On-line radio station likes sound of gaming

G-world, the Hong Kong company behind the recently launched Radio Republic Internet broadcast station, plans to expand into on-line gaming and introduce a settlement system to handle small on-line payments.

Links to electronic storefronts, operated by g-world and its partners, would dot the game and Internet radio site.

Purchases and payments would be handled by g-world's own settlement system, which would allow visitors to make payments as small as a few Hong Kong dollars each, according to Joseph Poon, the company's general manager.

'We're trying to make a system that targets the under-HK$100 market,' he said.

The payment system, to be introduced in the fourth quarter this year, would allow electronic retailers to charge small amounts for goods and services without having to set up merchant accounts with local banks, who have been reluctant to grant credit-card transaction capabilities to on-line retailers.

Mr Poon declined to comment on how the settlement system worked, what financial cut from transactions it would take and with which banks it was working.

G-world hoped to take advantage of the local popularity of on-line chat programs like ICQ and on-line adventure games like Ultima Online with its own chat-based role-playing game, dubbed i-Ego.

Players must interact with other on-line participants to win and sometimes even cheat each other out of treasure, according to Mr Poon.

Mr Poon's family bought g-world in March, doubled the staff to about 20 and began to focus on areas outside g-world's Internet service provider business, which was just breaking even financially, according to Mr Poon.

Radio Republic lets companies, non-profit groups and individuals with a microphone-equipped computer become Net radio broadcasters.

The latter two groups are charged $100 a month, while businesses would pay higher rates to broadcast on Radio Republic.

Hong Kong's major radio broadcasting companies, including Metro Broadcast, Commercial Radio and Radio Television Hong Kong, already broadcast live over the Net.

'When we bought g-world, we didn't have any idea of what we wanted to do. But we had the idea that communications - individual-to-individual or group-to-individual - will grow,' he said.

'And the Internet is just one very cheap way of communicating with people.' Plans for Radio Republic, which Mr Poon claims drew about 102,000 page views on the day after its launch almost two weeks ago, include 24-hour news in Chinese, adding the ability to broadcast still images and expanding to Singapore, Taiwan and the mainland through franchising.