Taipei Times: There were plans for Kimo.com to list on the NASDAQ market in the US. Any date yet? And what happens if there is a downturn on the NASDAQ?
David Lu: There is not enough time left in the first quarter. Now we plan to have a first-time strategic placement to find partners in Hong Kong and China that will help us with listing on the NASDAQ and expanding market share.
We will act after the strategic placement on the condition that the NASDAQ is performing well.
TT: What will your message to the Wall Street community be?
Lu: Taiwan's Internet market has developed faster compared to China and Hong Kong. We believe that our successful experience in Taiwan can be transferred to those areas that lag behind. In other words, its crucial to replicate our successful experience.
However, we do not intend to be a Greater China portal. Our approach is a "regional approach," which means that we see China, Hong Kong and Taiwan differently, because what matters is traffic.
Our target market is the general public, not small or specific groups. Even in China, we see central China as different from southern China.
TT: What would distinguish Kimo.com in China from existing Web portals, such as Chinadotcom and Yahoo.com?
Lu: In China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, we believe that Kimo.com offers the most comprehensive products with the strongest functions.
For example, Kimo has the largest number of Web-based e-mail users, and other well-established products include community and stock information. Another example would be that Chinadotcom is not a player in the field of providing search engine capabilities, and Kimo.com is very good at that.
Yahoo.com is our direct competitor. We have winning chances in China because if Yahoo.com can win, why haven't they beat us in Taiwan?
Therefore, our goal is to replicate our successful experiences in Taiwan in other Chinese communities very quickly.
We also believe that we understand Chinese cultural differences better. China's users in general are older and Hong Kong users can speak both English and Chinese, and the most important task for us is to build up on fundamentals and then add some local flavor.
For example, we will cooperate with local newspapers, the South China Morning Post and Apple Daily in Hong Kong, and the description of content in China will be expressed in simplified Chinese.
Of course, there is our experience in marketing in Taiwan and the ability to catch users' preferences and detect change.
In three years, our product offerings have moved from search engines to communities to personalization, and the next step will be variety.
Specifically, B2B and B2C e-commerce revenue this year is set to increase from zero to 30 percent. Intended products include Kimo auctions, a Kimo shopping mall and a personalized calendar.
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