TOM.COM, China Times.com Jointly Tap China Market

Hong Kong-based Internet company TOM.COM announced Thursday a partnership with China Times. com, headquartered in Taiwan of China, to set up a overseas holding company to tap the huge potential of the emerging integrated interactive marketing sector in China.

The two have signed a letter of intent to set up an equally owned overseas holding company, CHINA PLUS, with each investing US$5 million, said Sing Wang, CEO and Executive Director of TOM.COM.

China Times.com is the integrated interactive marketing flagship of Taiwan's leading newspaper group, China Times Group.

Building on the interactive marketing expertise of China Times. com, the new venture will exploit TOM's Chinese mainland network to offer Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) based marketing services and customer relationship management (CRM) businesses.

Initially, the venture will operate primarily in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to Wang.

Both TOM.COM and China Times.com believe the Chinese mainland has huge potential for interactive marketing and CRM services, since the mainland already has 20 million Internet users and there are also millions of fixed line and mobile users.

With China's accession to the WTO, mainland and overseas corporations are expected to escalate their marketing efforts to gain larger market share, executives of the two companies said.






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