Fledgling Hong Kong-based Web portal Myrice.com is broadening its menu to offer e-commerce goodies to mainland Internet users.
It recently bought three more mainland Web firms, increasing the total of companies acquired by Myrice since it was founded in July to 17. They include a job recruitment site, an on-line computer products retailer and an Internet software-development firm.
The fast-growing portal - founded by co-chief executives 21-year-old Antony Ip and former investment banker Howard Chu - already claims 1.5 million page views per day. By Myrice's own account, that puts it eighth in the mainland, though it lags far behind leaders such as Sohu.com, which claims 4.5 million page views a day.
Like Myrice, other popular portals in the mainland - such as Sohu.com, Netease, Sina and chinadotcom (previously China.com) - are embracing e-commerce to supplement their so-far-meagre advertising incomes.
With its latest purchases, Myrice is not only repositioning itself as an e-commerce firm, but is adopting a 'clicks and mortar' strategy combining on-line with off-line businesses.
For example, Myrice has purchased a company called CNtomi that is building a Chinese-language Web auction software, which it plans to sell for about 500,000 yuan (HK$466,900) per package. EBay-type auctions are, according to Mr Ip, 'huge in China' despite problems such as long delivery times and a lack of credit cards.