New now targets entertainment
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
ANH-THU PHAN
Entertainment content will be the main emphasis when Hong Kong's dominant telecommunications provider introduces the latest version of its now.com.hk portal next week.
PCCW HKT plans to introduce streaming films, games, music and news to the Web site, in the hope this content will draw more users to the portal and PCCW's broadband service.
PCCW will be joining a long list of broadband providers with content offerings in the works. Sony's So-net is banking on entertainment content such as games, CLP's Oxygen will emphasise its video-on-demand services, iCable plans to launch a variety of subscription-based channels and Pacific Supernet is considering launching online gaming.
The introduction of such bandwidth-hungry content should help spur the market and push broadband penetration from 14 per cent of households to more than 20 per cent by the end of the year, said Dominic Leung, who heads PCCW's consumer Internet service.
"For PCCW, we are working on parallel tracks. We, of course, push the broadband connectivity. On the other hand, we want to stimulate the market. That is why we are working on a content portal," said Mr Leung.
PCCW announced its plan to charge for access to now.com.hk last month, at a monthly rate of HK$30 on top of the about HK$300 broadband subscription charge. Next week's launch will include free programming from Television Broadcasts and Commercial Radio, though premium content will be billed to subscribers at HK$1 to HK$20 per use.
PCCW is the largest provider of broadband Internet access in Hong Kong, with about 250,000 home subscribers and an estimated 39 per cent of the market.
Hong Kong Cable's iCable broadband service ranks second, with about half that number of subscribers. Worldwide, South Korea leads in home broadband penetration, at more than 50 per cent, spurred largely by demand for online games and other entertainment content.
In Hong Kong, PCCW is counting on entertainment and "edutainment" content, to be launched later, to help build a critical mass of subscribers on the portal. Electronic commerce and multimedia content the company dubbed "advertainment" would be introduced much further down the road, Mr Leung said.
"If you are talking about e-commerce, you are talking about changing the behaviour of the consumer," he said.
The transformation and marketing of the now.com.hk portal is happening in a much more low-key manner than last year's introduction of NOW.com, PCCW's English-language multimedia portal which was produced in London and aimed at the global market.
Subscribers to PCCW's Netvigator broadband service will receive streaming video e-mail, giving a taste of the content on offer. PCCW's free, Hong Kong-focused netvigator.com site also will carry news of the relaunch.
Compared with NOW.com, ambitions also are scaled down. Rather than relying on an expensive in-house team of content producers, PCCW hopes to aggregate content produced elsewhere.
The service would target the Hong Kong market before looking elsewhere, Mr Leung said.
"There are so many things we need to know - relationships with content providers, technology, consumer behaviour," he said.
Mr Leung would not comment on the number of subscribers to PCCW's iTV service, the interactive television subscription service delivered over the company's broadband phone lines.
He said the trend was towards "personalised" entertainment received over a PC.
"The younger segment of the market does not enjoy watching TV with their parents and grandparents. They like to get into their own bedrooms and use the PC for everything, for communication with their friends, for entertainment," he said.
PCCW plans to cater for this eventually by giving individual family members passwords and personalised home pages.
However, Mr Leung said, PCCW had no intention of discontinuing iTV.
"Ultimately, we do not have much concern, or want to dictate whether people should watch the content on TV or PC," he said.
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