Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd, Hong Kong's biggest phone company, has scrapped the free e-mail and Web hosting services on its Taiwan Netvigator site to cut costs, Executive Vice President Raymond So said.
CyberWorks also fired more than two-thirds of its 20 staff in Taiwan and shut the Web site on June 15 for renovation. The revised site is expected to be up and running this week. The site attracted 500,000 subscribers with its free Internet services.
"The bandwidth cost of providing free home page and e-mail services to customers is very high," So said.
The company said earlier it plans to charge users of its Web entertainment service after revenue from advertising and online shopping failed to cover costs. CyberWorks has vowed to keep losses at its business-to-consumer units to US$200 million a year.
CyberWorks will reveal a new business plan for its consumer Internet operations this month. Richard Li, the company's founder, said he hopes they will break even in four years or less.
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