Tom Group Ltd, the media company controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, plans to form a venture with Joost, a rival to YouTube, to offer television programs over the Internet in China.

The companies will share advertising revenue generated by the venture, Tom Group Chief Executive Officer Ken Yeung said yesterday at a briefing in Beijing. Their free online TV shows will include programming licensed from state-broadcaster China Central Television and Hong Kong's Television Broadcasts Ltd, he said.

Tom Group formed the partnership with Luxembourg-based Joost in a bid to revive Web revenue that fell 21 percent last year after wireless carriers China Mobile Ltd and China Unicom Ltd tightened restrictions on sales of ring tones and games to their handset users.

TV shows may help Hong Kong-based Tom Group lure more Chinese consumers to its site in a market where three out of every four Web users watch online videos.

"There are a lot of opportunities going forward," said Yeung. "The Chinese Internet industry as a whole is still at the very early stage in terms of development."

Joost, founded by the duo who started the Skype Internet calling service, provides full-length TV shows over the Web and competes with Google Inc's YouTube video-sharing site, Bloomberg News reported.

The service won't allow users to upload their own videos due to concerns about intellectual property rights and the company's inability to control clips put on the site, Yeung said.

Tom Group delisted its Web unit Tom Online Inc via a buyout in September 2007 after the Internet company's shares declined 45 percent from their April 2006 peak.

Undisclosed stake

Li, ranked as the world's 11th richest man by Forbes magazine, bought an undisclosed stake in Joost last year and has also added holdings in other Web companies, including a more than US$100 million investment in social-networking site operator Facebook Inc.

China passed the United States to become the world's biggest Web market in February with 221 million users.

The Asian nation had 210 million Web users at the end of last year, 77 percent of whom watched online videos, according to the China Network Information Center.

(Shanghai Daily July 24, 2008)