MediaCorp expands new media services for growing pool of Internet users

MediaCorp expands new media services for growing pool of Internet users

By Valarie Tan,

SINGAPORE: Singapore media company, MediaCorp, is expanding its new media services, launching new products and enhancing existing ones for the growing number of Internet users in Singapore and abroad.

It has already taken many traditional media platforms - such as newspapers and magazines - online, but says it is enhancing its Internet content and services to meet the growing diverse media consumption habits of a new generation.

Young people have many ways to get information and reading a paper has never really been a top choice.

That was why from very early on, MediaCorp’s TODAY newspaper had an “EasyReader” service so that readers can download the news from any Internet connection and read it on the go. The service has since been upgraded with more content and new sections.

Meanwhile, MediaCorp’s flagship online product, channelnewsasia.com, has launched a video player version called “my news playlist” that offers the same ability to customise as “EasyReader”.

Net surfers can pick from a two-week archive of news and lifestyle videos and create their own news video.

Mr Shaun Seow, Deputy CEO for MediaCorp (News, Radio, Print), said: “We’re going to make our online content more interactive, because really the Web 2.0 space is about ‘me as a user and trying to get content that’s personalised for me’, people who have an empathy for online space, people who stop seeing that my news only goes out at 9.30 or 10 in the evening. But really the ‘everytime’, the ‘anytime’ is primetime for the online users.”

According to Hitwise, channelnewsasia.com is among the top news websites in Singapore. The website hit nearly 65 million page views per month in the first quarter of the year, up 25 per cent from the year before.

According to channelnewsasia.com, about 10 new clips will be put online every day. These will not just be about Singapore news but events happening around the world as well.

For lifestyle offerings, MediaCorp says the wedding portal - Style Weddings - will get a makeover and enable its business partners to showcase catalogues of wedding-related products and services.

To encourage user-generated content, MediaCorp recently launched “RAWClipx” on podcast.sg.

MediaCorp says response has been good, with an average of 2,500 downloads a day. It expects to hit two million page views by the end of the month. Users can now not only download content but upload their own.

Mr Shaun Seow said: “A lot of resource these days is not about what we can do. We have got to rely on people out there to generate content for us, like
user-generated content.

“Is that content? Yes! That’s content, when it’s valuable, it adds insight and relevance, and so we should stop seeing ourselves as just the only generator of content, but we’ve got to rely on the community out there as well.”

MediaCorp says it is making this a priority, even for its classifieds website, mocca.com. Beyond being a website where people do transactions, plans are underway to roll out social networking services.

Timothy Goh, MediaCorp’s vice-president for customer relationship management, said: “Community comes in our next stage of our revamp. We have a platform for people in different verticals of communities to come into a forum to talk about it. And we’ll have content moderators, we’ll have facilitators to help in facilitating when they’re sharing their opinions and stuff like that.”

Mocca.com also recently added a business directory called “One Guide” that lists some 100,000 companies.

The website has also enhanced its property and car sections to allow users to compare models or find amenities, such as schools, near their homes.

- CNA/ir

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 08 Aug 2008

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S’pore firms join in Olympic spirit with products, services

S’pore firms join in Olympic spirit with products, services

By Desmond Wong,

A woman passes a poster of the Beijing Olympics in the Chinese capital.

SINGAPORE : The Beijing Olympic Games kick off this week, but Singapore-listed companies have already been flexing their muscles to give investors in Singapore a taste of the Olympic spirit.

From providing security products to sponsoring the Olympic anthem, such firms have received a boost from the world’s largest sporting event.

Sports clothing firm China Eratat Sports, for instance, has boosted its public profile with its sponsorship of the Olympic theme song.

But the company said it is keeping a focus on its business and target market, more than the event itself, so as to avoid any potential negative impact when the Games end.

“Our target audience is not just the youngsters or sports professionals, but a wide range of age groups, all the way down to working adults… And they will wear such products in their normal life, not just for sports events alone,” said Ken Ho, chief financial officer of China Eratat Sports.

Other firms like Lottvision have focused on projects that have longer term potential. It is providing video surveillance services in five of Beijing’s districts for China’s security bureau. It is also running an interactive WebTV service for sports fans in China to share their views.

Dennis Li, deputy chairman of Lottvision, said: “None of these are Olympic specific. You see, the city surveillance project was initiated almost two years ago, and it has been going on continuously.

“So even after the Olympics, it will carry on. Similarly for the WebTV projects… right now, during the Olympic period, there will be some special Olympic focus.”

An Olympic hangover does not appear to be in the works for these firms, having built their foundation now to last well beyond the Games. - CNA/ls

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 08 Aug 2008

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Singapore Property behind 14% rise in F&N Q3 profit

Singapore Property behind 14% rise in F&N Q3 profit

APB Q3 net profit after exceptionals jumps 22% to $37.4 million

By EMILYN YAP

DEVELOPMENT property was the key bottom line driver for Fraser & Neave (F&N), which yesterday reported a 14 per cent rise in net profit after exceptionals to $110.3 million for its third quarter ended June 30, 2008.

Sterling performance: APB’s Indochina cluster continues to lead, with Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos together generating 37 per cent of revenue
This translates to earnings per share of 7.9 cents, against 7 cents a year ago. Without the exceptional items, net profit increased 20 per cent to $115.6 million.

Revenue fell 8 per cent from Q307 to $1.2 billion. The food & beverage (F&B) business was the largest contributor to revenue, at more than 60 per cent.

