Internet portal Hongkong.com is to charge for e-mail services that come with functions such as spam filtering and added storage.
At the same time, the company announced a reduction in mailbox size and cancellation of POP3 forwarding functions for registered users who choose not to upgrade to paid services. The company said it would move those who did not choose subscription services to a different e-mail domain - @mail.hongkong.com instead of @hongkong.com, opening the way for new users to register the abandoned @hongkong.com addresses.
An unexpected outcome of the move is that hundreds of users have contacted Hongkong.com to put themselves on waiting lists for e-mail names they do not have, according to David Li, Hongkong.com's vice-president for operations.
Popular waiting-list names include footballers such as Beckham and Ronaldo, which at the moment happen to be taken.
Several Internet portals have turned to asking users to pay for mail services in their drive to increase non-advertising revenue and recoup infrastructure costs. Mr Li estimated that more than 60 per cent of Hongkong.com's information technology costs were related to e-mail and other communications functions.
Over the past year, Tom.com, Netease and Hongkong.com sister portal China.com have also launched paid e-mail services. The Internet operations of all these China-focused portals are still losing money, though paid services such as mobile short messaging and games are being seen as potentially large sources of user revenue.