China Sourcing Fairs launched in AsiaWorld-Expo, HK

B2B media company Global Sources opened the China Sourcing Fair: Gifts & Home Products on Saturday in Hong Kong.

The opening ceremonies saw participation from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese high-ranking government officials like Frederick Ma, JP, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Raymond Young, JP, Director-general of Trade and Industry of Hong Kong and Shen Danyang, Vice President of Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce, China.

The fair, the largest tradeshow ever to be held at AsiaWorld-Expo with over 3,600 booths, is co-located with Koelnmesse's International Hardware Fair/Practical World Hong Kong, offering a range of hardware and do-it-yourself products.

Both events will run from Apr. 22 to Apr. 25.

Global Sources is a leading business-to-business (B2B) media company and a primary facilitator of two-way trade with mainland China. It provides sourcing information to volume buyers and integrated marketing services to suppliers.

Best B2B Website of 2006 to be Named by Web Marketing Association

The Web Marketing Association will again be honoring the Best B2B Web site of 2006. The deadline to enter the 10th annual international WebAward Competition is May 31, 2006.

(PRWEB) April 24, 2006 -- The Web Marketing Association announces the call for entries for its 10th annual international WebAward Competition at http://www.webawards2006.org. The WebAwards is the standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks based on the seven criteria of a successful Web site.

The business to business industry represents an important category in the WebAward competition, and the Web Marketing Association will again be honoring the Best B2B Web site of 2006. The deadline for entry is May 31, 2006.

“The B2B industry is very competitive when it comes to Web development and companies can benefit from the independent evaluation of their online efforts that the award judges provide,” said William Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association. “B2B, or business to business, Web sites only joined the WebAwards in 2003. While individual sites might excel, the industry as a whole has lagged the overall ISAR Index with each of the criteria averages falling below their overall benchmarks. B2B Web sites generally do better in content and copywriting while their lowest scores are for innovation and use of technology.”

Each year the Web Marketing Association names the Best B2B Website based on the scores submitted by the competition judges. Recent winners of the “Best B2B Web site” WebAwards include:

2005 Signity - Inspiration, Innovation, Information - http://www.signity.com/
2004 Universal Studios Consumer Products Group - http://cpgcreative.universalstudios.com/
2003 Veer web site - http://veer.com/

A complete list of past winners and the entry form for companies who wish to compete for 2006 honors can be found at http://www.webaward2006.org.

Web sites are judged on seven criteria including design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copy writing and ease of use and receive a numeric score. Each WebAward entry is judged against other entries in its industry category and then against an overall standard of excellence. Entrants also benefit from receiving valuable feedback from the WebAwards professional judging panel on their Web site development efforts.

Using the quantifiable data collected from 9,748 Web site evaluations over the past decade, the WebAwards has defined and recognized industry-specific benchmarks for successful Web sites in each of the seven judging criteria and released an Internet Standards Assessment Report to detail the findings of the study.

“Participants in the 2006 WebAwards B2B category will receive their scores in each of the seven criteria compared to the average of the entire industry. That type of feedback and benchmarking alone in worth the price of admission,” said Rice.

A copy of the Internet Standards Assessment Report, including details regarding the B2B industry through 2005, is available at www.webawards2006.org.

Judging for the 2006 WebAwards will take place in June through August, with winners announced in September. Judges will consist of a select group of Internet marketing professionals who have direct experience designing and managing Web sites with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web site development and technology. Mark Kingdon, CEO of Organic, Inc. (www.organic.com) has been selected to lead the judging panel this year. Past judges have included top executives from leading organizations such as Ogilvy Interactive, Saatchi & Saatchi, Blattner Brunner, Comedy Central, Sun Microsystems, Refinery, Euro RSCG, EPB Interactive, New York Post Interactive, The Cincinnati Enquirer, J. Walter Thompson, Xerox, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Modem Media, and Answerthink just to name a few.

The 2006 WebAward Competition current sponsors include Burst Media (www.burstmedia.com), SimpleFeed (www.simplefeed.com), Register.com (www.register.com), NewsUSA www.newsusa.com), AdTools Inc(www.adtoolsinc.com), Small Army (www.smallarmy.net), Perseus Development Corp (www.perseus.com) and PRWeb (www.prweb.com). Media Sponsors include Website Services Magazine (www.websiteservices.com), AdRants (www.adrants), MarketingVox (www.marketingvox.com), MediaPost (www.wediapost.com), eComXpo (www.ecomxpo.com), Ad:Tech (www.ad-tech.com) and Macworld (www.macworldexpo.com). The Web Marketing Association thanks all of its sponsors for helping to make this annual competition possible.

About the WebAwards

The 10th annual international WebAwards competition sets the standard of excellence in 96 industry categories by evaluating Web sites and defining benchmarks based on the seven essential criteria of successful Web site development. The goal of the Web Marketing Association, sponsor of the WebAwards, is to provide a forum to recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective Web sites on the Internet today. Entrants benefit from a Web site assessment by a professional judging panel and the marketing opportunities presented to an award-winning Web site. For more information, visit www.webawards2006.org.

45% growth in online banking in Pakistan :B2B Pakistan News

By Arshad Hussain

KARACHI: The commercial banks have registered a growth of 45 percent in opening new online branches in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, State Bank of Pakistan data said on Monday.

