A week in tech

Taiwan

Ventures/Investments
• According to statistics from Taiwan's Venture Capital Association, Taiwanese venture capital firms invested almost 28 per cent of their funds in the semiconductor industry in 2004, more than any other country in the world.

Internet
• Yahoo Taiwan announced the launching of a music service that provides its only legitimate music download outlet. The launching follows the opening of its Yahoo Taiwan Music streaming service. With both streaming and downloads, Taiwan becomes Yahoo's third market worldwide for both services and the first non-English market. Yahoo Taiwan said it has some 320,000 songs in its download library, with the number expected to grow in the coming months. Downloadable songs will be priced at NT$30 ($0.9) with selected songs being priced at NT$25 ($0.7) for subscribers to the streaming service, depending on deals with music labels that own the rights to each song. By getting more users to download, install the player and sign up for its music service, Yahoo Taiwan said it hopes to convert registered members into paying customers. Because of licensing terms, Yahoo Taiwan's music service is not available outside of Taiwan, although using the services overseas was technically possible. Under licensing terms, the company is required to use IP blocking and other ways to prevent overseas users from accessing their service. The report mentioned that Yahoo Hong Kong has yet to launch a music service, but one similar to the Taiwan service could be launched in a year.

Hardware
• Motorola Corp. announced that it will end in-house production of IP STB (Internet-protocol set-top boxes) and will outsource production to contractors in Taiwan beginning next July. The outsourcing move is expected to bring in orders worth approximately NT$10 billion ($312.5 million) to domestic contract manufacturers such as Hon Hai Precision Industry, Zyxel Communications Corp., Zinwell Corp., and NuVision technology Inc. The company also said Motorola's Asia Wideband Research and Development Centre in Hsintien, Taipei County, northern Taiwan, will conduct research on FTTB (fiber to the building) equipment in cooperation with the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute. The Motorola centre currently procures FTTB modules from domestic IC design houses, including Mediatek Inc., Novatek Microelectronics Corp., and VIA Technologies Inc. Taiwan shipped $118 million worth of IP STBs in 2005. Motorola said it has seen annual sales reach $1 billion for wideband networking equipment such as IP STBs, cable modems, and FTTBs for the past several years.


Hong Kong

Telecommunications
• Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL) announced its plans to apply for a 3G-mobile license in Macau. The company said it is also aiming to begin a 3G-CDMA business in Vietnam this year. HTIL has nine emerging-markets mobile businesses, but only its operations in Israel and Hong Kong offer 3G services. The addition of Macau and Vietnam would expand its 3G markets to five, with Indonesia also launching the service by the second half. HTIL’s migration to 3G is seen as enhancing the Hutchison group's global 3G-presence, with HTIL's parent Hutchison Whampoa already running the business in eight countries. The Macau Special Administration Region has opened tendering for up to three 3G licenses in the first phase of the programme. Of the three, one would be based on the WCDMA standard and another on CDMA2000 1X EV-DO. The body said it plans to issue the licenses in October, with a fourth license to be issued within two years. In a separate development, SmarTone said it would also submit an application for a Macau license, with the company having conducted on-site trials with mainland equipment vendors such as Huawei and ZTE. The two firms already operate 2G-GSM services in Macau.

Media, Entertainment and Gaming
• The Broadcasting Authority said it gave the permission to TVB's pay-television operation, TVB Pay Vision, to deliver its service through PCCW's broadband network. TVB before ascribed its failure to draw in new users to insufficient network coverage. Now, it is looking to the alliance with PCCW as a way to bringing an audience of more than 500,000 Now Broadband TV subscribers. Analysts say this will serve as a real test of the attractiveness of its content. In return, PCCW will have a pay-off in the form of the HK$50 ($6) monthly service charge for each TVB package subscriber using its network. This means that if 100,000 users sign up for the platform, PCCW will earn revenue of HK$60 million ($7.7 million) a year. PCCW will also strengthen its content offering with exclusive TVB channels such as news and Canto-pop, helping it to close the gap with i-Cable, which is strong in sports and local news content. The new service is expected to be ready for launch by the middle of this month.

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