Japan
Internet
- Yahoo Japan announced the expansion of its online music distribution service, a move that would allow its customers to listen to selected songs in full before they decide to make the purchase. Yahoo Japan is the first company to make the offering. The company said it would launch under the new service about 100,000 songs. Competition in Japan's online music services increased after Apple launched its iTunes online music store in Japan, a service allowing the availability of more than 1 million songs. Yahoo Japan is expecting to earn advertising revenue and commissions from song sales.
- Hewlett-Packard Japan said it has entered into a partnership with a Japanese Internet services company and its systems integrator and consulting subsidiary to develop new RFID products and services for the Japanese market. Under the agreement, the companies would jointly develop and sell RFID platforms and supply chain management services that use RFID. The company said it would conduct joint research on EPC global compliant RFID platforms and infrastructure technologies. HP Japan is owned by Hewlett-Packard Co, Internet Initiative Japan Inc and IIJ Technology.
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- Takara and Tomy, two toy manufacturers that have agreed to merge by March 2006, announced their aim for a group operating profit of 16 billion yen ($145.2 million) on sales of 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2009. The two companies saw a combined operating loss of 7.1 billion yen ($64.4 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31 on sales of 180.4 billion yen ($1.6 billion). The two companies disclosed their plan to come up with merger synergies, including 19 billion yen ($172.4 million) in cost-cutting measures.
- Sony Corp. announced the addition of internet access to its Play Station Portable (PSP), a move aimed at increasing the mobile gaming device's appeal as a handheld entertainment center. Sony Computer Entertainment America is also offering PSP users a software upgrade that will allow wireless internet access on the device, plus a new web browser that would connect to news, entertainment content, online searches and e-mail. Sony of Japan said it has sold nearly 2 million units in North America since its launching in March.
Mobile/Wireless
- The Japanese and Chinese governments announced the finalization of their plans to cooperate in developing technology for 4G cellular phones. The agreement is expected to bring together the technical expertise of Japanese manufacturers with the Chinese market, considered as the world's largest cell phone market. Under the agreement, top officials on the ministerial level from the two countries are going to meet periodically. A bilateral forum will also be formed composed of representatives from the industry, the academe and government. Through the partnership, the two countries will aim for the leading role in the development of handset technologies as well as communications infrastructure and data processing systems.
- Connect Technologies said it has come up with a computer system that analyzes the causes of failures in delivery of cell phone messages. The company is targeting companies that have difficulty getting their messages to customers whose phones block important messages. Included in the target companies are those firms putting out advertisements via cell phones and those that need to send urgent messages about product recalls. The new product will be offered through an application server. A dedicated server is priced at 2 million yen ($18,000). Another 1 million yen ($9,000) is required to purchase additional functions that would automatically send a returned message again.
- Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. announced its booking of a special profit of 249 billion yen ($2.6 billion) this fiscal year. The profit comes from the sale of its stake in its mobile unit NTT DoCoMo Inc., which brought back its shares. The telecommunications giant also increased its parent net profit estimate for this fiscal year to 394 billion yen ($3.5 billion) from 174 billion yen ($1.5 billion). NTT, however, lowered its parent pretax profit outlook to 174 million yen ($1.5 billion) from 177 billion yen ($1.6 billion).
Semiconductors
- Mitsui High-tec announced its plans to build a semiconductor-testing facility at its plant in Fukuoka Prefecture, with the project valued at 400 million yen ($3.6 million). The facility will conduct operations that will allow the monitoring of the performance of chips that have been exposed to high temperatures for an extended period of time. The new operations are expected to reduce the amount of testing needed for chips used by automakers and other manufacturers of durable products.
- Noah Corp, a dealer of used equipment for semiconductor production, announced its plans to go public on the Nagoya Stock Exchange's Centrex market for start-ups. The company has tie-ups with about 60 Japanese and U.S. trading and leasing companies, which it uses to obtain used equipment. With the U.S. as its biggest source of supply, Noah said it aims to establish there a local subsidiary. The company is set to expand also its sales to companies in Taiwan and South Korea. In July, Noah has closed an agreement with a Taiwanese chip trading company. Through this Taiwanese firm, Noah is looking to securing an access to the Chinese market. The earnings of the company are affected by the chip market situations; demand, however, for used equipment and the related services surges when the market is down. Noah hopes to raise 150 million yen ($1.3 million) from the IPO. It plans to use the fund to improve the capacity of its plant in Yokohama.
Hardware
- NEC Electronics announced the development of a digital video decoder that can handle two major standards for analog television transmission. The product has a single chip that accommodates the NTSC and PAL standards. The chip also incorporates a 3-D luminance and color separator for sharp display of color with low noise. PAL is widely used in China while NTSC is the one that is used in Japan and the U.S. The new chip can also be used for SECAM standard, which is commonly used in France.
Korea
Internet
- KT Corp. announced its selection of Siemens Communications and Sycamore Networks to deliver an optical switching solution. KT will deploy the optical switching solution in order to boost the performance and scalability of its high-speed communications infrastructure. The technology is going to be a part of KT's nationwide backbone network needed for its next-generation voice and data applications. Industry analysts see this development as a significant win for the two companies. The switching solution will come by way of Siemens and Sycamore global strategic alliance, which is part of an agreement between KT and Siemens' partner KDnet.
