These contracts, according to Jan, prompted PC home Online to plan offices for Hong Kong and China. By the end of the year, Jan hopes to have offices in both locations to use as promotional points for Net Force solutions, as well as provide places from which to research potential Internet investment opportunities.
He says PC home Online probably will not open Web sites in China due to regulations that stipulate what kind of "news" can be reported. China's censors put so much pressure on Internet firms, he says, that for now selling magazines to the "China market" is enough.
Wireless and broadband
PC home Online is also looking to future technology such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and broadband. Jan says the company will announce a new WAP site next month, part of an initiative to use its cityguide.com.tw Web site with mobile technology. Cityguide.com.tw offers listings and information for over 30,000 restaurants in Taipei, and Jan thinks this kind of information suits the mobile WAP world.
"We want to build sites that make sense," says Jan. "For WAP, people may want to get convenient information about Taipei. If they're looking for a restaurant, they can find all the restaurants from our cityguide.com.tw site by using WAP and their mobile phone."
After finding the restaurant, a person can then make a quick reservation, all with the help of their mobile phone.
Jan is quick to point out that broadband has not been left behind either, with PC home Online already operating a browser that searches for broadband content.
Users who want to search for MP3 music files, pictures, or video, can already find that kind of broadband based information from PC home Online. The search engine, Jan says, is part of a move to keep PC home Online at the forefront, developing the newest aspects of the Web and bringing in the kind of broadband content people want.
Investment and IPO
According to Jan, PC home Online uses operating revenue from PC home Publications to keep the Web sites going until they become profitable on their own.
This is only one way the two businesses complement each other.
The Web sites also share content with the magazines and vice-versa. Articles written for one of the newsstand magazines may find their way onto a Web site. Web site articles may, in turn, be used in one of the magazines.
Jan says the Web sites also help to promote the magazines. Initially, it was feared that putting too much information on company Web sites might make people stop buying titles at the newsstands. Instead, the Web sites have only helped attract more readers.
"We've found that sharing content and advertising has pushed up sales for the magazines and drawn more users to the Web sites," says Jan.
Such fast growth of the Web sites, has put strain on company finances, he says.
To raise capital for further expansion, Jan plans to take PC home Online public. "We plan to IPO in September on Taiwan's TIGER stock exchange," he said, referring to Taiwan's new OTC second board. Depending on how that stock offering goes, Jan says, PC home Publications will be up next, with an IPO likely in the second quarter next year.
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