During this quarter retail payment transaction (paper based and electronic) registered a growth of 5.05 percent in numbers, whereas the value of transactions increased by 4.91 percent over the first quarter of 2005-06.

Quarterly growth on the basis of previous quarter showed growth at the rate of 5.45 percent and growth in value of transactions by 2.98 percent, whereas the growth rate was 23.46 percent and 12.20 percent in case of number of transactions and amount, respectively, in the previous quarter.

Electronic banking: The central bank data said electronic transactions have posted a growth of 3.05 percent in the number of transactions and the amount showed a growth of 66.20 percent during the current quarter. The main contributor to growth in the value is real time online funds transfer by online bank branches that posted a 73 percent increase.

During the last six quarters the transactions from paper-based banking to e-banking has increased in terms of number of transactions. However, the value has achieved a remarkable growth, which has been driven by B2B through online branch network.

Online Branch Network and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs): Online branch network is expanding to meet the funds movement needs of customers. This quarter witnessed the addition of 235 new branches in the online network. The coverage of online branches as a percentage of total branches has also increased from 41 percent in

the previous quarter to 45 percent in the current quarter. As such, the total number of online branches reached 3,265 out of total branch network of 7,245 reported by banks.

Similarly, during the second quarter of fiscal year 2005-06 banks have added 75 new ATMs in their network, bringing the total to 1,217, registering a growth of 6.6 percent as compared with 11 percent in the last quarter.

As such, 189 new machines were added in the first half of the current financial year as compared with 110 new machines added during the same period last year.

Number of (credit/ debit/smart)cardholders: At the end of second quarter of the current fiscal the number of credit, debit, smart and ATM cardholders increased from 3.664 million to 4.072 million, showing a growth rate of 11 percent as compared with eight percent during the previous quarter. The total number of credit cards reached to 1.257 million from 1.181 million and registered a growth of six percent as compared with 13 percent in the preceding quarter.

The total number of debit cards increased from the previous quarter figure of 2.197 million to 2.556 million in the current quarter, showing a growth rate of 16 percent as compared with a 14 percent growth rate in the preceding quarter. The total number of ATM cards is 0.137 million in the current quarter as compared with 0.175 million in the previous quarter, showing a decline of 21 percent and it is because of convergence of ATM cards into debit or smart cards. The total number of smart cards, which offer a high level of security, has reached 0.122 million at the end of 2nd quarter as compared with 0.111 million at the end of the last quarter, showing a growth of 10 percent over the last quarter.

Volume on e-banking channels: During the second quarter the number of transactions increased from 2.848 million to 3.475 million, showing growth in transactions of 22 percent and the amount by 73 percent over the last quarter, as against the 1st quarter’s growth of 24 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

Internet Banking: Internet banking is getting momentum and during the second quarter the number of transactions was 0.094 million and the amount involved was Rs 4.321 billion as compared with 0.059 million transactions involving an amount of Rs 3.635 billion in the first quarter of the same fiscal, showing a growth of 59.32 percent in number and 18.87 percent in amount over the last quarter. The transfer pertains to intra- bank account to account transfer only.

Cox&Kings ready with its online travel venture :Ezeego1.com

Cox&Kings is gearing up to launch new travel marketplace in India, Ezeego1.com, in the second half of May. (4/24/2006)

Neelu Singh, the newly appointed chief operating officer of ezeego1.com said the ezeego1 is unique in a way as it is a travel meta-search site with booking capabilities. “It is a platform where suppliers and end customers meet to get real time information and transaction capability online. All travel providers, both online and offline, will be represented on ezeego1,” said Singh.

“The portal offers a real time web based booking engine, which is seamlessly integrated to the mid and back office. It is the only reservation system that offers dynamic packaging of all services with real inventory. Simply put, you get instant pricing and confirmation, which means that the information and booking status is all real time.”

Ezeego1 is headquartered in Mumbai and has branches in New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. The total investment in the travel portal is expected to be US$22.7 million. In the initial phase US$4.54 million has already been invested. Cox&Kings and its promoters have made the initial investment in this venture and in course of one to two years, this stake would be reduced to a minority.

According to the company, Ezeego1’s business model is based on three parameters. The first is the B2B, where the travel agent is provided with an email ID and password. All products on the site are commissionable to the agent and they would enjoy preferential pricing.

The second is the franchisee route where close to 100 franchisees would be appointed across India in the first year of operation. These locations would be called Ezeego1 shops. All shops will have a distinct look and feel to make it easily recognisable. Finally, the B2C model where the customer comes onto the site and books his holidays. The customer can book his air travel, hotel accommodation, car rental and also obtain his travel insurance. In order to provide customer flexibility we have introduced both online and offline payment options.

For Ezeego1, the company has already tied up with hundreds of hotels and large number of airlines across the world to provide not only real time availability but also booking capability. Ezeego1 has introduced a Supplier Module, which enables all service providers to control their inventory and price.

“Inventory management is instant as services can be updated at the click of a button. We also provide XML interface to many of our suppliers through our site,” said Singh.

Ezeego1 provides the reach to all suppliers to tap into the agent base in India, which is about 10,000 out of which close to 6,000 of them are in the Tier II cities in India.

“The sheer size of the country makes it rather difficult to reach out to all agents in India. Ezeego1 is the solution. It would market this portal across India through various media outlets such as television, radio and print amongst others. This would directly benefit all suppliers on the site,” added Singh.