A week in Japan tech
e-Commerce
- Rakuten is to acquire Medioport and Keeprime. Medioport provides golf course reservation services over the Internet, and Keeprime develops Internet access analysis software. Through the purchases, Rakuten, the leading online shopping mall operator in Japan, aims to expand its services and increase user numbers.
- Mitsubishi is to start online sales of overseas tours and air tickets this week, jointly with six major travel agencies and All Nippon Airways. Consumers will be able to easily compare prices and contents of tours and tickets offered by the travel agents on screen. The group plans to raise the number of partners to several dozen by the end of next year.
Telecommunications
- Fusion Communications to charge 8 yen for a three-minute telephone call anywhere in the country through an IP phone service it will start next February. The system will route calls through Fusion's own switching service by using a special number. Fusion currently charges 20 yen for a three-minute IP call because the calls must be routed through NTT's switching system.
- NEC to team up with Fusion Communications to allow customers of its Biglobe Internet service to make IP calls anywhere in the country at a rate of 8 yen for three minutes. Calls between Biglobe subscribers will be free.
Mobile / Wireless
- Cybird to begin holding internet auctions for cell phone users interested in buying TVs, PCs and other new products at discount prices. Cybird recently bought a 20% stake in start-up firm AucSale, which is currently applying for a business model patent for its auction service. The company and AucSale intend to set up a mobile phone-use Web site covering 70 million users.
- Hunet to provide high-resolution, high-speed LCD technology to Samsung SDI. The LCD technology company has developed cellular phone LCDs with a pixel density nine times higher than those of existing displays. In addition, the new LCDs can create images three times faster than other displays.
- TTP Communications (TTPCom) to supply 3G technology to Japanese mobile phone and semiconductor producers. The company set up an office in Japan in January and already supplies Toshiba and Sharp with semiconductor technology for packet communications service handsets and for mobile phones compatible with NTT DoCoMo's i-mode Internet access service.
- Three Japanese video game companies to distribute titles to mobile phone users outside Japan jointly with Vodafone of the U.K. Namco, Taito and G-mode are expected to expand the service eventually to 28 countries, keeping pace with the growth of the Internet access service of the world's top mobile phone company.
- Domestic sales of camera-equipped cellular phones tops the 10-million-unit level. One in every seven people in Japan who have a cell phone own a camera-equipped model. Shipments of cell phones have been in a downtrend, but leading wireless carriers like J-Phone and NTT DoCoMo expect sales of camera-equipped cell phones to expand during their year-end sales campaigns.
Internet
- Yahoo Japan and Recruit to work more closely together in Internet-based businesses. The two companies hope to expand these services into areas such as used-car and housing ads. The 6,000 companies that submit used-car ads to a site operated by Recruit will be able to list their ads with Yahoo Japan Auctions and its 27 million users for just a 50,000 yen monthly registration fee.
Semiconductors
- Toshiba and Fujitsu to form a partnership in three areas of semiconductor technology with the aim of halving system chip development time. The plan is in contrast to the broader integration that had been under discussion following a general agreement reached in June to engage in joint semiconductor operations.
Venture Capital / Investments
- Sanyo Electric to set up a corporate revitalization fund for small and medium-size firms. The fund will start with Y10 billion and seek investments in the fund from domestic financial institutions and others. It will buy nonperforming loans from banks, then help the corporate borrowers back on their feet using Sanyo Electric's expertise in increasing productivity and employee management.
- DLJdirect SFG Securities to become the first major Internet brokerage to trade Chinese stocks. The brokerage hopes to diversify its sources of brokerage commission revenues, which now depend mostly on handling Japanese equities. DLJdirect will handle trading in the H-class shares listed on the Hong Kong market, so-called red chip issues, and the stocks that make up the Hang Seng index.
Hardware
- NEC to sell personal computers in China, aiming to increase annual sales of notebook computers to 100,000 units in 2005. Other Japanese manufacturers, such as Toshiba and Sharp, also aim to expand PC sales in China. PC sales in China are expected to top 10 million units in the current fiscal year, exceeding those in Japan for the first time.
- Japan's domestic shipments of PDAs in fiscal 2001 came to 1.37 million units, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%, according to Yano Research Institute. The institute expects similarly slow single-digit growth in the future as well. Individual user demand, which accounted for 80% of demand, declined significantly.
