As the competition for eyeballs and advertising dollars grows fierce, leading Web portal company Kimo Corp (奇摩站) isn't worried.
The company is on an ambitious course, planning to treble its revenue this year while ramping up the e-commerce side of its business.
The stakes are huge. Taiwan's Internet services industry is expected to grow to NT$26 billion this year, up from NT$12 billion last year.
In the mean time, Kimo hopes to raise between US$40 million and US$50 million through a private placement offering before the end of this month. There is also a NASDAQ initial public offering in the works, which could come by the end of the third quarter, according to T. J. Huang (
Kimo.com (www.kimo.com.tw), a unit of Sysware, is 33 percent owned by Systex.
"The first-time strategic placement is to help us find partners in Hong Kong and China that can help us with the NASDAQ listing and expand market share in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China," said David Lu (
Lu said Kimo would use its experience running a top portal site in Taiwan to help it win market share overseas.
"We intend to replicate our success in China and Hong Kong," Lu said. "Taiwan's Internet market has developed faster than the market in those areas."
In May, government agency Market Intelligence Center reported that Kimo.com was the most frequently visited site in Taiwan, attracting 34 percent of the nation's four million Internet users.
As of last month, more than 1.5 million Web surfers were registered Kimo members, according to the company, while total page views per day were estimated to be 15 million.
Lu, however, stressed Kimo's "regional approach," meaning that the company spices up its portals with local flavors. For example, for its Hong Kong portal, Kimo has partnered with the South China Morning Post, a deal that will allow Net surfers to read the paper at Kimo's Web site.
Kimo is also negotiating similar arrangements with a few of China's newspapers to deliver content in simplified Chinese.
According to International Data Corp's recent report, there are roughly 11 million Internet users in Asia, and the number is expected to grow to 42 million by 2001. Online shopping worldwide is also forecast to grow dramatically from US$2.7 billion today to US$72 billion by 2003.
According to Lu, Taiwan's Web portal industry is definitely booming, with high barriers to entry keeping out newer players.
But there is still room for further growth, as Taiwan's Internet users are relatively young and most of the nation isn't connected yet.
"Taiwan's mean population age is 37, but the mean age of registered users is only 28," Lu said.
This year, Kimo expects to introduce between 10 to 20 new products, including services such as an online calendar, shopping mall and an auction site.
In order to attract more surfers, "We intend to invest millions to tens of millions in real-world marketing," Lu said. "We expect to see our revenue triple this year."
Last year, revenue was roughly NT$65 million, which was generated mostly from advertising.
Michael Chang (
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