SingNet, the Internet arm of national telephone company Singapore Telecom, Thursday launched three new Internet channels, covering the areas of online auctions, music and recruitment.
The ISP, which holds the pole position in terms of the number of
subscribers in the republic, said it is partnering with ClubCiti for the
auction service, with DiscVault.com for selling music CDs and with
JobsDB.com for addressing the job market.
Surfers can gain access to the
websites of ClubCiti, DiscVault.com and JobsDB.com through SingNet’s
home page.
“We are re-orientating our consumer business to being a purveyor of the web way-of-life, not just an Internet service provider. SingNet’s participation in Internet sites and portal opportunities will create exciting local Internet content and make these links readily available to SingNet customers,” said Paul Chong, SingTel’s CEO (Multimedia).
SingNet said it will continue to look for partners to enrich its services
and content in a market that is fast becoming very competitive.
Under the latest partnership, SingNet will co-brand the sites of ClubCiti
and JobsDB.com, which will supply customized local content to SingNet. At
the same time, SingNet will provide web-hosting service for DiscVault.com,
allowing users worldwide faster connection to its site. DiscVault.com is
also SingNet’s first e-commerce partner.
“Auction and jobs sites have seen high usage in recent months. With the
recovery of the economic crisis, online jobs sites will definitely be a draw to users,” said Chong.
“SingNet wants to push the portal business in Asia. With the addition of
ClubCiti, DiscVault and JobsDB, we have increased our content partners from two to five, with more on the way,” said Chong.
The company aims to provide a comprehensive portal service and ride on its established infrastructure, technology and existing range of applications and services, said Chong.
SingNet’s two existing content partners are ChannelZing, an interactive
Internet channel with various local consumer-based lifestyle virtual
communities, and Makansutra for the food-lovers. These web channels are
specially catered to Asian Internet users.
In the future, SingNet will be adding content in the areas of e-commerce,
women and health.
Besides content and information services catering to different users,
SingNet’s Web portal offers a battery of free services. Leveraging on
SingNet’s strength, the portal is strong in communications services,
offering intranet roaming, virtual e-mail, faxmail, efone@singnet, Internet paging and My Communicator, a Web-based e-mail service.
Lycos last month signed a $50 million deal with Singapore Telecom to create new portals in 10 new Asian markets, aside from Lycos’ current joint venture operations in Korea and Japan.