With sales in the online shopping sector doubling last year from 2004, PC Home Online (網路家庭), the nation's fourth-largest online portal and its largest virtual store, said it expects revenue to continue growing at a fast pace this year.
PC Home reported online sales of more than NT$4 billion (US$123.9 million) last year, up from NT$2 billion in 2004, Vincent Hsieh (
Sales will surpass NT$5 billion this year, he added.
After travel packages and flight tickets, the nation's online shopping market totaled NT$17.34 billion last year, Hsieh said, citing a report released by the Market Intelligence Center (
PC Home occupied 23 percent of the market, making it the nation's largest online shopping site, he added.
Although many people have expressed pessimism about the prospects for electronic commerce in Taiwan because of the high density of brick-and-mortar stores, "Our stunning growth proved that theory wrong," Hsieh said.
In addition to its current product line-up of 80,000 items ranging from electronics to clothes and accessories, PC Home will make inroads into the travel business by selling air tickets, he said.
This service is expected to be launched within a month, Hsieh said.
Shares of PC Home gained NT$0.60 to close at NT$47.80 on the over-the-counter market yesterday, more than double their value in January last year, when the company offered its shares at NT$21.90.
PC Home's virtual shopping mall contributed around 90 percent of the company's total income, while another promising pillar is its Internet telephony service, which is co-branded with Skype Technologies SA.
The high penetration rate of broadband Internet access, the improving online transaction mechanism and maturing online shopping behavior will bolster the online retailing business, said Joyce Tzeng (曾淑華), PC Home's deputy manager of public relations.
Derick Wu (吳奉遠), an analyst at Capital Securities Corp (群益證券), agreed that Web-related businesses would keep growing in Taiwan, without suffering the same fate as search giant Google Inc.
Google has lately faced a series of abrupt downturns in its stock price, with the latest drop precipitated by the company's chief financial officer telling investors that its earnings growth is slowing.
"Unlike Google, which merely operates an online portal, PC Home also generates an income from online shopping and Internet calls, which are both businesses with a lot of potential," Wu said.
Another Web-based company that is seeing tremendous success is 104 Corp (
The company debuted on the over-the-counter market on Feb. 17 at NT$95 per share, reaching a intra-day high of NT$193 on the same day. Investors have continued to support the company, with shares of 104 Corp hitting the upper 7 percent daily limit to close at NT$211.50 yesterday.
Despite the solid results of PC Home and 104 Corp, Wu said that both stocks are overvalued, pumped up by investors' high expectations for Internet businesses.
PC Home's price-to-earnings ratio is almost 20, while 104 Corp's is 17, Wu said.
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