Korean electronics company LG has signed on for a sponsorship deal which
will run until mid-year on the business and financial news site.
Dow Jones will market the site to Chinese speakers, including residents of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as overseas Chinese living in the US, Europe and other areas.
The plan is to turn the service into a subscription-based site along the
same lines as its parent site wsj.com, which Dow Jones claims has grown
to become one of the largest-paid subscription sites, with 609,000 paid
subscribers worldwide. However, the service will be available for free
for the first year to encourage trial and regular usage.
Content on the website will run in both traditional and simplified characters and include a selection of news articles translated from the English-language site, wsj.com and other Dow Jones' services.
There are now 2.2 million internet users in Hong Kong, of which 40 per cent use broadband services. Taiwan's web users number 7.8 million, while in the US, 75 per cent of Asian-Americans have access to the net.
