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Mark O'Neill

Internet upstart Sparkice.com aims to raise US$100 million through an overseas stock listing to fuel its strategy of dominating mainland electronic commerce.

 Sparkice.com is in talks with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter about listing within a year, possibly on the Nasdaq or a high-tech board scheduled to open in Hong Kong, company chairman Edward Zeng said yesterday.

 'We're targeting foreign credit-card holders first, and then domestic consumers,' Mr Zeng said.

  Sparkice.com, a joint venture between China Unicom and Shi Hua Kai, a firm set up in Canada by Mr Zeng, launched its service on the first day of the Beijing International High-Tech Industries Week at the National Agricultural Exhibition Hall.

 Sparkice official David Ouyang said last September the company had put on the Web six mainland stores offering thousands of products, mainly toys, gifts and artistic wares.

 This week, buying and selling of the products between mainland companies and overseas customers became possible, by credit card.

 'The clients pay $10,000 to $20,000 for the service. We aim to have 80 by the end of this year and that is a conservative estimate. Of course, we are not earning much from this. Mainland e-commerce needs a period of transition,' he said.

  Sparkice wants to become the dominant mainland-based provider of global e-commerce to and from the mainland and for this purpose has teamed up with Intershop and CyberCash, two leading IT companies.

 Mainland foreign trade last year was $324 billion, ranking ninth in the world, and other companies are racing to transfer transactions of this trade from the physical to the electronic world.



Sparkice.com seeks US$100m from overseas listing as it eyes dominance