ASIA ON-LINE claims to have resolved key security, language, technology and marketing issues that have delayed rival electronic traders and last week staged a pre-beta test launch of its ambitious Internet trading service.
Joseph Sweeney, director of Evolution Ltd, the on-line products and services marketing arm of AOL's parent company Asia Communications Global, said free software would soon be available on file transfer protocol (ftp) sites and would be distributed on diskettes.
'Our current subscribers will be able to order the software on-line and this controlled test is soon to be expanded with another batch of 500. ' Mr Sweeney said.
'This software will be available to the world, any Internet user on any domain with any ISP will be able to use it.
'It's not just for our subscribers.' The software includes news browsing functions, on-line shopping and ticketing services all grouped into separate modules.
Access to the World-Wide Web, the graphical section of the Internet that has popularised the use of the Internet as a communications medium, is a separate module that can be customised to each user's choice of Net browser.