Tom Group has slimmed down staffing on its Hong Kong Internet portal by laying off five people, less than a week after removing the .com from its name.
Tom spokeswoman Rachel Chan confirmed the sackings, adding that the Hong Kong portal now employed fewer than 20 people in sales and content management.
Ms Chan said Tom employed several hundred online staff on the mainland and there was content sharing with the Hong Kong portal.
'Online is still a very important part of our operation. It is just that we are expanding into other business as well,' she said.
Tom's initial public offering in March 2000 was greeted with investor frenzy, because it was one of the first Internet companies to list on the Growth Enterprise Market, and because of the backing of Li Ka-Shing.
The company spent US$20 million in the first half of that year building and promoting the site, in addition to US$10 million on operating expenses. Staffing at the company during this period was more than 300, mostly focused on setting up the Web sites and related services.
