Et-china.com, www.et-china.com, China's leading e-commerce travel Web site, has signed an exclusive agreement with Guangdong Mobile Communication Company (GMCC) to be the first travel service Internet companies in China to offer WAP phone users real-time airline ticket inquiries and real-time flight information at Baiyun International Airport, Guangzhou.
Et-china.com is jointly owned and operated by Et-china.com Investments Pty Ltd., an Australia e-commerce investment company, and China Southern Airlines (NYSE:ZNH) (HKSE:1055), www.cs-air.com/en, the largest airline in The People's Republic of China.
GMCC, www.gmcc.net, is a division of China Telecom (HK), one of the largest telephone companies listed in Hong Kong.
There are approximately 50 million mobile WAP phone users in China, which is expected to reach 70 million by end of 2000. GMCC has more than six million subscribers in Guangdong Province and is the dominant mobile WAP phone service provider in Southern China.
"This new WAP service demonstrates Et-china.com's IT capabilities as it is not an easy task to develop WAP interface for Chinese characters," said Matthew Ng, chief executive officer, Et-china.com. Ng added that "we expect most of the new mobile phone subscribers will opt for WAP-enabled mobile phones, which would double or triple China's Internet population within one year.
"Owners of WAP phones are familiar with new technology, relatively affluent and fit our profile of online travel clients in China. As such, we plan to invest our resources to further develop our WAP booking capabilities in order to secure a leadership advantage in this potential huge market of WAP mobile phone users," added Ng.
Et-china.com is further developing software and security technologies with banks and airlines to add payment functions onto its new WAP service. Et-china.com is featured as one of the "hot spot" links appearing on GMCC WAP page menu at www.gmcc.net.
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