PCCW Taiwan Links With Direct Sales Company
asia.internet.com
By Steve Crook
Taiwan Correspondent, asia.internet.com
[October 13, 2000--TAIPEI] Taiwan Telecommunications Network Services Co. Ltd. (TTN) has signed up 15,000 new customers for its Internet services in the week since it unveiled a co-branding and marketing agreement with direct sales company Nu Skin Enterprises, a TTN spokeswoman said Friday.
On October 4, TTN, a subsidiary of Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW), and Nu Skin Enterprises announced that Nu Skin's Big Planet Web and telecommunications products would be made available to Taiwan residents.
The dial-up package consists of TTN's standard Web access service, plus a Big Planet e-mail mailbox. Technical and customer support is being provided by TTN.
According to TTN spokeswoman Rossini Yen, the arrangement was proposed by U.S.-based Nu Skin. TTN is the first Taiwanese ISP to market Web access services through direct selling channels.
Yen said that the deal enables the ISP to target Nu Skin's 600,000 members in Taiwan (of whom around 100,000 are classified as active independent distributors). TTN is aiming to attract 50,000 new customers from this group by the end of the year, she said.
The choice of Nu Skin/Big Planet by TTN is not an obvious choice. Big Planet is far from a major player in the U.S. ISP market, and while Nu Skin has operations throughout Asia, its bundled telecoms model has not been attempted by other providers.
No monetary value was placed on the agreement.
As part of the agreement, an online community serving Nu Skin distributors in Taiwan and their customers will be established.
TTN currently has around 420,000 dial-up customers, making it the island's third-largest ISP.
Like its rivals HiNet, SeedNet and FETNet, TTN sells Internet access kits through convenience stores around the island. TTN has a co-branding arrangement with portal site Kimo. |
