4.5 Distribution channels

Archive material 1997 - historical interest. This whole site has had 24 million requests in 12 months. Use search option to get more.

Hong Kong Telecom said recently it could spend up to $10 billion over 10 years on its interactive television service. A soft launch is scheduled for July, while the full scale launch is scheduled for October. Hong Kong Telecom said it already has invested $200 million in the venture. The service would offer video-on-demand, home shopping and home banking and allow customers to use normal phone lines to send and receive information to the TV screens. The Strategis Group study says, "Internet subscriptions revenue in Asia/Pacific region is forecast to grow from $2.9 billion in 1996 to nearly $14 billion by 2001". Source: Interactive Video News, Vol.5 Issue 6

Bank of Yokohama will start tests of an online banking service over a cable TV network linked to a bank in a virtual shopping mall in July. The tests, the first of their kind to use cable TV, will include settlement of transactions in the mall, payment of public utility bills and money transfers. Each volunteer will open an account at the virtual bank and receive an IC chip card that functions as a cash card and credit card. Source: Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc

NTT and IBM have agreed to co-operate in network computing in Japan. Source: Financial Times Singapore: A trial starts on cable infrastructure, including banking.Source: Reuters News Service WebTV hots up. It is to offer online banking in Japan '97. Source: Japan US Business Report

Hong Kong Telecom beefs up its order for set-top boxes to 250,000. Source: South China Morning Post

Hong Kong Telecom orders $270m Digital Multimedia Cable Service including banking. Source: Computergram 4.6

New Zealand: New Zealanders use Eftpos and ATM's more than any other country. Source: The Christchurch Press

California Microwave has won a $500,000 contract from Mitsubishi to provide and commission an Earth station outside Tokyo that will be used for Internet access. Source: Internet Week

PointCast Inc., the push technology broadcaster, is joining China Internet Corp of Hong Kong to form PointCast Asia. Source: Internet Week

America Online Inc is joining Mitsui and Nikkei to launch an Internet online service in Japan. Source: Internet Week

Prodigy Services Company upped its investment in its Africa Online subsidiary by $12.5 million, and will expand to Tanzania and Uganda next month. It plans to begin operations in Egypt and South Africa by the end of the year. Source: Internet Week AOL plans aggressive move into Japan.Source: Reuters News Service

The Future of Outsourcing
Business processing outsourcing, call centre, IT, offshore HR services, customer support, legal and accounting. Truth about outsourcing impact on emerging economies, US and Europe. Benefits and risks.

YouTube Videos by Dr Patrick Dixon

Future of Ukraine - economy and country
Future of Malaysia Economy
Future of Kazakhstan - economy
Impact of ageing population in Europe and Russia
Purpose of fund management - by Patrick Dixon
Fund Management Risks - Potential Crisis - Patrick Dixon
Wild cards - low probability, high impact events
Why market research gives wrong results - blogging
The world is changing faster than you can make decisions
Future of Malaysia
Innovation
Real estate and construction industry trends
Life insurance, pensions and life expectancy trends
Limits to economic growth and sustainability
Why ports, ships and shipping will dominate global trade
Economic growth of former Soviet Bloc nations, Russia etc
Too late for outsourcing?
Outsourcing in India, China, Asia and Central Europe
Mobile phones, banking and financial services trends
Bottom of the pyramid - selling to the world's poor and making a difference
Microloans, microfinance, microcredit and future of banking
Business values - corporate and social responsibility really matters
Global brands, mergers and demergers
Customer focus and call-centre disasters
Women consumers rule - female customer trends
Insurance market in India, China and rest of Asia
Future of the Petrochemical Industry
Sovereign wealth funds - investment trends
Commodity shortages and prices - global trends
Retail revolution in India
Demographic impact on business
Risk management - leadership in uncertain times - wild cards
Institutional blindness

Blogs - web / video diaries on trends / management by Dr Patrick Dixon

Future Trends - main blog
Future of Banking and Financial Services
Future of Digital Technology
Future of the Telecom Industry
Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry
Future of Management
Future of Marketing
Conference Speakers
Lectures, Slides and Videos
AIDS Care Education and Training (ACET)
Spirituality