Advertisement

The Internet bubble

Reading Time:1 minute
Why you can trust SCMP
0

The Internet bubble may not be as big as it was a couple of months ago, but Chinaren.com believes its valuation has doubled in the three months since the Chinese-language portal received its first institutional funding.

'Our valuation has more than doubled [in the period],' chairman and chief executive Joseph Chen said. 'This is based on valuations by investors independent of management.' In March, a consortium of United States investors led by Goldman Sachs acquired 20 per cent in Chinaren. Since then its page views have doubled to 10 million, and its registered users nearly quadrupled to two million. The company has also launched a search engine - Monkey King, which invites users to post questions, rather than key words.

Despite the boom in its user community, it will be at least another two years before Chinaren sees any profits, according to Zhou Yun-fang, the chief operating officer.

Per quarter revenue growth is 300 per cent, and the company is projecting sales of US$1.5 million for this year. Its revenue streams apart from advertising are the sale of proprietary software and products to corporates, such as Intranet, e-mail and bulletin board systems and sales of Web services.

Advertisement
Advertisement