Much about GCN's projects But the last two sections make an update post on SSI a must
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Goconnect During the half year under review, there was a fall of $38,820 in gross profit from the ISP service, which reflected the shift in the Internet market from dial-up connections to broadband. This negative trend is expected to be reversed when GCN launches its ADSL broadband service. Internal research indicates that broadband Internet penetration in Australia is still at a very low rate and currently stands at 12% of the Australian households. This is expected to more than double over the next 12 months at the current rate of growth, providing significant business and revenue opportunities to broadband providers. The GCN will launch its ADSL broadband service in March 2005.
The combination of new media subscription products launched in 2004 including two Naked News programs, and ABC News and Current Affairs, with Direct Assist for Windows Mobile and Java mobile handsets, has resulted in GCN shifting its business development focus to marketing of these products on a global basis. More recently GCN entered into a marketing and distribution agreement with Times Internet Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the largest media group in India, The Times Group, to promote and expand GCN’s m-Vision mobile video services to the Indian market. The Times Group is widely recognized by its flagship national daily, The Times Of India, with a readership of more than five million all over India. Its online portal www.indiatimes.com is the largest media portal in India with over 30 million monthly unique visitors. The Times Group dominates mobile media in India with its "8888" mobile SMS content service achieving 75% national market share. The media properties of The Times Group will be regularly promoting various m-Vision subscription services.
A new channel, branded as Indiatimes TV, will also be added to m-Vision. It will distribute video content including Bollywood movie clips, interview with Bollywood movie stars, music videos, and news including sports and business news. Indiatimes TV content will comprise a mix of English and Hindi language content targeted at both the domestic as well as expatriate Indian communities. Working closely with The Times Group, which already dominates mobile media in India, and with its substantial marketing power, GCN’s m-Vision has the potential to become the dominant mobile video platform in India.
Since the launch on 18 August 2004 of Direct Assist for Windows Mobile handsets, a mobile user self help directory assistance search tool, GCN has already established a network of over 40 online distribution and marketing outlets for this product. In December 2004, GCN also entered into a global marketing agreement with Carrier Devices to have Direct Assist distributed on their popular customer support site located at www.clubimate.com. The implementation of this agreement is now imminent.
GCN has also continued its development of the Direct Assist technology for mobile phones. The software application can now search for directory information of Australia, US, Canada, UK and Mala ysia with a number of additional countries in the pipeline. Development work is also advanced to expand the search capability of Direct Assist to more information types. On 14 January 2005, GCN announced the release of the Java version of Direct Assist, thus significantly increasing the number of mobile handsets that Direct Assist is compatible with. The release of Java Direct Assist also provides the opportunity for GCN to work more effectively with mobile phone retailers to enable them to use Direct Assist to add value to their customers and to gain an additional revenue stream. Negotiations are currently at the final stage and when completed, will establish a direct retail presence for Direct Assist.
The audience of the RainbowNetwork.TV gay video subscription service has seen steady growth since joint marketing for this service commenced in September 2003 together with QSoft Consulting Ltd via their very popular online meeting portal GaydarGuys. The preliminary success of this service has encouraged GCN, its international marketing affiliate, QSoft Consulting Ltd, and Naked News of North America, to join forces to aggressively lift the subscriber audience of RainbowNetwork.TV. A joint marketing campaign has commenced since 25 February 2005 to promote the Gaydar Video Sex Factor competition on the Naked News Daily Male program, which in turn is distributed on RainbowNetwork.TV as a subscription service. The combined customer bases of GaydarGuys and Naked News Daily Male amount to 6.4 mil a month, which will provide a tremendous leverage to GCN to expand the subscriber number of RainbowNetwork.TV.
In November 2003 GCN completed the first series of TheBestMix online music competition culminating in a finalists’ concert held at the National Theatre in Melbourne, called TheBestMix Showcase with 20 finalists performing in front of a large live audience and judges from the music industry. The success of the Showcase demonstrates to aspiring talents that TheBestMix is a compelling platform for their discovery and for them to gain exposure to an international online audience and professionals in the industry. Invaluable experience gained from the 2003 series, as well as the securing of NineMSN as the media partner to promote the 2005 series, will assist in further expanding the interest and value of TheBestMix. During the period under review,
GCN completed the first stage of development of its mobile gaming software technology. This technology is applicable to any number based games including lotto, keno, horse racing, and football betting. Discussions with major gaming operators for the adoption of this technology in Australia and Asia are in progress.
On 19 July 2004 GCN appointed Mobile Media Services (MMS) as European agent for corporate development. MMS will provide GCN with access to European media, music and telecommunications companies to accelerate the adoption of m-Vision and GoTrek proprietary technologies. Through the introduction of MMS, GCN has commenced discussions with a number of parties in the UK and Germany regarding content partnership and adoption of our various technologies. GCN is now firmly focused on marketing its portfolio of media products, Direct Assist, and ADSL broadband to lift operational revenue. Continuing efforts are made in establishing the GoTrek and m-Vision platforms, Direct Assist and the mobile gaming technology in the international market. In particular, now that distribution infrastructure is in place in India via the partnership with the Times Group, management attention will also be devoted to the large market of China. With the explosive growth of the mobile phone industry in both India and China, the timing is right for GCN’s media and other mobile technologies to penetrate these major markets. Indication received to-date of the acceptance of our technologies in China is very encouraging.
Pharmasafe Pty Ltd
Professor TC Lin has advised that the lodge of the final application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration for approval of a herbal based remedy that assists hepatitis patients is imminent. It is expected that the approval process will take up to 3 months. If approved, a detailed business plan will be developed by the management and seed capital will be raised by the Consolidated Entity to establish the business of Pharmasafe Pty Ltd.
Sino Investment Services Pty Ltd ("SIS")
SIS’s traditional securities brokerage and underwriting income has not been a major contributor to revenue of the Consolidated Entity since the Consolidated Entity ceased working on Chinese company listing on the ASX in the late 1990s. Management expects this trend to be reversed in the next 12 months. In recent months, the Consolidated Entity has investigated a number of opportunities to expand the activities of SIS. In association with Dollar Growth Pty Ltd, a member of the Associated Planners financial planning group, SIS has begun developing its business in financial planning. In addition, management of SIS is of the opinion that timing is now right for the company to return to the business of corporate underwriting with the emphasis on the listing of Chinese businesses on the ASX. A number of such listing opportunities are being pursued with the objective of introducing these
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