company reported revenues of 368.2 million yuan ($45.4 million) a decline from the 513 million yuan ($63.3 million) in the same period last year.
Hardware
- The combined profit at 47 major state-owned electronics companies went down 67% in the first seven months of the year due the decline in production, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Net income went down to 1.9 billion yuan ($234.7 million) from a year earlier, a result ascribed by the commission to the slowing down in the production of colour televisions and electronic parts. Sales posted a 19.4 percent increase to 227.3 billion yuan (US$28 billion), with the value of exports climbing 22.9 percent to 65.7 billion yuan (US$8.1 billion).
- Haier Electronics Group, China's largest maker of home appliances, disclosed the possibility of the firm reporting its first-half profit as being adversely affected by losses at its handset business. The firm said competition and price cuts in the country's handset market has greatly affected its first-half profit, with the company admitting it made more provisions for doubtful debt and inventories at its handset business in the first half than in the same 2004 period. Haier Group announced that it plans to move its entire 42% stake in Shanghai-listed Qingdao Haier to Haier Electronics.
Telecommunications
- China Telecom Corp. announced its net profit of 14.7 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) for the six months ended June 30, with the company ascribing the result to subscriber growth in its local line and broadband services. The mainland's largest fixed-line operator saw its operating revenue rise in the first half to 84 billion yuan ($10.3 billion). Excluding deferred income from installation fees, the company's net profit for the first half was placed at 11.2 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), which is 8% higher than 10.4 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the same period last year. China Telecom posted revenue of 80.6 billion yuan ($10 billion), up from 75.9 billion ($9.3 billion). During the first half, its number of local telephone service customers went up by 8% to 202.4 million, a figure that includes 52.6 million users of its wireless access service dubbed the Personal Handyphone System. Its broadband subscriber base climbed 25.5 percent to 17.3 million, with the business bringing in a 38% increase in its revenue of 8 billion yuan ($988.4 million) during the period.
- Information Technology
- China's IT market was valued at 60.5 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) in the second quarter, a figure that is 4.6 percent higher than the previous quarter, according to market research company Analysys. The IT hardware market posted a 3.6% growth quarter-on-quarter and 6.3 percent year-on-year to 45.5 billion yuan ($5.6 billion). Software market saw its market value go up 10.2 percent quarter-on-quarter and 21.2% year-on-year to 6.7 billion yuan ($8.2 billion). The market value of IT services in the country went up 11.2% from the quarter to 8.2 billion yuan ($1 billion).
Taiwan
Telecommunications
- Chunghwa Telecom Co. said its revenues for the half-year ending June 30 was NT$90.7 billion ($2.7 billion). The company posted a net income of NT$24.9 billion ($766.5 million). For the second quarter of 2005, Chunghwa posted revenues of NT$46.2 billion ($1.4 billion), and a net income of NT$12.8 billion ($394 million). For the first half of 2005, Chunghwa's operating costs and expenses registered a 1.5% year-on-year increase, results that are attributed to an increase in handset subsidies of NT$400 million ($12.3 million) and an increase in marketing expenses for the mobile business of NT$254 million ($7.8 million). Changes in actuarial assumptions raised pension expense to NT$383 million ($11.7 million), which was part of the increase in operating costs and expenses.
Internet
- SeedNet, Taiwan's second-largest ISP provider, announced that it will offer VoIP software through TelTel of U.S. Called Wagaly TelTel, the software will enable setting voice relays that will allow incoming phone calls to be shifted from PCs to handsets when users are away from their PCs. SeedNet said it will be seeking tie-ups with local hardware makers for the new VoIP services.
Hardware
- Acer posted a net profit of NT$2.2 billion ($67.7 million) for the three months to June, a figure that represents more than double that of NT$1 billion ($30.7 million) for the same period a year earlier. The company posted consolidated revenue for the April to June period of NT$65.6 billion ($2 billion), up from NT$48.6 billion ($1.4 billion) a year earlier. The world's fourth-largest personal computer maker by shipments announced its selling of 2 million PCs. During the three-month period, the industry as a whole disposed of 46.5 million units during the three-month period, according to IDC.
Hong Kong
Telecommunications
- The telecommunications arm of the Hutchison Whampoa group announced its plan for the use of its HK$12 billion ($1.5 billion) investment budget, where part of it would be set aside for the next three years to acquire companies and secure licenses in certain places noted for particular risks involved. The group is looking to places like Indonesia with a risky regulatory environment, and in places where the risks pertain to security like Ghana, Israel and Sri Lanka. The company said that if the venture in those places is successful, it may invest in other African markets.
Singapore/Malaysia/Philippines/Indonesia
Internet
- SingTel announced its alliance with Noida Software Technology Part Ltd (NSTPL) of Delhi to operate Interactive Distance Learning (IP Learn) from India. The two companies said they are aiming for the global market with IP Learn, a mode of disseminating information and conducting distance education over Internet and satellite. Under the alliance, SingTel will manage and maintain hardware and satellite transmission systems from Singapore, while NSTPL will be tasked with the delivery part from the ground. The two companies have also enlisted Arel Communications & Software as the supplier of video-conferencing, voice and data collaboration and transmission software. The product is to be marketed under the Cosmic Campus brand and is a proposed virtual global university.
Hardware
- Singapore Technologies Engineering said it is acquiring iDirect, a broadband satellite network equipment manufacturer, for US$165 million. The acquisition was made when iDirect entered into a definitive merger agreement with Vision Technologies Electronics, Inc (VTEE) to become its wholly- owned subsidiary. VTEE is a subsidiary of Vision Technologies Systems (VTS), the U.S. headquarters of Singapore Technologies Engineering. Industry analysts see the acquisition as expanding the Singaporean firm's presence in the U.S. iDirect manufactures two-way IP-based broadband satellite networking solutions and has clients connected with telecommunications, oil and gas, construction and marine industries and in government agencies.
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- Creative Technology announced that is has received the US patent for a key interface used in portable digital music players, a move that would enable the firm a chance to challenge Apple in the digital music market. The report also said that the possession of the U.S. patent might allow Creative to collect of millions of dollars in royalties from Apple for the patented technology, news that remains unconfirmed. The company has been trying to dislodge Apple from the No. 1 position. Industry analysts believe that, superior quality notwithstanding, Creative suffers in comparison with Apple given the latter's fashionable reputation.
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