Taiwan Internet company PC Home Online (
The new online publication is not the first by PC Home, which already has three other titles in its stable. In May last year, the company launched ePaper, a general news e-mail publication; it also produces PC Home Daily, a Taiwan-focused news Web site; while earlier this year it launched Tomorrow Times (明日報) in conjunction with The Journalist magazine.
The new product is similar to the current ePaper, which is customized and delivered daily by email, but will have a specific business focus.
PC Home Online chairman and founder H.T. Jan (
"A lot of readers complained the paper downloaded too slowly," Jan said. "So we developed ePaper to give people the choice to have it delivered directly to their e-mail. That made it faster and more convenient for readers."
While the new paper will not only compete for consumers in an already crowded online market, the venture is considered bold in light of recent investor caution over dotcom businesses.
According to Michael Lee (
"When the NASDAQ tanked, investors started to look more closely at exactly what they were buying in an Internet company," Lee said. "Investors want to see a good business plan that shows exactly how and when the company plans to earn money."
PC Home Online has so far relied predominantly on advertising -- through Web banners -- and content sales for earnings, but the company maintains its operations by using investment money, according to Jan. The new venture will be an even greater drain on investment funds.
The new business ePaper will have to compete against a number of online newspapers and magazines serving Taiwan's online market, including PC Home's own PC Home Daily and the much talked-about Tomorrow Times.
But according to PC Home Online president Arthur Lee (李宏麟), the creation of a business news site diversifies the company's ability to earn profits by making inroads into e-commerce.
Lee said the business paper will highlight new technology, consumer products and offer restaurant reviews as well.
Readers will be able to instantly make purchases or reservations through links provided on the page.
Through partnerships and agreements with area businesses and other online media, PC Home Online's new business paper will help businesses meet customers over the Net, according to Lee.
PC Home Online was one of Taiwan's first Chinese language portals and has extensive experience in managing Web publications. Currently the company runs 60 different online magazines and newspapers.
PC Home Online has not yet put out an IPO, and according to Jan, has no plans to do so in the near future.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained