bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Ella Lee

It may be the Chinese-language Internet's equivalent of America Online's buyout of Netscape Communications.

 Beijing-based software developer Stone Rich Sight Information Technology (SRS) says its merger with Web content provider Sinanet.com earlier this month will accelerate its transformation into a fully fledged Net service firm.

 The new company, to be called Sina Inc, combines the software expertise of SRS - maker of popular Chinese-language 'enabler' RichWin - and the popular Web portal operated by California-based Sinanet. com.

 It said it would create what would be the world's largest Chinese-language Web portal, with about 65 million page views per month - twice as many as its nearest rival, Yahoo! Chinese.

 A portal site acts as an entry point, preferably the default home page, for Net users, and typically includes resources such as news, entertainment, financial services, job listings, free e-mail, and more.

 Sina officials said its portal would have 400,000 registered members and 1.4 million visitors - a not-insignificant percentage of the estimated 6.4 million Chinese-reading Internet users worldwide.

 With a market value of $50 million, Sina may list on the Nasdaq exchange in the second half of next year.

 The timing would depend on the state of the venture-capital market, as well as Sina's business growth, said Daniel Chiang, president of Sinanet.com and chief executive of Sina.

 SRS chief executive Wang Zhidong, who will become Sina's president, said 'relative' criteria, such as Sina's share of Web visitors compared with those of its rivals, rather than 'absolute' indices such as revenue or number of customers, were better suited to measuring a company's readiness to go public.

 Running on top of English-language operating systems such as Windows and OS/2, SRS' RichWin software lets users read and write simplified and traditional Chinese.

 There were three million RichWin users, mainly in Hong Kong and the mainland, Mr Wang said.

 The SRS' Web site, Richsight Online, has been offering news and entertainment since April.

 It said it had one million page views per day, comparable with Sinanet.com and Yahoo! Chinese. The combined SRS-Sinanet daily page views, therefore, would be more than 2.4 million.

 'It is critical for us to maintain our No 1 position,' Mr Wang said. Since Sina already was the largest player, its target was to increase the total market size rather than simply its market share, he said.

 Sina runs three separate Web sites in the mainland, North America and Taiwan.

 It plans to continue localisation by creating a site aimed at Hong Kong users.

 Sina also plans to offer Web services such as e-mail, Web searching, on-line shopping and chat rooms.

 Revenues are expected to come from advertising, sponsorships and e-commerce opportunities.

 Sina officials refused to disclose how much it makes through Web advertising and sponsorships, but said it had more than 20 advertisers each in Taiwan and the mainland, and more than 50 in the United States.

 Most advertisers were multinational, computer-related companies, such as IBM, Intel and AT&T.

 Mr Wang said SRS software technologies could help develop new interactive Web services and e-commerce applications, and finally take advantage of their Internet business.

 Mr Chiang, a professional basketball player in Taiwan before becoming president of Taiwan-based anti-virus software maker Trend Micro, said Sina also might sell SRS software through the Web.

 Sina's revenue breakdown between software and Internet businesses would vary from country to country, Mr Wang said.

 'In North America, most will come from electronic commerce or related services. But it will be the opposite in the mainland, where electronic commerce is still in its infancy.'  California-based Sina has a combined workforce of 220 in Beijing, Taiwan and the US Silicon Valley. It will establish two sales offices in Hong Kong and New York, while research and development will be conducted mainly in Beijing.



Merger spawns first big Chinese-language portal