Asiaone 1-42

BUSINESS
(ii) 1-800 BizFone service where we do not charge callers who dial in but for which we charge the
parties who engage us to provide such a service. BizFone is an automatic and interactive voice
response service especially customized to meet unique requirements of our business partners.
Through a programmed 24-hour call handling mechanism, callers can dial a designated hotline,
respond to a menu of options via the key pads of the phone and participate in contest promotions,
tele-ordering, recruitment, consumer poll, survey etc. Services like transcription of calls, collation
of information can also be provided at minimal cost, to add value to the advertising campaigns
of our corporate partners.
JOINT VENTURES, STRATEGIC ALLIANCES AND INVESTMENTS
In the bid to build comprehensive websites which offer a myriad of portal services to our users, as
well as to build our market presence, we have and will continue to pursue strategic relationships
with prominent, internationally renowned, and well established businesses which offer content,
technology, distribution capabilities as well as marketing, e-commerce, and cross-promotional
opportunities. We capitalise on such strategic relationships to expand our presence geographically
throughout Asia and to build our brand names internationally.
Joint Venture – AsiaOne Reckon
We entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Reckon Online Holdings Pty Ltd (“Reckon”) on 29 February
2000. The joint venture is conditional upon Reckon assigning its rights to the “Quicken” name, logo,
marks, products and services (“Quicken Rights”) to the joint venture company, subject to the consent
of Intuit Inc., the owner of the Quicken Rights. As at the date of this Prospectus, the negotiations
with Intuit, Inc. are still in progress.
Reckon, the licensee of the Quicken name, logo, marks, products and services in Asia-Pacific, is a
leading e-finance services provider for personal and small-to-medium business users. The joint venture
company plans to develop and set up an online financial portal business in Singapore.
Joint Venture – FantasticOne
We hold a 40% stake in a joint venture company, FantasticOne, pursuant to a joint venture agreement
we entered into with The Fantastic Corporation (“Fantastic”) on 22 March 2000. Publicly listed on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Fantastic is a global provider of end-to-end broadband multimedia solutions.
Its headquarters is based in Zug, Switzerland, and it also has regional headquarters in New York
and Singapore and offices in nine other key markets. Fantastic’s solutions enhance the sensory
experience by merging the quality, emotion and reach of television with the interactivity of the Internet.
Fantastic’s global partners include Lucent, NTT Communicationware Corporation, Inktomi, Deutsche
Telekom, Loral Space and Communications, British Telecom, Reuters, MTV Europe, and Telecom
Italia.
FantasticOne has an issued share capital of $9 million as at the date of this Prospectus. We will use
our experience in media gathering, distribution and marketing, development of Internet and regional
content, to establish the profile of FantasticOne regionally. Fantastic will support the joint venture
with its broadband multimedia software technology and solutions, branded channels and operational
broadband services.
FantasticOne will focus on mass market content and offer one-stop solutions to media producers of
branded broadband content and to media distributors operating data broadcast networks enabled by
Fantastic. FantasticOne will bring broadband solutions and services closer to the Asia-Pacific markets,
allowing the creation of local content that caters to the markets’ uniqueness, cultures, tastes and
languages for mass consumption.
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