Yahoo-Kimo sees revenues jump by 30% on ad sales

Yahoo-Kimo Taiwan's (雅虎奇摩) revenue grew 30 percent last year, mainly as a result of its increasing advertisement sales, a company official said yesterday.

"The economic downturn actually creates a new business opportunity for the Internet industry as local businesses become more willing to find new ways to promote their products -- such as the use of Internet ads," Charlene Hung (洪小玲), general manager of Yahoo-Kimo Taiwan, said at a press briefing.

Frank Chen (陳建銘), vice president of Yahoo-Kimo Taiwan's sales group, said the nation's online advertising market had enormous potential for this year.

"Nowadays people spend on average one-third of their time online, yet online ads only accounted for 6 percent of the entire advertising market in 2006," Chen said.

The Taipei-based Market Intelligence Center's (資策會) latest survey found that the domestic online shopping market this year would account for 3.6 percent of the retail industry, compared with 9.4 percent in the US.

Furthermore, the survey found that 80 percent of Internet users said they would be more interested in shopping online from businesses that also operate normal shops, which is the reason why traditional retail businesses are actively tapping into the e-commerce market.

"Yahoo-Kimo Taiwan invites traditional retail businesses to enter the e-commerce market and hopes to expand the market together," Hung said.