- Sanyo Electric to sell two wholly-owned chip mounter units to Hitachi High-Technologies. The sale of the two units - Sanyo High Technology, which designs, manufactures and sells chip mounters, and Sanyo High-tech Service, which provides installation and support services for chip mounters - will be completed by April 1 next year.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
- Namco has developed a commercial game machine that provides characters for multiformat games that can be played on personal computers, portable game consoles and cellular phones. This device features 24 types of games, including puzzles and quizzes. When a certain score is achieved, users are rewarded with passwords that allow them to download characters from the Internet to a PC or cell phone.
- Sarugakucho to strengthen consulting operations in the field of game tuning, a service for testing and suggesting improvements to game software under development. Sarugakucho will check the operability and design of games under development on contract for game software firms, and make recommendations on game content.
A week in Korea tech
Telecommunications
- Hanaro Telecom board promotes CEO Shin Yun-sik to the position of chairman. Shin's departure from the position of president and CEO can be interpreted as a concession to interested foreign investors. The key issue for Hanaro is whether the company can attract foreign investment to make it possible for buying Powercomm.
Mobile / Wireless
- Korea's mobile Internet usage rate increases to 32.3 percent, up 4.9 percent from the level seen six months ago, the Korea Network Information Center (KRNIC) and Internet Metrix said. KRNIC and Internet Metrix's joint survey on the wireless Internet usage rate in September 2002 targeted 2,000 mobile phone users. Korea has more than 31 million mobile phone subscribers.
- Samsung to invest another $500 million in China to lift the revenue generated there to $10 billion. According to Lee Yoon-woo, president and CEO of the Device Solutions Network unit of Samsung Electronics, the investment will mean additional four manufacturing facilities. The combined turnover of Samsung companies in China is hoped to reach $10 billion next year, up 35% from this year.
- Samsung Electronics signs a licensing deal to use the Symbian operating system in smart phones for 2.5G and 3G networks. Samsung's first Symbian OS product will be a global data-enabled phone using Nokia's Series 60 user interface. Symbian licensees accounted for more than 80% of worldwide mobile phone sales, as of this year's second quarter.
Internet
- KT wins Internet consulting contract from TM Net of Malaysia. KT will provide consulting services including Internet business strategies and expertise to the Malaysian state telecom firm. Earlier, the telephone firm also succeeded in winning a supply contract from ACCA, a subsidiary of NTT of Japan, beating U.S. and Japanese rivals.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
- Korean authorities classify NCSoft flagship multi-user game Lineage fit for adults, thereby dealing a serious blow to the company's service that relies heavily on minors. The controversial decision by the Korea Media Rating Board has already hit NCSoft hard. Early this month, the company announced it would move its shares from Kosdaq to the main board, Korea Stock Exchange.
Information Technology
- Korea's info-tech export volume rose 27.2 percent on year to $4 billion in September, marking the seventh consecutive upward trend since March this year, the Ministry of Information and Communication said yesterday. Imports in the month of September reached $2.8 billion, resulting in a surplus of $1.2 billion, the ministry said.
- Nearly half of domestic IT companies are interested in foreign stock listings, according to a survey by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute of chief executive officers and chief financial officers of 346 domestic IT companies. 172 (49.7%) are interested in listing stock on overseas bourses. 32 firms (18.6%) are targeting U.S. stock markets.
A week in China tech
Telecommunications
- China's telecommunications market is showing steady growth in both fixed-line and wireless operations this year, according to figures from the Ministry of Information Industry. Mainland telecom carriers generated revenue of Rmb298.7 billion in the first nine months, a year-on-year rise of 15.4%. The carriers added Rmb114.17 billion revenue in the last quarter.
- China Telecom to consider buying five provincial networks from its state-run parent six months after its IPO. The fixed-line phone company, which will list in Hong Kong and New York, will initially include networks in three provinces and the city of Shanghai. The company hopes to raise up to $3.68 billion in the world's third-largest initial public offering this year.
Mobile / Wireless
- China Unicom signs contracts worth $1.19 billion with four telecoms equipment giants to upgrade its CDMA-standard mobile network. The contract for Motorola was valued at $350 million while Lucent's was $427 million, Nortel's $253 million and Ericsson's $155 million, the Chinese firm said in a statement.
- China Mobile the first Hong Kong-listed telco carrier to release full quarterly results. The dominant cellular carrier reported weaker subscriber growth for last month but continues to be favored over No 2 rival China Unicom due to its enhanced disclosure.
Internet
- Sohu.com posts its first quarterly profit of $112,000 for the three months through September. In the previous corresponding period, Sohu reported a net loss of $3.1 million. Sohu.com plans to spend $2 million to buy back its shares in the near future. The portal operator reached profitability one quarter earlier than scheduled.
