ZICA --
I am here to share some results of my research on this company
Voluntary Disclose: No position, Short/Long term rating: Sell
The following is what I find and also my thoughts:
1.
This company developed a software/input method/algo that enables people to input chinese characters.
2.
There are many software/input methods out there allow people to input chinese characters into computer, and the most popular ones are like pinyin/wubi, those are popular are because they are easy to use and you can input chinese really fast after some training, esp. using wubi method.
3.
ZICA's ziyuan method is not popular at all; however, it does has one characteristic that makes it very unique. You can use the combination of EIGHT keys to input any chinese characters. the other popular methods require a full keyboard.
4.
This is the reason why wireless phone companies like Konka/Ericcsion licensed the software from ZICA becuase a phone pad has about 12 keys maxinum.
5.
Now the question is how feasible for users to compose a chinese message by using ZICA's input method? You need to press 8 keys to input ONE character, if an average message length about 25-50 characters, you need to press 200 to 400 keys. This is impossible for users without extensive training of ZICA's input method. Are you willing to learn a new input method just to input chars in your phone message? and yet this method is so tedious?
6. Can ZICA's ziyuan software be used anywhere else besides cell phone? The answer is YES, they can be used in TV set top boxes as ZICA's PR indicates biz.yahoo.com
However, this requires the users of such a box be training to input chinese. If any average movie title is about 5 chinese characters, users have to press the keys on remote control about 40 times to finish such a task; without training, it will be very hard to figure out which 8 keys to press for a particular chinese character. Selling boxes with such a feature won't make the box sell better or sell more boxes and majority chinsee cable TV network does not even have the equipment to support the use of such a callback feature from set top boxes.
7. I was unable to get the details of the agreement between ZICA and Konka; however, what I got so far is that Konka is also developing its own input method at the current time; hopefully it will be easier to use than ZICA's.
8. There is no standardization whatsoever on set top boxes and statements like "We are looking at selling over 200,000 set top boxes in the Sichuan market by the end of 1999" is a pure lie. The cable TV market has died down in the recent years in china due to harsh regulartions and Sateallite delays.
9. Without the details of those agreements, it is hard to say if ZICA is making any money from those agreements at all.
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