Dotcom companies expect business recovery
(08/03/2001) (xinhua)

Leading websites Sohu.com, Sina. com and 163.net said recently they will earn profits no later than the end of 2003, indicating confidence in the recovery of online businesses in China.

The downturn in NASDAQ and capital outflow waves have reshuffled thousands of "dotcom" companies in the country, causing many of them shut down or acquired, according to Thursday's Economic Reference.

But that may push the online business back on a good, healthy track, said Lu Benfu, director of Internet Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

A group of new profitable services have been developed such as charged online message-sending services and most of all online games, which is potentially a huge market of 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars) in China, considering a realistic market of 10 billion US dollars in the neighboring nation of the Republic of Korea, he noted.

The upcoming integration of wireless access mobile phones and wide band technologies will provide a promising platform for online commerce, according to Lu.

The director said technologies are not the key factor in deciding a website's fate, while renovations of business modes play a decisive role.

China's hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games will create many opportunities for Internet business, but it will have to wait for sveral years, therefore, Lu said that he believed China's impending entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) will be more exciting in precipitating an immediate success.

Lu expected that as many as 10 billion US dollars in venture capital will go into China's Internet markets as the country is admitted to the WTO.

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