bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Pacific Century CyberWorks has laid off 20 staff working on Netvigator portals in Taiwan, Malaysia and Canada as part of a restructuring of consumer Internet services.

CyberWorks announced two weeks ago that 340 workers in Hong Kong would be laid off next month as the company tries to cut costs and find ways to make money with its portal strategy.

The Netvigator Web sites in Hong Kong and elsewhere will stay operational until July 31, and continue to provide free e-mail service until then. CyberWorks does not provide Internet access service to Taiwan, Malaysia and Canada.

Netvigator services for paid subscribers in Hong Kong will not be affected.

The decision to shut down Netvigator and lay off staff, mostly from content-related positions, and keep the ailing Network of the World (Now) service, formerly based in London, had raised some eyebrows.

According to Internet research firm Iamasia, Netvigator has a 31.8 per cent reach in Hong Kong and has been rated consistently in the top 10 local sites, whereas now.com has less than 2 per cent reach.

Now was criticised when it was launched in June last year for producing content to which audiences in Asia could not relate. CyberWorks chief executive Richard Li had promised Now.com.hk would feature diverse and localised content.

At the height of dotcom fever, CyberWorks launched localised Netvigator portals in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Canada and hired staff to produce original content for the sites.

CyberWorks had hoped the portals would make money through online advertising, e-business consultancy and e-commerce. However, the Internet advertising market worldwide is sluggish, with too many portals and not enough advertisers.

This mirrors similar difficulties faced by Internet access providers in Asia, such as Singapore's Pacific Internet, which early this year hired an IBM veteran to head the company and transform its team of content producers in PacFusion, the service provider's online content portal, to become Internet services consultants.

However, this is an increasingly crowded field, with international players from IBM and Hewlett-Packard to small regional firm Chinadotcom's Ion Global.

The soon-to-be relaunched Now.com.hk site will feature local content aggregated from Hong Kong publishing and media companies including TVB, Next Media and SCMP.com - all of which have started or are about to start charging for access to their Web sites.

The content on Now.com.hk can be accessed only by paid subscribers of its broadband iTV and Ultraline services.

Winnie Yu, chief executive of Commercial Radio and head of CyberWorks' revamped Internet services division, said the goal was to double the number of subscribers to the iTV and Ultraline broadband services from 230,000 last year to 500,000 in 2003.

There are 410,000 subscribers to CyberWorks' narrowband Internet access service.

Wharf Holdings' Hong Kong Cable Television, CyberWorks' main competitor, had 520,000 subscribers as of March. Cable TV is wiring up 200,000 new subscribers to its services.



Lay-off plan under way at CyberWorks