COMPETITION is building up in Asia's financial database business, with a newcomer threatening the established players with a smarter, larger and more user-friendly system.
The new entrant in this lucrative and technically-sophisticated field is Dataline Asia-Pacific, which provides an on-line database on the key economies of the Asia-Pacific region.
Dataline, which takes pride in the fact that it is the largest Asian-designed financial database, is based in Hongkong and can be accessed over normal telephone lines by anyone with an IBM-compatible PC and a modem.
An added feature of Dataline is that the data can be downloaded on to a personal computer without any additional programming.
And to make it easier for users, the company also supplies Intel's 486 PCs with eight-megabyte random access memory (RAM) and an 80 MB hard disk.
Users in Hongkong can dial up through Hongkong Telecom's Minilink, over a dedicated data link using either a 2,400 bits per second (BPS) or 9,600 bps modem.
The firm charges a flat fee of US$19,500 per year for unlimited access, while reduced packages are available for those who need access to certain limited sections of the database.