Internet
ò Mixi Inc., a Japanese internet social networking service operator, said it has received approval to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market. The company said a total of 6,600 shares will be offered to the public in its initial public offering. Of those, 4,500 are newly issued shares and 2,100 are shares currently held in private. The company is planning a public offering of an additional 500 new shares in the event of exceptional demand. The company announced it will offer all the shares through the book-building method. The company expects to net Ñ6.9 billion ($59.5 million) from the IPO. For the current fiscal year through March, the company forecasts a parent pretax profit of Ñ1.7 billion ($14.6 million), a net profit of Ñ986 million ($8.5 million), and revenue of Ñ4.7 billion ($40.5 million). Daiwa Securities SMBC is the lead underwriter of the offer.
Mobile/Wireless
ò KDDI disclosed its plans to offer mobile phones made by Sharp Corp. that would allow customers to watch digital television broadcasts. The device is seen as providing competition to a product already offered by Softbank Corp. The handset will adopt Sharp's AQUOS brand technology that is used for the consumer electronic maker's flat-panel televisions. Japanese operators have been moving to respond to strong demand for TV-capable handsets since the launch of wireless digital broadcasts in April. Such services are also offered in South Korea. Softbank, which earlier this year bought Vodafone Group Plc's Japan-unit, has been selling AQUOS phones since May.
Korea
Internet
ò SK Communications Co. said it has launched an internet community service in the US in a bid to secure a foothold in one of the world's largest cyber community markets. Opened in 2001, Cyworld has been a success in South Korea, with more than 10 million subscribers. The number stands for a significant portion of the nation's 48 million population. Cyworld's entry into the US came after SK Communications, a unit of South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co., opened a local subsidiary in October last year and ran a test version of the service. The US social-networking market is regarded to have high growth potential as it has taken off only recently. At present, only a small number of companies, which includes the hugely popular MySpace.Com, are dominating the burgeoning market. Earlier in June, the company announced the signing of deal with a European Internet firm for the launching of the social-networking service. It plans to start operations in Taiwan later this month. It maintains presence in China and Japan.
ò Yahoo Korea announced that it will start to service YTN, a 24-hour cable news channel, on the internet portal soon even as the offering straddles the grey areas where regulations for broadcasting and showing of footage over the internet are not well defined. Industry sources said that Yahoo and other major portal sites are already servicing news clips of both cable and terrestrial TV stations, but the two companies claim it is the first time for a web portal to broadcast real-time news service. Yahoo said it will provide web boards where viewers can post their opinions on news stories real-time. It also plans to show the inside scene of YTN newsroom in a separate window. The integration of Yahoo and YTN is seen as the most recent move of internet firms in encroaching on traditional mediaÆs turf in South Korea. Currently, web portals are not subject to regulations under South KoreaÆs media law. The government is planning to revise related laws next month to include web portals in the category of news media, as the influence of the Internet media becomes bigger.
Mobile/Wireless
ò The number of operators providing ring-tones, coloring, and music was said to be considerably reduced as of 2006. According to industry source, there were more or less 200 CPs (content providers) in 2003 when the mobile music market was going through a boom, but this year its number indicated a sharp drop. Currently, there are only about 100 CPs. Industry sources said it only took three years for the CP number to be reduced to half. According to Korea Contents Industry & Business Association, the actual number of CP is as follows: 70 CPs for SK Telecom Mobile Music and approx. 10 to 20 CPs for KTF and LG Telecom (except for a overlapping operator with SKT). The market size has sustained revenues of over W50 billion won ($52.1 million) since 2003, but this year it is in a recession due to a sluggish wireless data market.
ò The Pantech Group said it will establish a local subsidiary in Argentina later this month to strengthen its operations in Central and South America. The group began business in Argentina in December of 2005 by providing models to CTI Movil, Argentina's No 2 telecom service company. Although Pantech was late to enter the market, its bar-type camera phone has been topping the CTI subscribers' sales list, above Nokia and Motorola. Pantech has also been actively marketing its phones in Uruguay. In Argentina, Pantech aims for a market share of 7 percent in the cell phone sector by the end of this year. For 2007, the group hopes its market share will climb above 10 percent. Earlier this month, Pantech began selling two models in Chile through Smartcomm. The company also sells phones in Brazil and Mexico.
ò SK Telecom said it has launched its mobile-exclusive messenger, M Messenger, based on a telephone list stored in cellular phones. The user interface is in the form of chat windows, web-like environment where emoticons and flashcons can be used. The company said no separate registration of contacts is necessary. The service is primarily aimed at young clients who are into SMS and looking for faster, more fluid way to communicate. The company explained that while text messaging is popular, it lacks instantaneity. Meanwhile, instant messaging lacks mobility. SK Telecom said its M Messenger is aimed at enabling use of instant messaging while on the move.
Hardware
ò Samsung Electronics announced the launching of two Wibro notebook PC models as early as next month. The company said the notebook PCs would be the first in the world to have embedded Wibro functionalities. Currently Wibro users access the network through a PCMCIA card. The notebooks will have special software for VoIP and multimedia contents. Samsung said it will start with two models but plans to increase the product line in the future.
Telecommunications
ò The countryÆs telecom regulator and broadcasting authorities û the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Korean Broadcasting Commission û announced an agreement on cooperation in facilitating the launch of IP-TV or Internet Protocol TV. The two bodies also said they have agreed to identify a consortium as early as next month that will lead the business. The disagreement was that according to the Information Ministry, IP-TV is a new medium that should be subject to communications regulations, while the broadcasting circles argue that it should be regulated by broadcasting laws. The agreement is expected to usher in an earlier introduction of the IP-TV service, one of the nation's future growth engines and a symbol of convergence between communications and broadcasting. In a related development, KT Corp., the nation's largest fixed-line and broadband operator, is preparing to launch IP-TV. Hanarotelecom Inc., the second-largest internet operator, opened a type of internet-based television service called Hana TV last month, providing video-on-demand multimedia content to customers. The full launch of the service, however, has been delayed for several years because the ministry and the commission have failed to reach a common point with regard to the technology.
ò KT, considered the countryÆs dominant telecom carrier, said it is seeking to continue its strong presence through a converged offering called a triple play service (TPS). TPS refers to packaged features combining high-speed internet access, fixed-line telephony services and broadcasting with a single broadband network. The full-fledged introduction of TPS is still on hold because of regulatory barriers on Internet protocol TV (IPTV) and what the industry described as ôbroadband network jitters.ö IPTV is web-enabled broadcasting with a limitless number of channels, which experts note will become the mainstream audio, visual platform for TPS.
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