‘Properties benefited from healthy margins from previously launched residential projects, as well as higher rental and occupancy rates,’ said F&N chairman Lee Hsien Yang.

Property development contributed 60 per cent of the group’s net profit before exceptionals.

Besides properties and F&B, F&N has a printing & publishing (P&P) arm. ‘Our diversified businesses and wide footprint have helped shield F&N from the direct impact of the credit and liquidity crisis,’ Mr Lee said.

F&N announced a management revamp in June. As part of the change, the current CEO of Asia-Pacific Breweries (APB), Koh Poh Tiong, will become CEO of F&N’s F&B business on Oct 1. The CEOs of properties, F&B and P&P will report to F&N’s board.

‘This new management structure will give F&N sharper strategic and operational focus, while preserving its unique multi-sector, diversified status,’ Mr Lee said yesterday.

For the nine months ended June 30, F&N’s net profit after exceptionals rose 12 per cent year on year to $315.5 million. Revenue was 5 per cent higher at $3.7 billion.

‘Economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be moderate for the next 12 months,’ F&N said in its financial statement. It expects its net profit before exceptionals this year to exceed last year’s.

F&N shares closed 11 cents lower at $4.23 yesterday. The counter was $5.80 at the start of the year.

F&N’s unit APB also reported notable results for the third quarter, with net profit after exceptionals jumping 22 per cent to $37.4 million from a year earlier. Based on this, earnings per share were 14.5 cents in Q3, 2.6 cents higher than a year earlier.

Excluding exceptionals, net profit was $42.5 million, or 34 per cent higher.

APB posted a 9.6 per cent increase in revenue to $472.9 million. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos together generated 37 per cent of revenue.

For the nine months ended June 30, APB’s net profit after exceptionals rose 13 per cent to $123.7 million from a year earlier. Revenue was 12.6 per cent higher at $1.5 billion.

‘Very satisfactory results were achieved for the third quarter and nine-month period to June 30,’ said Mr Koh. ‘This positive trend is likely to flow into the remaining fourth quarter. Barring any unforeseen developments, we expect our full-year attributable profit (before exceptional items) to exceed that of last year.’

Source : Business Times - 08 Aug 2008

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Singapore Marina Bay Sands rises out of sight to stay on track

Singapore Marina Bay Sands rises out of sight to stay on track

40% of project is underground; shopping mall rents average $50 psf

By ARTHUR SIM

(SINGAPORE) The lay of the land may still look relatively flat over the Marina Bay Sands site but the integrated resort will open on time.

That is because - away from the limelight - almost 40 per cent of the development is underground and progressing well. Marina Bay Sands says the sub-structure works for the convention centre are well established while superstructure works are well underway and rising above ground.

Sub-structure basement slabs for the casino and theatre are also ‘progressing well’.

Earlier issues with the reclaimed land subsiding have been ironed out too. ‘Marina Bay Sands has the expertise to deal with such conditions based on our experience in Macau, which is also on reclaimed land. In Singapore, we overcame the challenging conditions of reclaimed land through special considerations and complex below-ground work such as long-length diaphragm walls,’ explained Marina Bay Sands general manager George Tanasijevich.

Of the three hotel towers, one has been built to the eighth storey with the other two already four storeys high.

Mr Tanasijevich added: ‘Admittedly, it is a very aggressive target, but our target remains and we are confident we can hit it for a December 2009 opening.’

The three hotel towers will have around 2,500 rooms and will be run by Marina Bay Sands.

The shopping mall - which is substantial at around 800,000 square feet - will be leased out. So far, about 280,000 sq ft has been leased.

‘We have spoken with over 1,000 brands. We have been talking to them for over two years and some have been interested even before we had a floor plan,’ Mr Tanasijevich said.

Average rents for units leased are currently at about $50 per square foot per month and Mr Tanasijevich said: ‘We do expect to have market-leading rents.’

While specific brands have not been named, Mr Tanasijevich said that it started by looking at luxury fashion, watch and jewellery brands. ‘We are in the process of determining what will be the best mix,’ he added.

Marina Bays Sands has employed about 300 people directly and its meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (Mice) team is about nine-strong.

The Mice business is important to Marina Bay Sands. Mr Tanasijevich said: ‘We are deep in discussion with about 30 expos, and organisers of about 40 meetings and conferences for the opening year up to 2016.’

Speaking at the Las Vegas Sands Q2 2008 financial results briefing last week, chairman Sheldon Adelson was also bullish on the Singapore retail market.

Saying that he found the rents that retailers were willing to pay ‘extraordinary’, he added: ‘And they certainly indicate that they expect to do a high level of gross volume to justify these high minimum rents.’

‘We expect that our mall in Singapore, the Marina Bay Sands, will be considered probably the most successful, the most profitable mall ever,’ he added.

Mr Adelson was speaking from Macau, where the Venetian Macau will soon celebrate its first anniversary and also open the Four Seasons Macau together with its world premiere of Cirque du Soleil’s Zaia.

The integrated resort (IR) model with gaming and non-gaming offerings is still relatively new in Asia but Las Vegas Sands reported that its Asian entertainer performances - including headliners Jay Chou, Hacken Lee, Easton Chan and Aaron Kwok - have been drawing visitors, with some acts seeing over 100,000 visitors a day.

Source : Business Times - 08 Aug 2008

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