14 DAY TRIAL // CDC Corporation, a developer of enterprise software applications, mobile applications and online games, announced the creation of a $100 million investment program that will enable its business unit, CDC Mobile, to seek strategic investment opportunities in leading 3G content providers in North Asia and Europe.
CDC Mobile will initially target its investment program to the North Asian countries of China, Japan and Korea which cumulatively have more than 600 million mobile phone subscribers, and where Japan and Korea are already early adopters of 3G, with more than 60% of Japan subscribers already using 3G handsets. CDC Mobile will seek to invest in and partner with innovative content providers that are using the 3G infrastructure to develop new content distribution channels, mobile communities, and offer rich content.
"We are very pleased to announce the launch of this $100 million 3G content partner program to expand on our existing CDC Mobile platform in China with strategic investment partnerships with leading 3G content providers and aggregators from Japan, Korea and Europe," said Peter Yip, Chief Executive Officer of CDC Corporation. "Just as we are pursuing now with CDC Software and CDC Games, as the CDC Mobile business unit establishes a successful track record of growth and profit, and prove its potential for accelerating growth, we will then prepare CDC Mobile for its eventual carve out."
CDC Mobile intends to gain first-mover advantage in China by investing up to $100 million in selected 3G content providers that have the potential for launching such content in China. The company believes that its strategy of investing into 3G in North Asia now and Europe later will make it the leading content provider in large, early adopting 3G countries and will also give it ample testing grounds for the rollout of 3G in China. Industry research has estimated that by 2008, 3G users in China could reach 60 million and generate revenues of approximately $5 billion.