MEDIA-I: Finance sites cutting reliance on ad dollars

HONG KONG: Online financial and investment websites in Hong Kong

are leveraging their growing popularity to charge for services.

Two of Hong Kong's leading financial information and market update

sites, e-finet.com and quamnet.com, are battling it out to realise the

value of their content instead of providing it free and relying on

advertising revenue to support their services.

On July 1, quamnet.com changed its business model by charging fees for

services. Claiming 1.5 million page views a day, a spokesperson said

that subscribers are being charged HK$800 (US$102) for six

months use of QuamPlus, which includes real-time stock quotes, the

ability to monitor assets and an online investment advisory chat

capability. "In the past we provided content for free, but you can't

live for long like that even though ad revenues had been going up."

Ahead of quamnet.com's change, e-finet.com started chargingHK$418

per month for its Finet Market Express (FME) service Its package coveres

live stock quotes and charts, company profiles and other market news and

information. It is also offering a cut-price Premier Package deal at

HK$99 for three months targeted at non-professionals as it turns

up the heat on rivals.

"Our advertising was up by 20 per cent but the trend is changing," said

e-finet.com's project manager, business development, Jeannette Ma.

In May, Nielsen//NetRatings found that financial and investment sites

were particularly popular with males 35 or up in Hong Kong.

Bill payment site ppshk.com led the way with 40.7 per cent, followed by

hsbc.com.hk (37.3 per cent) e-finet.com (37.1 per cent) and quamnet.com

(33.3 per cent).

Finance even beat sex into second place, with adult sites porncity.com

(31.1 per cent) and Japanesegirls.com (30.4 per cent) coming in fifth

and sixth. Of the top four sites in Hong Kong, e-finet.com and

quamnet.com were the stickiest, with visitors to these domains spending

on average 61 and 55 minutes respectively a month, viewing about163

pages per person.

International online finance sites E*Trade and Charles Schwab did not

feature on the list of top 10 sites, despite first quarter marketing

efforts.