Beast of the east makes moves

Pacific Net Inc., that beast of the east, made some headlines this week.

Happily (for PacificNet), the company announced that its WAP portal MOABC had been given a nod among the “2006 Top Ten Most Promising Internet Companies” in an industry peer ranking organized by Sohu.com Inc. Communications World Web.

The award seems a logical extension to MOABC’s award as one of the “2005 Most Promising Internet Investment Projects” by Sohu, and the Internet Society of China’s naming MOABC one of the “2005 Top 50 Internet Innovations” and “Top 100 China Internet WEB2.0 Enterprises” in March 2006.

The Sohu.com industry event is held annually and this year the winners cover more specialized areas such as download engines, online games, video, classified information, search engines, and media player software. And while it’s always swell to be recognized by your peers, the notice is of key importance to PacificNet, as Sohu.com is affiliated with China’s Ministry of Information Industry.

MOABC.com is a leading mobile internet portal in China, reporting 11 million registered users, 120 million daily page views and 1000 gigabytes of daily data traffic on one of Cathay’s top-ranked mobile internet sites, featuring mobile social networking, mobile games, and entertainment.

The free WAP portal provides mobile internet services such as news, mobile gaming and entertainment services, mobile blogs, mobile email, Avatar and virtual pets, mobile online dating, mobile instant messaging, virtual communities, mobile social communities and virtual showrooms.

Not so happily (for Clancy and Co. P.L.L.C.), news from PacificNet reported that the CRM company had dropped its public accounting firm, Clancy and Co., effective January 19. The audit committee of the company is currently interviewing and negotiating with several potential audit firms in connection with the upcoming audit for the year ended December 31, 2006.

Happily (for PacificNet), the change in auditors was reportedly “driven by the growth and business expansion of the company,” a growth that has seen PacificNet revenue balloon from less than $1 million in 2001 to nearly $60 million in 2006, and “operations and financial reporting requirements have outgrown the resources of its prior auditors.”

Finally, PacificNet president Victor Tong announced that the company had “installed a corporate-wide Virtual Private Network” (a.k.a. secure intranet) “that connects our various offices in China, Hong Kong, and the USA. PacificNet has also implemented a centralized accounting system and office automation intranet web sites for all subsidiaries and geographic locations.”

Beijing- and Hong Kong-headquartered PacificNet Inc. is an investor in and operator of companies that provide outsourcing, e-commerce, and value-added services in China, such as call centers, telemarketing, direct response television marketing, CRM, interactive voice response, mobile applications, and communications product distribution services.

PacificNet corporate clients include China Telecom, China Mobile, Unicom, PCCW, Hutchison Telecom, Bell24, SONY, TCL, Huawei, American Express, Citibank, HSBC, Bank of China, Bank of East Asia, DBS, TNT, and the Hong Kong government. PacificNet employs over 2,300 in China with offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Macau, and branch offices in 26 provinces.