Yahoo announces a plethora of new deals with Taiwan

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang (楊致遠) announced three new agreements with local companies in Taipei yesterday -- in line with Yahoo's plan to expand into the Chinese-language market.

The new ventures include a content distribution and co-branding agreement with Chinatimes.com (中時網科集團), a Chinese language WAP portal service with four Taiwanese telecommunications firms, and an e-commerce agreement with 14 local retailers.

Yang said that as part of a two-year investment plan, China-Times.com, the nation's first online news service provider, will supply Yahoo-Taiwan with news, financial, career, entertainment and fashion/lifestyle Internet content in return for a cash investment in the company.

This is Yahoo's first investment in a local Internet company and the first time the China Times Group has accepted outside funding since it began operations 50 years ago.

Yahoo agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to purchase 5 percent of Chinatimes.com, and has committed to an additional 5 percent within the next two years, according to Chinatimes.com planning director Stephen Yao.

According to media reports, Albert Yu (余建新), chairman of China Times Group, said it is still too early to tell whether or not the agreement with Yahoo will help Chinatimes.com break even financially.

Most Internet Web sites are currently losing money, but are built in the hope that, as the Net grows in popularity, advertising and other revenue will follow.

Meanwhile, Yahoo also opened a Chinese language WAP portal for use with mobile phones. Four of Taiwan's largest telecommunications companies, KG Telecom (和信電 ), FarEast Tone (遠傳電信), Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大) and state-run Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) agreed to allow Yahoo to provide WAP services to their customers.

Starting today, people with WAP-enabled mobile phones can use the new Yahoo service to receive, send and forward e-mail, check stocks, access news and online dictionary, weather reports and horoscopes.

In addition, Yahoo-Taiwan is pushing forward in the e-commerce sector, signing up 14 local retailers for upcoming commerce initiatives. Details of this agreement were not disclosed.

Yahoo-Taiwan is part of Yahoo Inc's global network, which offers services to more than 145 million people each month worldwide.