China Ready for an Internet Shopping Spree?
Rapid Economic Growth Combined With Government Subsidies has
Enabled Households to Spend More of Their Income On "Western
Style" Shopping
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 1999-- Source: MyWeb Inc.com
(OTCBB:MYWB - news). Chinese economy has grown by more than 7% on average
per year already for 18 straight years. Families, especially in the larger cities, have
experienced an unprecedented change in their disposable income as well as in their
lifestyles. According to recent statistics, Chinese households spend an enviably small
proportion of their income on rent and utilities. Most rural families own their homes, and
most urban apartments are small and subsidized. As a result, only 9.1% of household
income is needed to cover all of the home-related expenses. And even medical expenses
represent only 3.3% of household income. In other words: a significant portion of income
is now being used on items like clothing, entertainment, travel or high-technology
products.
''Even though China can not yet be considered rich by any means, this continuous growth
has enabled the urban population to start shopping 'western style.' In China, 96% of
urban households have a color TV, 64% have pagers, 59% portable stereos and --
amazingly -- as many as 28% have cell phones,'' says T.S. Wong, president and CEO of
MyWeb Inc.com.
Internet usage is growing rapidly as well. At present, China has over four million Internet
users, but that number is expected to grow by nearly 600% to 27 million in the next four
years. This is all great news to companies such as MyWeb, which enables Chinese to get
online inexpensively, while at the same time providing a wide variety of information,
entertainment and shopping related services on the Internet.
The average price for home PC's is still approximately $1,000, but MyWeb's set-top
boxes that enable full Internet access through television sets, sell for only $160. MyWeb
also has agreements with Beijing Telecom (a subsidiary of China Telecom) for the
deployment of MyWeb's set-top boxes through a combination of rental and leasing
programs. This means that Chinese citizens can even use their TV sets for Internet access
for a very low, fixed, monthly fee.
MyWeb announced earlier this week that it had teamed up with Hong Kong-based
TVSN China (Holdings) Ltd. to cross promote each other's products. TVSN is China's
leading TV shopping network. The new alliance creates a new E-commerce powerhouse
in China. MyWeb will be selling TVSN's wide range of products online, while TVSN will
be promoting MyWeb's set-top boxes in its 30-minute broadcast programs.
''The Chinese E-Commerce market hasn't really taken off yet. There have been major
problems associated with payment and fulfillment. By working together, MyWeb and
TVSN have in place all the necessary pieces to solve the biggest problems holding back
the full scale E-commerce boom. TVSN, through its Chinese partners, already has an
existing logistic support system in place to fulfill its TV shopping network demands.
Payment is no longer an issue either because cash will be collected upon delivery. In fact,
TVSN's existing cash-based model will enable complete customer satisfaction because
customers that are unhappy with their online purchases can simply reject them when they
are delivered,'' says Wong.
''TVSN initially focused its programming within the jewelry, collectibles, fashion,
electronic and cosmetics categories, but we visualize significant opportunities within value
added services, such as set-top-boxes combined with Internet services. Our cooperation
with MyWeb will be a significant pillar within these service categories. We believe that
TVSN and MyWeb will be extremely well positioned to benefit from the eventual
convergence of Internet and TV technologies,'' says Nis Lorentzen, Managing Director of
TVSN China (Holdings) Ltd.
By quickly penetrating the market with its set-top boxes, MyWeb has been able to
rapidly growing numbers of visitors to its TV portal. Today MyWeb is the leading TV
portal in China, the country's eighth most visited Web site and China's fastest growing
Web portal.
MyWeb estimates that up to 90% of all set-top boxes sold in China today are embedded
with its Chinese-language MyWeb TV portal. MyWeb's TV portal includes news,
education, finance, entertainment and other lifestyle content, thus resembling well-known
U.S. sites like Lycos (Nasdaq:LCOS - news), AOL (NYSE:AOL - news),
Excite@Home (Nasdaq:ATHM - news), AltaVista or eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY - news).
About TVSN
TVSN, through its Chinese partners, is China's leading TV shopping network. TVSN is
the subsidiary of TVSN Holding Limited, a four-year-old company founded by a team of
former executives of QVC Incorporated, the leading home shopping company in the U.S.
Its first programs were launched on satellite in August 1996, and soon afterwards TVSN
began entering into signal distribution agreements across China and the rest of Asia. The
China-based unit has been extremely successful, growing rapidly and accumulating a
''club membership'' of over 50,000 people, of which more than 50% are repeat
customers.
About MyWeb Inc.com
MyWeb Inc.com is a leading TV portal company, providing interactive services, which
are based on Internet technologies, via the television. Its TV portal can be accessed via
set-top boxes or MyWeb-ready TV's, which are affordable alternatives to personal
computers. MyWeb is headquartered in San Francisco, with operational and
representative offices in Singapore, Malaysia and China. More MyWeb information can
be found mywebinc.com.
The statements made in this news release may be forward-looking in nature. Actual
results may differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. MyWeb
Inc.com's (MyWeb) general risk factors include, but are not limited to, substantial
financial requirements, the development of effective internal processes and systems, the
attraction and retention of high-quality employees, changes in the overall economy and
regulatory policies, the mix of products and services offered in its target markets, and
other risk factors detailed from time to time in MyWeb's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements. MyWeb assumes no obligation to update information
contained in this news release. Merger Communications (Merger) is a financial media
relations firm employed by the Company. The statements and opinions presented here
represent the views of the Company. Merger and the Company believe that all
information in this release herein is accurate and complete. Merger may have a long
position in the securities of companies in which it distributes information to the media, and
it may be buying or selling securities in the course of its regular business.
Contact:
Merger Communications Inc., Houston
David Whitman, 713/267-2328
dwhitman@mergerusa.com
or
MyWeb Inc.com
Alex Jorge, 415/538-3728 ext. 1
Alex_Jorge@mywebinc.com
or
Ogilvy PR
Tony Hynes, 415/541-8495 ext. 209
tony.hynes@ogilvypr.com
or
TVSN
Mr. Nis Lorentzen, (Shanghai) 86-21-6279-8181
nis.lorentzen@tvsn.com.au
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