Koo's, Sony in Taiwan broadband deal

By Staff and wire reports

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Koo's Group, Taiwan's largest conglomerate, has partnered with Sony to form an Internet service provider (ISP) venture in Taiwan.

The venture, named So-net Taiwan, will be capitalized at $8 million, with Sony taking an 85 percent stake and Koo's Group a 15 percent stake. So-net services are scheduled to start as early as August.

The ISP deal arrives amid rapidly increasing demand in Taiwan for broadband Internet access and for Japanese-made content.

Koo's Group and Sony Communications Network (SCN) have yet to decide details such as the size of the work force in Taiwan and targets for revenue and subscribers, says an SCN spokesperson.

Group has banking, teleco interests

Koo's Group is one of Taiwan's biggest family-controlled corporate entities, holding several companies including mobile phone service arm KG Telecommunications and Chinatrust Commercial Bank.

SCN operates an ISP service named So-net that has 1.6 million subscribers in Japan. So-net is Japan's fourth-largest ISP.

Analysts note that Taiwan's Internet sector has a two to three-year lag time behind more developed nations like the U.S. and Japan.

However, Merrill Lynch -- in what the group calls a conservative estimate -- expects the number of online users in Taiwan to grow 16 percent per year over the next six years, reaching 11.7 million online users by 2005.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Sony products to talk to one another
April 6, 2001
Sony's Idei not worried about slowdown
April 5, 2001

Welcome to Sony.com

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.