|
 |  | |
|
|
about Asia Buzz
Asia Buzz: Crossed Wires
Divine intervention won't help Singapore's struggling Net sector
By ERIC ELLIS
September
21, 2000
Web posted at 2:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 2:30 a.m. EDT
Asian politicians love people like Michael Leong. He's the chairman-founder of Singaporean portal Shareinvestor.com, a website that helps places like Singapore claim New Economy-like tech credentials. But Leong's more famous as the guy who registered gohchoktong.com, the domain Singapore's Prime Minister might like were he to follow his own advice and reinvent himself as a Net guy.
|
INTERACTIVE |
|
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to
TIME
|
|
So what does Leong plan to do with the domain? "I have offered to transfer it to the Prime Minister's office without cost or publicity," he says. "There are those of us who are very grateful to our Prime Minister for doing all the things that he has done for Singapore. I am in the IT line and this is just a small way for a person like me to show my gratitude."
| |
ASIA BUZZ |
|
Asia Buzz: Heads I Win...
How to have your cake and eat it too!
-
Wednesday, September 20, 2000
Asia Buzz: Virtual Games
Welcome to the Internet Olympics. Not!
-
Tuesday, September 19, 2000
Asia Buzz: Management Speak
"Reading This Column Will Do Me Wonders"
-
Monday, September 18, 2000
Culture on Demand: Benissimo
Little Italy comes to swinging Singapore
-
Saturday, September 16, 2000
Asia Buzz: Anything Goes!
Singaporeans know a thing or two about porn
-
Thursday, September 14, 2000
|
|
ASIAWEEK |
Intelligence
The story behind today's news from the editors of Asiaweek
|
|
But all the gratitude in the world--or divine intervention from the holy Goh--is not going to turn Singapore's struggling Net sector anytime soon. The recent Internet stock bloodbath is a big dilemma for the control freaks who run the city state.
Singapore wants an exciting financial market to rank alongside Hong Kong. Still bristling that it was Richard Li, and not Singapore Telecom, who picked up Hong Kong Telecom, authorities loosened up the rules to allow profitless companies to list. For their efforts, they got Mediaring.com, the Internet telephony play backed by some serious players in Singapore Inc. The stock got as high as $1 a share just weeks after its debut last November but now, with various insider escrows expiring, Singapore Inc. sellers will happily oblige you for 22 cents.
Singaporeans want to be standard-bearers of the Asian Net. So they get K.K. Fong's i-One.Net International, the recast printer that built "the world's first Net kiosks" along Orchard Road as an emblem of the Wired Island. This is an idea that must've looked great on paper, but as places to surf the Net on the run, they make great storm shelters. Investors seem to agree. In August last year you needed sharp elbows to buy Fong's stock at $1 a share. This week you can buy up as many as you like--for a sixth of that price. The booths are still there, and so are the software error messages that bug their browsers.
Singapore wants Old Economy companies to reinvent themselves. So they get Panpacmedia.com, the publisher behind the zing "brand," which K.K. Fong reckons got the idea to dotcom itself after Panpac's reporters interviewed him. Panpac likes to think of itself as Singapore's first listed pure Net play, and for about a while there, it had a share price of $1.23 that supported that view. But it missed a window to issue new paper and expand into profitability. Now you can decorate your toilet with scrip bought at 31 cents (a share). Still, that's better than the 11 cents they traded in the year before Panpac Media added the .com.
Singapore wants NASDAQ listings. Step up state-backed Pacific Internet. Frozen out of the broadband market, the largely dial-up ISP this week posted net second-quarter losses of $2.9 million, five times more than a year ago. It blamed development costs for its Pacfusion.com site, an alleged e-commerce portal. And it was right to--this is one badly over-designed site. If ever you need an excuse not to surf the Net, PacNet provides it. Needless to say, PacNet says it's shelving plans to list itself on the Singapore Exchange, and Pacfusion.com on the NASDAQ.
The island's litany of horrors goes on; last month saw the loss of 65 jobs when travel site Worldmine.com ran out of money. Its financiers were last seen picking over its carcass at a fire sale auction of no-longer-needed computers and servers. And is there an investment banker who hasn't interviewed CNBC's pinup boy Patrick Grove, of local search engine Catcha.com.sg? Why does he so desperately want an IPO? Many are the rumours swirling around this company.
Another local press pinup boy, Wong Toon King, got $25 million from Richard Li late year for a 25% stake in SilkRoute Holdings. That could probably buy the entire company now, and Li might still have some change. These days, after the various debacles that have sullied Singapore's reputation, Wong would be lucky to get a berth at the Singapore Exchange. And he'd likely have to make a profit first.
Eric Ellis is the Southeast Asia and Technology Editor of the regional finance portal AsiaWise.com
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to
TIME
Write
to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com
Search
for recent
Asia Buzz
TIME Asia home
|
|
LATEST HEADLINES:
|
Click Here for the latest regional analysis from TIME Asia
|
|
|
