[HONG KONG] Hong Kong entrepreneur Jimmy Lai’s online woes
continued Monday, with his clicks-and-mortar retail site adMart/ezVan ceasing operations.
“We would like to thank you for your patronage and inform you that adM@rt/ezVan has ceased
operations in Hong Kong as of December 11, 2000. We will no longer be providing products and
services as of that day,” said a message posted to adMart’s Web site. The message also stated
“we did not achieve the results we had hoped. Acknowledging this, we have made the decision to
cease operation in this market.”
On November 1, Lai’s Next Media Group [0282 HK] announced the closure of Apple Daily
Online and Next Media Web sites, cutting 90 jobs. Next Media and Apple Daily had already
terminated 100 staff in July.
Founder of the popular Giordano clothing chain, Lai foreshadowed adMart’s downfall in an
October interview with Businessweek: “If I thought it would not make money one day, I would
close it like the other businesses,” he said.
adMart’s announcement that it will “cease operation in this market” leaves open the possibility that
it may re-emerge in Taiwan, where Lai has moved to push his Next Magazine, and may attempt to
expand his other business interests there.