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AdSociety Partners with KT Internet's AdClick Department to Deliver Korea's Leading Web Publishers to Asia and Global Advertising Markets
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HONG KONG, March 27, 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 KT Internet, the preeminent Internet advertising and marketing company in Korea.
KT Internet was spun off from Korea Telecom, which is currently the leader in the South Korean broadband market with 1.73 million subscribers or over 40% of the market share. KT Internet operates five main Internet advertising focused business units, including NetInsight, a joint venture with the Korea Audit Bureau of Circulation for ad tracking and auditing services. Under the agreement, AdSociety will become a strategic sales partner for KT Internet's online ad network arm AdClick for the sales and marketing of its web inventories to the Asian and global advertising markets. AdClick is the first online ad network in Korea, which has secured over 100 of the most popular Korean Web destinations. These include top Korean portals: Dreamx.net, Hananet.net and Korea.com, community destination Shinbiro.com, and top music portals Bugsmusic.co.kr and KMTV.co.kr. In return, KT Internet will represent and market AdSociety's web inventories to its advertisers with the need to build brand across Asia and the rest of the world. AdSociety currently represents over 1,000 premium Web publishers under a truly global affiliate network that covers Asia Pacific, United States and Europe. Similar to AdSociety's exclusive sales partnership for MSN properties in Hong Kong and Singapore, KT Internet is also MSN Korea's exclusive partner in the Korea market. Undisputedly, Korea's Internet market has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years and is now leading the Internet and broadband penetration as well as wireless developments in the region. This has been driven mainly by Korea's sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure and early adoption of the Internet enabling a high propensity for dial-up users to shift to broadband access. Most recently Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication reported that it has completed laying the entire country with optical fiber cables enabling high speed Internet access for the whole nation. "Korea is a huge broadband market just waiting to explode, and it is definitely the market in Asia leading the new media and broadband revolution. Our partnership with KT Internet further reinforces our position as the leader in the broadband advertising space and capitalizing on our first mover advantage in this new media environment, we will continue to leverage on our unique expertise and our solid partnerships built around the world to take a deeper role in the broadband phenomena in South Korea, especially when marketing on the internet has become an integral part of the South Korea's business landscape," said Patrick Jonathan Wong, Founder and CEO, AdSociety. Late last year, AdSociety formed a majority owned joint venture with LG Advertising, South Korea's second largest publicly listed advertising agency to capture a slice of the booming broadband advertising market. The joint venture is LG Advertising's first-ever equity joint venture in Korea in its 39 years of operating history. According to eMarketer's estimates, the number of South Korean Internet users is set to jump from 8.1 million in 2001 to almost 15 million by the year 2004. Currently, South Korea has the largest broadband market in the world that boast has over 4 million broadband subscribers and is expected to surpassed 6 million by the end of 2001. Commenting on the new partnership, Tae Yoon Kim KT Internet's CEO said, "Our partnership with AdSociety comes at an ideal time when more and more Korean businesses realize the importance of the Internet as a crucial sales and marketing channel to market their products and services regionally as well as globally. AdSociety has now given us the ability to reach out to advertisers and premium web publishers in Asia, the United States and Europe in order for us to continue to meet the needs of our clients". About AdSociety AdSociety, a majority-owned joint venture of PCCW (SEHK: 0008, NYSE:PCW [ADR]), is the first pan-Asian broadband advertising, marketing and sales network. AdSociety currently provides advertising, marketing and sales services to PCCW-related companies and is also the exclusive sales partner for MSN properties in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as provides pioneering online, broadband and wireless marketing solutions and services to marketers and to over 1,400 member websites. Commenced operations in June 2000 and headquartered in Hong Kong, AdSociety has offices in Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei and Tokyo 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, AdForce (a CMGion company), LG Advertising (a LG Group company), L90 (NASDAQ: LNTY), Interactive Media ContentSuite AG (a Axel Springer Verlag company), SkyGo Inc (a Vanguard Investee). Media Genesis (an Icon MediaLab company) and Australia Media Holdings (a SportsWorld company). More information on AdSociety can be found in www.adsociety.com. About KT Internet Inc AdClick is the leading online advertising network arm of KT Internet Inc, which parted from Korea Telecom in 1998. AdClick was the first online ad network to start its on-line media representation business, working with advertisers and advertising agencies in Korea. Today, AdClick represents the largest media publisher and sales network in the Korea online market and has established strategic partnerships with more than 100 premium Web sites including an exclusive partnership with MSN Korea. AdClick is also the leader in the e-mail marketing and advertising market and operates a permission-based e-mail network that features opt-in databases consisting of more than ten million email users. This covers more than half of the Internet users in Korea. One of the distinctive achievements by AdClick is the development of its Online Targeting Technology called 'PAS(Personalized Advertising System)'. PAS pioneered customized message management for online banner advertising and secured AdClick's leading position in the Korea online media market. For further information, please contact: Samantha Chan AdSociety Limited Tel: +852-2509-2236 Email: samantha.chan@adsociety.com Nor E. Badron / Amy Ho Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide Tel: +852-2884-8570 / +852 2884-8543 Email: nor.badron@ogilvy.com / amy.ho@ogilvy.com Alice Koo KT Internet Tel: +822-2007-9125 Email: dreamingod@adclick.co.kr Jade Yang Dream Communications Tel:+822-553-5767 Email: jade@dreamcom.co.kr | ||
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