AdSociety Partners with Cyber Communications Inc., A Dentsu and Softbank Joint Venture, To Deliver Hottest Japanese Media Destinations Across Asia and Beyond

HONG KONG, JUNE 21, 2001 – AdSociety, the first pan-Asian broadband advertising, marketing and sales network and a majority-owned joint venture of PCCW (SEHK: 0008, NYSE : PCW [ADR]) has signed a strategic sales partnership agreement with Cyber Communications Inc. (CCI).

CCI, an Internet advertising company listed on Nasdaq Japan, is a joint venture between Dentsu Inc., the world’s largest advertising agency and Internet conglomerate, SOFTBANK Media & Marketing. 

Under the agreement, AdSociety will market and represent more than 200 premium Web sites under the CCI affiliate online ad network.  These will include top Internet destinations such as Yahoo Japan, MSN Japan, as well as influential online newspaper properties including asahi.com, NIKKEI NET, Yomiuri On-Line, Mainichi Interactive and Sankei Web.  The AdSociety representation of CCI’s network covers Asia, the United States and Europe, in countries where AdSociety has presence either through its own offices, joint ventures or affiliate partnership networks. 

“CCI offers Asian advertisers a collection of some of the best online properties in Japan.  This category of supreme inventory is very valuable outside of Japan and will bring great value to our service offerings to our customers across the globe.  AdSociety continues to execute its strategy of partnering with leading online ad networks across the globe to further strengthen our global network offerings in order to provide our advertisers with a one-stop-shop to online advertising solutions and services,” said Patrick Jonathon Wong, founder and group CEO of AdSociety. 

CCI will tap into AdSociety’s narrowband and broadband affiliate network of over 1,200 Web sites and leverage its international sales network.  This will provide Japanese advertisers the choice and opportunity to market their brands, products and services across the globe via a targeted network offering highly desirable ad inventory. 

“AdSociety’s extensive global affiliate portfolio is extremely impressive and comprises some of the leading online inventory from all around the world.  This is ideal as we have a huge bank of advertisers with different marketing requirements and tastes vying for international exposure.  Through this partnership, CCI will be able to tap into AdSociety’s advertisers and the advertisers of their global affiliate network partners to provide them with our comprehensive online media offerings in Japan.   We have seen AdSociety grow over the past year in Asia and we are very excited to be a partner of their global vision,” said Toshio Arai, president & CEO of CCI

The Japan market remains hugely optimistic with regard to the effectiveness of online advertising as a core component in marketers’ marketing strategies.  Currently, Japan represents the largest online advertising market in Asia with revenue of US$425m in 2000 (Dentsu) and is expected to increase to US$1.3 billion by 2003 (Forrester, January 2001).

Other than online advertising, the sophisticated mobile industry in Japan is inevitably one of the most admired in the world.  Recently, the Telecommunications Carrier Association reported 59.45 million mobile phone users in Japan at the end of February 2001, of which approximately 30 million subscribe to mobile Internet services.

In anticipation of the future potential of mobile industry in Japan, CCI has recently announced a joint venture with J-Phone of Japan Telecom.  AdSociety on the other hand, is already very active in the mobile advertising arena in Asia, with its recently secured pan-Asian network exclusive agreement with US-based wireless authority SkyGo Inc.  The SkyGo partnership will deliver wireless advertising solutions across Asia, including Japan.

The CCI partnership strengthens AdSociety’s connections with the Japan media and advertising industry and beefs up service offerings currently provided by its local and regional offices across the Asian region. Previously AdSociety has signed a string of global and regional sales partnerships that includes NASDAQ-listed L90, a marketing, technology and media company with strong North America presence, Interactive Media, a German-based Internet services provider with access to major key markets in Europe, and with U.S.-based B2BWorks, a full-service online B2B marketing and media services company.

About AdSociety

AdSociety, a majority-owned joint venture of PCCW (SEHK: 0008, NYSE: PCW [ADR]), is the first pan-Asian broadband and wireless advertising, marketing and sales network. AdSociety currently provides advertising, marketing and sales services to PCCW-related companies as well as provides pioneering online, broadband and wireless marketing solutions and services to marketers and to over 1,200 member websites.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, AdSociety has offices in Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo and New York City and currently employs over 120 media professionals with a proven track record in pioneering advertising sales for broadcast television and the Internet in Asia. Its founder and management team were part of the core team that pioneered advertising sales for Star TV, the first pan-Asian satellite broadcasting television network (a News Corp company) and were also the core team who pioneered advertising sales for 24/7 Media Asia, the first pan-Asian Internet advertising network (a Chinadotcom company).

AdSociety's investors and strategic partners include Tokyu Agency  (a Tokyu Group company and affiliate of the Tokyu Corporation [TSE : 9005]),  LG Advertising [SEO : 35000] (a LG Group company),  Cyber Communications Inc. (a Dentsu Inc. and SOFTBANK Corp. [TSE : 9984] joint venture),  L90 [NASDAQ : LNTY],  Interactive Media ContentSuite AG (a Axel Springer Verlag company [DE : 550135]),  SkyGo Inc. (a Vanguard Investee),  AdClick (a KT Internet company,  an affiliate of Korea Telecom [NYSE : KTC]),  e-Brilliant (a Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc. company [AMEX : BDE]),  Media Genesis (an IconMediaLab company [STO : ICON.ST]),  Australia Media Holdings (a SportsWorld company [LSE : SWD.L])  and  B2BWorks.  More information on AdSociety can be found at www.adsociety.com. 

About Cyber Communications Inc.

CCI, an Internet marketing company listed on NASDAQ Japan, is a joint venture between Dentsu Inc., the world's largest advertising agency and Internet conglomerate, SOFTBANK Media & Marketing.  Dentsu Inc. and SOFTBANK own 49.6% and 47.6% of the joint venture respectively.   Established in July 1996, the company provides advertising solutions for Internet and online networks and to advertisers, agencies, online media owners and users to excel in their online marketing campaigns.

CCI has over 80 members of staff specializing in media planning, ad production and management, media buying and sales. It also operates its own Internet ad servicing system called CCI AD Network and currently provides Internet marketing services to over 130 Web sites in Japan.

 CCI’s  media partners include MSN Japan, Yahoo! JAPAN, OCN Navi, Geocities Japan, Japan.internet.com, ZDNet Japan, ASCII, Mainichi Interactive, NIKKEI NET, asahi.com, Yomiuri Online, Sankei Web, Nihon Television, TBS, Fuji TV, and TV Asahi. It has also partnered with more than 300 advertising agencies including Asahi Advertising, Dentsu, Hakuhodo, Kyodo Advertising, McCann-Erickson, Mindshare Japan, and NTT Advertising.

For further information, please contact:

Samantha Chan                                                                    

Director of Corporate Communications

AdSociety Limited

Tel: +852 2509 2236                                                                

Email: Samantha.chan@adsociety.com