Two of Taiwan's leading Internet service providers have reported strong revenue growth in the third quarter of this year.
Kimo.com, a portal, said its revenue in the third quarter rose 69 percent to NT$97 million, while Seednet, an ISP, recorded profits of NT$12 million in the same period.
Growth year-on-year for Kimo's revenue is evident when comparing the total revenue for the first three quarters of NT$185 million, which has expanded by 400 percent over the figure for the same time last year.
The majority of Kimo's revenue was generateed by advertising, accounting for 89 percent, while its e-commerce enabling service earned around 11 percent of the company's total income.
According to Kimo's data, the percentage of revenue earned from advertising has grown on average by 72 percent every quarter since the beginning of the year, with revenue from ads in the third quarter growing by a staggering 408 percent over the same period last year.
Solid third-quarter earnings at Seednet were balanced by an operating loss of NT$180 million in the first two quarters of the year. And while previous forecasts had claimed that Seednet would only become in 2002, Chang Chia-chun, president of Digital United Inc -- which owns Seednet -- has said that the company will end 2000 in the black because of lower operating costs and strong sales of broadband access services.
Seednet has around 500,000 dial-up subscribers, trailing market leader Hinet.
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