Hardware
- Samsung Electronics Co. posted record revenue from its sales of LCD panels in July, according to DisplaySearch, a US-market research firm. For July, Samsung's revenue from LCDs went up 9.3 percent from the previous month to $916 million. This makes Samsung, the first company to surpass the $900 million mark in terms of monthly revenue, the study said. LG. Philips LCD, the largest LCD manufacturer in the world from March to May period, is still at No. 2, a position it held since June. Samsung is aiming to meet the growing demand for larger-sized LCDs and raise its revenue by expanding its output of 40-inch LCDs to 150,000 units by the end of the year. The market research, however, indicated that Samsung's record revenue is in part ascribable to larger sales of small-sized LCDs. A separate study made by Tokyo Survey Research showed Samsung getting 10.7 percent of the world's small-sized LCD market last year, putting it at No. 4, behind Sharp, Epson Imaging Devices and Toshiba Matsushita Display.
China
Internet
- Baidu posted its first earnings report since the company's IPO earlier this month, with its quarterly net profit surging to 12.1 million yuan ($1.5 million) from 1.7 million yuan ($210,000) in the same quarter last year. The company reported revenue for the quarter that more than doubled to 69.7 million yuan ($8.4 million) from 24.1 million yuan ($3 million) in the same quarter last year. Its online marketing revenue went up to 66.7 million yuan ($8.2 million), which was nearly three times from the year earlier. Baidu forecasts a third-quarter revenue that would be from 77.4 million yuan ($9.5 million) to 81.2 million yuan ($10 million).
- The latest statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) indicate that about 720,000 web sites under the domain name of "CN" have been registered in China by the end of July 2005. The numbers show the first time China surpasses Japan in this area, with "CN" making it as the largest in Asia. In July, about 100,000 web sites were registered under the "CN" domain name. With some 100 million netizens and tens of millions of enterprises, industry observers agree on the huge potential for the development of "CN" domain name. The figures are also seen by analysts as marking the "revival" of China's Internet industry.
- Higher broadband internet penetration and the new practice of singer-songwriters in China to release original materials directly to the internet is creating new online music stars - all done without the backing of the traditional record producers. The practice or fashion has been initiated by Tom Online, which, in partnership with Beijing Online Show Digital Media, owns the rights to more than 60 song titles. The firm also holds the copyright to distribute the songs as ring tones and connecting tones, with the revenues from the offering apportioned among Tom Online, China Mobile and Beijing Online Show. The practice also highlights one development in the country, the popularity of online services offering downloads of non-pirated and original music tracks.
- About 10 percent of companies and 20 percent of individuals in China's ten major cities are using online banking services, according to a survey made by the China Financial Certification Authority (CFCA). The survey results indicate that 19.4 percent of individuals are using online banking services, with 35.8 percent of individuals intending to use online banking services for the next year. Enterprises that use online banking services make up for 10 percent of the total number of enterprises surveyed, while 25.5 percent of the companies asked said they may use said services in the future. The study revealed that the two main reasons for not getting into online banking services were a lack of knowledge about the services and concerns over the security over the Internet.
Mobile/Wireless
- The latest report from the Ministry of Information Industry shows China's domestic mobile phone makers regaining market share placed at 46.1 percent in the first half. The report says of the 62.8 million handsets sold in the first half, 28.9 million were manufactured by domestic producers. With combined sales of 10.4 million units in the first half, Ningbo Bird Co., TCL Group and Haier Group are still the top 3 domestic players. Domestic producers had been facing consistent declines in market share over recent years because of increasing competition from foreign producers and the flooding of the market with imitation products.
- A system called "Anti-Online Game Addiction System" has been introduced by the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), with the aim of restricting the time of regulating the time gamers spend online. Defining playing an online game for less than three hours as healthy, the system will begin to restrict players once the players spend more than five consecutive hours in online games. The system, which works like an addiction prevention system cuts certain in-game benefits to players after three hours. The cuts are translated to fewer "experience points" to the players' online characters, with virtual goods acquired (i.e. weapons) given less value. The players will also be warned every 15 minutes after a consecutive five hours of online games. The system, according to GAPP, will be tested on seven Internet companies, which include Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., Netease.com Inc., The9 Ltd., Sina.com and Sohu.com Inc.
- China's TV advertisement revenue reached 30.9 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) in 2004, a figure that represents a 15.3 percent increase on the revenue of the previous year, according to data from the Chinese Television Artists Association. The revenue of China Central Television (CCTV) was placed at 8 billion yuan ($988.1 million), which stands for 25.9 percent of the total TV advertising revenue in China. In 2004, the report noted the revenue of TV stations in the provinces posting 15.6 billion yuan ($2 billion), which represents 50.5 of the total advertising revenue in China. At the end of 2004, there were some 2,300 TV channels in China, 60 of which were satellite TV channels and 86 paid TV channels, all of which sent total broadcast hours of 11 million via TV programs. The report expects the TV ad sector to post 35 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) revenue in 2005.