Venture Capital / Investments
- Societe Generale to set up China's first joint venture fund management company with steel conglomerate Shanghai Baosteel Group. The new company, Fortune SG AM Management, headquartered in the eastern city of Shanghai, plans to begin doing business with a registered capital of $12 million.
Hardware
- UTStarcom to spend $97 million on an R&D center in eastern China. The two million sq. ft. center in Hangzhou City in Zhejiang would be completed next year. The center would develop base stations for its personal access system (PAS) wireless service, as well as broadband products. The California-based company expects rapid growth in China from its PAS service, also known as "Little Smart. "
- Siemens to provide IT products and know-how for its telephone switching equipment production venture in China, according to its investment partner Beijing Enterprises. The proposal was aimed to bolster the competitive edge of the mainland joint venture, Beijing International Switching System Co (BISC), in light of falling profits and growing competition in the switching equipment market in China.
- Huawei Technologies to move into the Japanese market. Huawei plans to fight its way into the market with prices at least 10% lower than its Japanese and U.S. rivals. The firm will set up an office in downtown Tokyo to handle technology support, form a sales alliance with Kanematsu and begin selling routers, LAN (local area network) switches and other equipment in Japan before the year-end.
A week in Taiwan tech
Telecommunications
- Cable television system operators in Taiwan roll out cable Internet services, pitting newcomers including Pacific Broadband and the U.S. -based Carlyle Group against established providers Asia-Pacific Online and Hoshin GigaMedia Center. Some cable providers believe there is a lot of room to develop the domestic broadband market, which consists of 1.4 million ADSL and 210,000 cable modem users.
Internet
- Yahoo Kimo launches its Taiwan dating service, hoping to replicate the success of Yahoo Hong Kong and reach profitability within a year. The Taiwan version of the Yahoo personals site joins the growing list of sites already offering online matchmaking services. Taiwan has a population of 23 million. Also competing in matchmaking are Sina and PC Home, and Microsoft's MSN site.
Semiconductors
- TSMC third-quarter profits more than doubled from last year's depressed levels but fell sharply from the previous quarter as demand faltered. TSMC, which carries out production orders for US and European microchip companies, posted net profits of NT$3.16 billion, or NT$0.16 a share, for the third quarter ended September 30. TSMC expected sales to bottom out in the next two quarters.
A week in Singapore / Malaysia tech
Semiconductors
- Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing to lay off 7 per cent of its worldwide workforce. Many of Chartered's senior management have also volunteered to take a second round of pay cuts, after their first one early last year. The layoff of 300 people is the largest in Chartered's history. About 275 are based in Singapore.
- Altera sets up operations in Singapore, and sees the region's contribution to worldwide revenues climbing to 20 per cent in the next three to five years.
Hardware
- Creative Technology narrows quarterly loss and said it expected revenues to jump 50% in the Christmas quarter from the previous quarter, despite weak demand. Creative, known for its Sound Blaster sound cards and Nomad JukeBox portable music player, said it saw revenues of $225 million to $240 million for the three months to December 31.
- Tata Consultancy Services signs MOU with NEC Singapore to explore collaboration in four key areas - security products and solutions, sale of NEC supercomputers, e-Government solutions, web integration and software development. Both companies also hope to explore joint marketing and technology development within this region, including India.
A week in Hong Kong tech
Mobile / Wireless
- Hutchison Whampoa orders one million additional 3G handsets from NEC. Last year, Hutchison ordered one million handsets each from NEC and American manufacturer Motorola. NEC delivered 1,000 handsets in April last year. While the value and length of the handset deals have not been disclosed, it is understood that the NEC contracts extend to the summer of 2004.
- Hong Kong's six mobile phone operators form two rival camps to compete with each other for cross-network multimedia messaging service (MMS) customers. Hutchison Telecommunications has partnered with Peoples Telephone Company and SmarTone Mobile Communications to launch Hong Kong's first inter-operator MMS. CSL, the mobile operation that PCCW sold to Telstra, has a similar pact with New World Mobility and Sunday Communications.
Internet
- SmarTone Telecommunications quitting the Internet dial-up business, but says it will continue to offer broadband services. The move is part of a restructuring that could also include dropping the youth mobile-phone brand Extra to improve cost efficiency. The company had notified its dial-up Internet users the service would be terminated and transferred to HKNet.
A week in tech is brought to you by FinanceAsia, and IRG, Asia's boutique investment bank to the telecoms, media and tech sectors. More can be found at:
