Asiaweek.com | A Tale of Two Sons | 10/27/2000

Asiaweek.com | A Tale of Two Sons | 10/27/2000: "Until recently, Murdoch and STAR have been moving more cautiously into broadband than Li and PCCW. STAR in some respects is an old media company fighting a defensive battle against a flashy newcomer threatening to co-opt its turf. But, notwithstanding the din of publicity accompanying Li's every move, STAR is in a much stronger position to seize the high ground. The current industry model for the ideal broadband company is represented by the pending merger between America Online and Time Warner (Asiaweek's parent company). America Online has a large Internet-access and subscription base. Time Warner controls content � print, movies, TV, music � as well as the second largest cable-TV operation in the U.S. In other words, the merger would join in one company all the ingredients considered important to a new media player: content, a paying customer base ('eyeballs,' in the Net vernacular) and the distribution network ('pipes') to reach a wide audience.

On paper, STAR has many of those ingredients already in place. Although satellite networks are unproven as broadband delivery systems, the company transmits TV programs to an average of 60 million viewers across Asia every day. PCCW, in contrast, has 89,000 Hong Kong subscribers through HKT's interactive-TV network. Add about 835,000 users of Netvigator, the phone company's Internet service provider. A recently reworked deal with Telstra, Australia's big telecommunications company, gives them access to about 2.5 million Aussie homes � and the promise of more.

In content, STAR's advantage is even more clearcut. Among other assets, it holds the number one Hindi entertainment channel in India; Channel [V], an Asian version of MTV; Star Movies and TV programming in Mandarin and "

Asiaweek.com | A Tale of Two Sons | 10/27/2000

Asiaweek.com | A Tale of Two Sons | 10/27/2000: "OCTOBER 27, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 42 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK


Lucas Oleniuk for Asiaweek.
James says he wants more of Rupert's advice, while Richard seeks distance from Li Ka-shing.

A Tale of Two Sons
STAR's James Murdoch wants to rule Asia's Internet. He has a head start on Richard Li. But can he hold it?
By ALEXANDRA A. SENO

ALSO:
� In Search of the 'Target Wallet': Young Murdoch expects you'll pay to let STAR TV entertain you
� Sticks and Stones: Quotes and Profles

James Murdoch, son of Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, may have been hitting the complimentary coffee bar a little hard at a recent television broadcasters' festival in Scotland. 'If I have to read another article about 'Threats and Opportunities,' 'Surviving in the Digital Era,' 'The New Realities of the New Economy' or some such other angst-ridden twaddle I'll just have to f***king shoot myself,' Murdoch said in a speech. Certainly the sentiment is one everyone may share in these Internet-crazed days, but you'd hardly expect to hear it voiced by someone who is supposed to be leading his father's giant media conglomerate, News Corp., into the Digital Age in Asia. Yet that is just what Murdoch, as chief executive of News Corp.'s wholly-owned subsidiary STAR TV, is attempting. Over the last several months, the 27-year-old Harvard dropout has been cutting deals and arranging partnerships from his Hong Kong headquarters that will transform STAR from Asia's largest satellite-TV network into Asia's largest broadband Internet access and content delivery service"

Asiaweek.com | A Tale of Two Sons | 10/27/2000

Asiaweek.com | A Tale of Two Sons | 10/27/2000: "OCTOBER 27, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 42 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK


Lucas Oleniuk for Asiaweek.
James says he wants more of Rupert's advice, while Richard seeks distance from Li Ka-shing.

A Tale of Two Sons
STAR's James Murdoch wants to rule Asia's Internet. He has a head start on Richard Li. But can he hold it?
By ALEXANDRA A. SENO

ALSO:
� In Search of the 'Target Wallet': Young Murdoch expects you'll pay to let STAR TV entertain you
� Sticks and Stones: Quotes and Profles

James Murdoch, son of Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, may have been hitting the complimentary coffee bar a little hard at a recent television broadcasters' festival in Scotland. 'If I have to read another article about 'Threats and Opportunities,' 'Surviving in the Digital Era,' 'The New Realities of the New Economy' or some such other angst-ridden twaddle I'll just have to f***king shoot myself,' Murdoch said in a speech. Certainly the sentiment is one everyone may share in these Internet-crazed days, but you'd hardly expect to hear it voiced by someone who is supposed to be leading his father's giant media conglomerate, News Corp., into the Digital Age in Asia. Yet that is just what Murdoch, as chief executive of News Corp.'s wholly-owned subsidiary STAR TV, is attempting. Over the last several months, the 27-year-old Harvard dropout has been cutting deals and arranging partnerships from his Hong Kong headquarters that will transform STAR from Asia's largest satellite-TV network into Asia's largest broadband Internet access and content delivery service"

