 (Japanese Site)
|

|
Taiwan's Internet Ad Market Projected to Grow Rapidly
|
June 17, 1998 (TAIPEI) -- As U.S. Internet heavyweights such as Yahoo! Inc.,
Excite Inc. and CNET Inc. set up Chinese-language Web sites, the already
competitive Web-based advertising market in Taiwan is expected to see greater
competition.
|
The market is projected to grow spectacularly this year.
Yahoo! said that it created a Chinese-language version because Internet
applications are more common in Asia and due to the great potential of the
region's cyber advertising market.
Major Taiwan-based Web site operators are reacting cautiously to the entry
of foreign rivals.
For example, ERA Group is adjusting the structure of its Internet operations,
and has begun revising its overall Web site layout.
The operator of the Kimo Web site is optimistic about the future of the local
cyber advertising market. The group expects to expand by several fold this
year. Kimo was established in the second half of 1997, and it has emerged
as one of the top ten Web sites in Taiwan.
Statistics from the Market Intelligence Center of Taiwan's Institute for
Information Industry (III) indicate that the value of the local cyber ad
market registered NT$35 million (US$1 million) in 1997, and the center
forecasts that sales will reach NT$100 million this year.
Despite its rapid growth, the local market still lags behind that of the U.S.,
where US$1 billion worth of business was registered last year. The U.S. market
scale is expected to reach US$5 billion by 2000.
A survey conducted by the III indicates that the China Times'
Website had the largest income from cyber advertising among local
companies in 1997, followed by SinaNet and SeedNet.
(Commercial Times, Taiwan)
|
|
|