CompuServe has the widest coverage of the major proprietary on-line services accessible to Hong Kong-based users.
Although last year CompuServe threw itself open completely to the Internet revolution, the firm maintains that the management of its own separate network for international data traffic gives it a secure framework, free from the anarchy of the Internet. The latest Macintosh and Windows versions of the CompuServe e-mail and browser software can work with either Netscape's Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
CompuServe included an Internet browser in its WinCIM and CompuServe for Macintosh software in 1995 when it bought Spry, a software firm that developed its own version of the Mosaic browser developed at the University of Illinois.
Three years ago it first opened its e-mail gateway to incoming and outgoing Internet traffic - a move that helped boost its subscriber numbers from less than two million to its present five million.
America On-Line, better known as AOL, has about eight million users, but its coverage is restricted to North America, France, Germany and Britain.
AOL plans to expand services in Japan this year and boasts a special AOL GlobalNet service for roaming users, which covers 230 cities in 83 countries.