- China's magazine advertisement revenue in 2004 posted a 16.5 percent decline to 2 billion yuan ($247 million) from the year earlier, according to reports from the 2005 Magazine Advertisement Seminar. A top official of the China Magazine Association said that magazine advertisements currently account for just 1.6 percent of China's total media advertisement revenue, compared to the 5 to 6 percent market share percentage level in other Asian countries.
Hardware
- China's network equipment market is forecast to reach 6.2 billion yuan ($765 million) in the second quarter of this year, according to market research company Analysys. The figure represents a 4.1 percent increase quarter on quarter and 8.1 percent year on year. Routers and switches continue to be the major movers in the network equipment market in the second quarter, the study shows. Grabbing a market share of 57.7 percent, LAN switches made up the 31 percent, routers 18.7 percent and ATM switches getting 8 percent.
Telecommunications
- ZTE Corp. posted net profit of 660.4 million yuan ($81.5 million) in the first half, a decline from the 724.1 million yuan ($89.4 million) it had in the same period last year. The company saw its sales revenue went up to 10.3 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) from 10.1 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the first half. The country's second-largest telecom equipment manufacturer explained its weaker profits as the result of its expanded investments in the international market in the first half. The investments have yet to produce high returns.
Taiwan
Semiconductors
- United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) of Taiwan announced the expansion of its licensing agreement with Rambus, a US technology licensing company focused on high-speed chip interfaces. The agreement will allow UMC clients to have access to the U.S. company's broad portfolio of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express-based Interfaces. The PCI Express Interface standard is considered one of the industry's most successful for chip-to-chip interconnects and can be found in system applications that are used in supercomputers as well as PCs and digital TVs.
Hong Kong
Internet
- China.com was reported to be applying for a listing on the NASDAQ Stock Market with the aim in mind to increasing its investor base. The company is the owner and operator of Internet portal China.com, a mobile-value-added service and an online game provider in China. CDC Corp., its NASDAQ-listed parent has an 81.3 percent stake in the firm. Formerly known as Hongkong.com Corp, the company was listed on Hong Kong's Growth Enterprise Market in 2000.
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- Tom Group Ltd., a media conglomerate, announced an 18 percent increase in its revenue to HK$1.4 billion ($180.3 million) in the first half of 2005. The group said its profit for the first half of this year was HK$169 million ($21.7 million), compared to HK$683 million ($88 million) in the same period of last year. The company ascribes this profit in the first half of 2004 to the spin-off of its Internet business, Tom Online. Businesses of the conglomerate cover the provision of Internet portal and wireless Internet services, publishing, sports event and marketing, television, and outdoor media. In a separate report, the company disclosed that it is reviewing its partnership with Beijing Media Corp over the loss-making China Open tennis tournament. Beijing Media had announced in its 2004 results announcement that last year's China Open tournament brought them a HK$40.3 million ($5.1 million) loss even with a HK$21.5 million ($2.7 million) subsidy from the government. Tom and Beijing Media forged a 10-year joint venture, which is called China Open Promotion, last year to co-organize the tournament with the Beijing government.
Mobile/Wireless
- Sim Technology Group revealed its deal with British operator Vodafone Group on the development of made-to-order 2.5G and 3G handsets. The company expects to export from 200,000 to 300,000 2.75G handsets to Europe this year. Total shipment of Sim Technology handsets is forecast to double this year to 4 million. The company, a mobile phone design firm, said it received its first European order this year from TIM, an Italian mobile operator. The company sold almost all of its phones to Lenovo and Ningbo Bird, both mainland vendors, in the first half. Sim Technology, which outsources the manufacture of its products to mainland firms, posted a net profit of HK$109.5 million ($14 million), a big increase from HK$48.6 million ($6.2 million) a year earlier. Its revenue went up 60 percent to HK$926.7 million ($119.2 million).
Singapore/Malaysia/Philippines/Indonesia
Media, Gaming and Entertainment
- Autodesk announced that Playware Studios Asia, a Singapore-based gaming studio, has bought multiple sets of Autodesk 3ds Max animation software. The purchase of the product is aimed at pushing the firm's growth into the 3D games market and to prepare its team for the development of the company's first Massively Multiplayer Online Adventure (MMOAG). Playware is targeting a growth that would bring it into the realm of 3D gaming, a project that is supported by the Media Development Authority in Singapore. Autodesk is the world's leading software and services company for the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, media and entertainment and wireless data services fields. Its 3ds Max software is reputed to be the most popular 3D tool for game development.
Hardware
- Inter-Active Media said it will begin the distribution in Europe of its PhoneDrives, a device that enables users to make telephone calls with a personal computer. The Singapore-based firm is targeting for its product and technology the Middle East market and those in the other parts of Asia. Already, Inter-Active Media has signed a partnership with Plant Pharama of Hungary, which will allow the European firm to sell the device in countries such as Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Germany, Serbia and Slovenia. When plugged into any laptop or PC with an Internet connection, the PhoneDrive would allow users to place cheaper local and long-distance calls. The device functions also as a flash-memory data storage device. It works with Microsoft's operating system.
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