LEADING CHINA WEBSITE SEEKS WESTERN PARTNER10/29/97 -- Xindeco Joint Stock Corporation, China's first publicly listed information technology company, is currently seeking Western partners to co-brand and co-develop its popular website, ChinaVista. Located on the World Wide Web at http://www.chinavista.com, ChinaVista is the Internet's leading, full-service, website on China business, travel, and culture.
"We have learned much about China's Internet market over the past two years," says Yun Tao, GM of the Xindeco Business Information Company, the Xindeco subsidiary which produces ChinaVista. "Our position as one of China's pioneer online content developers has given us the chance to experiment with a multiplicity of strategies and gauge response from both the China local and international Internet communities. "
Since the opening of the ChinaVista website last year, Xindeco has become increasingly focused on what it believes to be a winning, if controversial, business strategy it calls the "China Internet Reverse Market Model."
Online publishing companies looking to reap profits from Chinese web surfers today are confronted with an unpleasant reality: China's domestic market is not likely to be able to sustain commercial web services for several years. The Internet user base is very small (under 300,000,) the banking system lacks the standardization necessary to support online transactions, paid online advertising is non-existent, and Chinese people, in general, are just not yet fully accustomed to paying for information.
"To see the value in China's Internet market, you must look at it in reverse," says Xindeco's chief Internet consultant Kenneth Farrall. "Rather than looking in, toward Chinese consumers, one must look out to the hundreds of thousands of businesses and individuals who seek China-related information."
Each year countless books and magazine articles attest to the West's growing fascination with China's "market of one billion." A majority of businesses, however, are faced with often insurmountable barriers of language, distance, cultural differences, and a lack of even basic market information. ChinaVista provides the Western business community with the tools, information, and services it needs to overcome these barriers and gain access to China's markets.
In the past several months, ChinaVista has established strategic relationships with China's top business information sources and consulting companies, including Wanfang Data Corporation, the China State Information Center, and China Daily. Next week, ChinaVista will be unveiling a new online business information and consulting service that showcases the best these companies have to offer. The new service will offer pre-packaged information products like Chinese company database CD-ROMs, subscriptions to monthly economic statistical reports, custom market research, document translation, and consulting referrals.
At the same time, the site has teamed up with the country's leading tourist agencies, including China International Travel Services (CITS,) to offer comprehensive travel information and assistance for business and recreational travelers alike. "With the popularity of our "China Virtual Tours" website (www.chinavista.com/virtualtours.html), we have decided to expand services and give visitors more access to useful information such as plane and train schedules, visa applications, and event calendars, " says ChinaVista travel site manager, Frances Cool. "The China tourism market is worth well over a billion dollars annually, and online China travel services are sure to play a major role in the near future. "
ChinaVista's unique, high quality offerings have drawn praise and recognition from media and Internet organizations throughout the world. Last March, ChinaVista was chosen by CNN as one of only six web sites in China to be listed in its Asia-Pacific site index. In July, USA Today awarded ChinaVista its prestigious Hot Site award. ChinaVista has since received recognition from Wired, ZDNet, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and has received "Best of Asia-Pacific" awards from both Sintercom and Orientation. ChinaVista's monthly site hits have grown from just over 19,000 to well over half a million (700,000) hits in twelve months, an annual growth rate of more than 3500%. The site now serves more than 1600 unique visitors a day.
"We believe the value of our "reverse market" strategy is already evident in the site's numerous international awards, exploding site traffic, and rapidly growing membership base," says Farrall. "The model, however, can only be fully realized in cooperation with an established, Western online publisher, so that we can market these services more aggressively."
The ideal partner would contribute worldwide name recognition, strong sales and marketing presence in the United States, dedicated hosting facilities, and an online payment and billing system, in return for a share of revenues. Details about the proposed partnership can be obtained by e-mailing Xindeco's Senior Internet Consultant, Kenneth Farrall, kfarrall@chinavista.com, or viewing online materials located at http://www.chinavista.com/announce/release1.html.
"This is an exciting time for Xindeco and ChinaVista," says Xindeco Chairman, Gao Xiao. "ChinaVista has logged an impressive array of achievements in the past year, and we see even bigger and better things for our second year. We cordially invite interested Western companies to join in mutually beneficial cooperation as we continue to explore the frontiers of international exchange and commerce on the Internet."