An Interview with Richard Li, Hong Kong

An Interview with Richard Li, Hong Kong: "When Richard Li sat down with Insight for our December 1999 interview which was actually completed in November in Hong Kong, Insight asked Mr. Li what was his vision for Pacific Century Cyberworks, his Hong Kong flagship company.
Richard�s response was:
� In the simplest terms Pacific Century Group aims to be the leading Internet investment
vehicle in the Asia-Pacific region, both by acquiring and funding net ventures and by
developing our own businesses. The model is akin to that of Japan�s Softbank or America�s GMGI, but we are going to go much further than that. At the core of our strategy is the Group�s Hong Kong-listed technology flagship Pacific Century Cyberworks. That was launched in May 1999 through the acquisition and renaming of a small Hong Kong listed company. Today PCC has a market cap of US$6.6 billion and is the third largest Internet company in Asia.�
On February 29, the Pacific Century Group took an immense step toward the realization of the goal set out above when it reached agreement with Cable & Wireless HKT Ltd. to acquire Hong Kong�s biggest telecommunications company for $38.1 billion. Pacific Century outbid Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., SingTel � the Singapore government owned phone company run by Lee Hsien Yang, the 42-year old son of Singapore�s former Prime Minister and current Senior Minister, Lee Kuan Kiew, in a contest that had the whole world watching.
The successful acquisition emphasizes the immense buying power that Asia�s new Internet start-ups wield and the increasing effect such companies will have in their stock markets and in the regional economies. Analysts believe that the deal also may indicate behind-the-scenes influence by the Chinese government, which indirectly owns 10 percent of HKT. China is believed to have opposed having the key t"

Richard Li on the Internet ( early 1990s Post Star Deal )

digital china/harvard: news_04_14_98_01: "Hong Kong Tycoon Seeks Internet Success (Mark Landler, The New York Times)

For four years, people here have been asking Richard Li the question he is tired of hearing but knows he cannot escape: What will you do next? Hong Kong is an impatient place, and this lean, tightly wound 31-year- old has a reputation and a family pedigree to live up to.

The reputation was made in the early 1990s, when Li started Asia's first satellite-delivered cable television service, Star TV, and then sold a controlling stake to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $525 million in 1993. His pedigree is even more formidable: He is the second son of Hong Kong's most prominent tycoon, Li Ka-shing, and heir to a fortune estimated at near $9 billion.

Li's rarefied background has made him the subject of endless gossip by rivals in Hong Kong business, who wonder what he might do for an encore. On March 12, they got an answer. Li announced plans to start a digital media company to provide Internet access and other information services to television sets and personal computers throughout Asia.

In a part of the world where firsthand experience with the Internet remains a rarity, Li's is an audacious undertaking -- all the more so because Asia is limping through the worst economic downturn since the end of World War II.

But Li's company, Pacific Century Group, has signed Intel as a partner to provide financing and technological expertise for the venture. And Li says the region's financial turmoil only dramatizes the need for better, faster information.

'What separated the countries that did OK from those that didn't was the availability of information,' said Li over breakfast at his offices, which had a panoramic view of Victoria harbor until his father "

Freshtel : australia

Freshtel: "GoTrek Internet TV + Firefly VoIP = total voice and video online communication
Official GoConnect Press Release
Melbourne, Australia - May 19, 2004 --- GoConnect Australia Pty Ltd and Freshtel Pty Ltd have entered into an agreement for GoConnect to market and distribute Freshtel's Firefly Voice over IP application, to GoConnect's GoTrek users. GoTrek users are able to watch TV quality video infotainment on the Internet even on dialup connections. Soon, they will also be able to talk to each other about these videos by using the Firefly application for free, so long as they are both online.
GoConnect's Option Plan ISP is the first ISP under agreement to enable its subscribers to use the Firefly application to make calls on the Internet to other Firefly users, at no cost. GoConnect subscribers will also be provided with special incentives to use the Firefly application to call fixed line or mobile phones. Subscribers of GoConnect's Option Plan ISP already receive an unlimited download dialup service at an attractive price, with free video infotainment provided by GoConnect. Soon, the ISP plan will also save them on telephone charges if they use the Firefly application.
Mr Michael Carew, founder and CEO of Freshtel said, 'It is great to see a progressive, forward thinking company such as GoConnect understand the VoIP market and the importance of establishing a voice presence in this fast moving industry.'
'VoIP has come a long way from its humble beginning a few years ago. At Freshtel, we have focussed our Firefly development effort on delivering the best quality Internet phone calls to users of the application. We have also developed simple to use handsets to go with the application for both consumers and businesses.'
'Our users have often remarked how little difference there is between VoIP using Firefly compared to the traditional phone"