Domestic fuel gas supplier Hong Kong and China Gas Company (Towngas) is to invest HK$800m ($103m) in several e-commerce and IT initiatives in collaboration with sister company Henderson Investment and Microsoft Corp.
A key component of the initiatives is a HK$300m ($38.5m) investment in an
end-to-end internet service called iCare. Microsoft will develop the software and be the implementation partner for iCare, a service targeted at Towngas’s 1.3 million customers. This project is aimed at allowing our 1.3 million China Gas households to get access to the internet without buying a PC, said Lee Shau-kee chairman of parent company Henderson Land Development.
Delivered via TV set-top boxes iCare services will include online shopping for discounted brand merchandise, Towngas Cyber Radio, entertainment programs, bill settlement and payment using Towngas credit cards, information on stock and financial markets, and weather reports.
Henderson Investment chairman Peter Lee said that iCare.com’s services are expected to attract 300,000 to 400,000 subscribers in the first year of operation. Our services will be offered at a very competitive price that you can hardly resist, he said.
Microsoft Hong Kong general manager Graham Brant said the set-top box software for the iCare portal services would be developed in Microsoft’s Beijing Research and Development Center.
