(Hong Kong, August 7 2000) - "Dot coms are here to stay. There might be ups and downs, or hiccups along the way, but the coming decade will definitely be the age of the Internet," says Karen Wong Kar-ling, CEO of PromoDuck.com, a promotion, gifts and premium specialist portal, "I have met with many young start-ups who liken the internet race to be a 100-metres dash, when the fastest one will break the tape, grab the money and retire, but we genuinely believe that the race should be viewed as a marathon where stamina, experience and staying power will matter the most."

Ms Wong is a 17-year veteran of the promotion, gifts and premium industries. In her "real" life, she is also a managing director of a 1,500 strong gifts and premium manufacturer and sourcing agent, with operations in Hong Kong, Japan and Southern China. Her company enjoys repeated businesses from major international corporations such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, KFC, and retail chains such as Tesco, and Target.

Ms Wong explained, "Our co-founders and I did not happen to sit around a bar and dream up this idea, PromoDuck.com is a logical extension to the needs of our industry in the real world." According to figures from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, last year (1999) the total export of gifts and premiums from Hong Kong, including re-exports from the Mainland, amounted to approximately HK$156,703 million. Ms Wong added, " We think that the figure is quite underrated." Traditionally, buyers (who are mainly corporations, department stores and traders in Japan, Europe and North America) learn about sellers (factories, SMEs, trading firms in China and South East Asia) either in trade shows or trade magazines. Ms Wong explained, "A few times every year -- that is the meager amount of marketing opportunities available. For instance, Hong Kong Gifts and Premium Show, the biggest trade shows in Hong Kong, has already harbored more than 5,000 exhibitors this year, and new comers may need to queue up to three years to join the fair. The communication modes and marketing channels are ineffective and inefficient."

PromoDuck.com is designed to eliminate such inefficiency and allow traders specific to these industries to meet, communicate, exchange ideas and ultimately trade directly. Ms Wong added, "The internet or world-wide-web is merely a tool which appears at the right place and the right time."

Ms Wong believes that dot coms should stay focused to be successful. "Previously, it has been the trend for everyone trying to be everything to everybody. Such only works if you have billions of dollars in very deep pockets. We at PromoDuck believe that the virtual world should mirror the real world. Profit matters most. The bottom line is king. Most importantly, as in a wise Chinese saying, only do the things that you are familiar with (¤£¼ô¤£ô¤)."

The prototype of PromoDuck surfaced four years ago when Ms Wong, in her real life as a giftware-sourcing agent, failed to search some premium items through the traditional way of product categorization, for a French department store, which was looking for some duck-related products for a theme promotion. Frustrated by the huge effort and zero solution, she began to compile a database using an intelligent search engine, which translates plain data into knowledge data.

Ms Wong enlisted Mr Harry Tse Pui-leung, CTO of PromoDuck, to design a search engine to Advertise Here comb through the database. However, Mr Tse upped the requirements and designed an AI (artificial intelligent) feature, which allows the search engine to "think" like those who are in the industry.

Mr Tse explains, "We started off by conducting a lengthy knowledge capture process with many in-industry merchandisers in understanding their expectations, requirements and how they source products. We developed a multi-dimensional knowledge-based search engine using a higher level of language, which allowed for a totally creative search mechanism. Product attributes such as color, shape and materials of each product were extracted through use of our pattern and color recognition engine and a series of knowledge capturing methodology. An upper level of nominal and abstract value in human terms was resolved against these primary data. As a result of the integration with categorization of product terms, the ultimate knowledge base currently possesses more than 20,000 commonly used descriptions and jargons. A pilot test among target users shows most of our customers found PromoDuck 70% faster than other ordinary product search engines in identifying what they want."

The AI-enhanced search engine is incorporated into one of PromoDuck's main features - "Premium Finder". Here, the buyer dream up a need, for instance, an item for a duck promotion for kids. The buyer just key in "duck and kids", all items which match such searching parameters will show up on the screen, while with other search engines, the buyer might end up with no matches. In addition, PromoDuck's intelligent search engine will complete the quest with pictures of items relevant to the search regardless of product category, material, shape and size. The buyer just submits an idea and the search engine will return with a relevant list.

Another useful feature of PromoDuck is "e-Premium Show". Ms Wong explains, "We design this virtual exhibition area to allow the traders to tout their wares 24/7. True, there are lots of virtual malls and exhibition booths on the internet, but we have not found any that are designed with the buyers in mind. Buyers do not think linearly most of the time. We know, because we have been searching for the past 17 years. They might start with a color, a shape, a logo or a movie that they have sponsored. They might even start with a promotion theme, a festival, or a target group in mind, therefore, a brand new way of product categorization is required."

For example, a buyer wishes to find an item for a Back-to-School promotion. In the e-Premium Show, we group items such as pencils, mugs, and anything that could be relevant to back-to-school promotions, according to our experience and client's wishes, under a virtual Back-to-School Hall. These products could be teen's fashion, computer games, or anything that is not straightly stationery or notebooks. This differs from the traditional trade shows in the way that only products under a specific category are shown (e.g. rings or necklaces for jewelry shows, and handbags for leather goods show, etc )

Ms Wong believes that their virtual exhibition hall will quickly capture the imagination of the hardware, toys and utensil manufacturers of firstly the Mainland and Hong Kong, then Taiwan. She said, "There is simply nobody which offers such specialized service for this industry. The main reasons are that firstly, these industries are very fragmented geographically; secondly, their business nature is widely diversified. There was never a clear definition of who they are, therefore there wasn't anyone who cater to their specific needs. And buyers have always found it difficult to search and get what they want through traditional channels such as trade directories, exhibitions, road shows, which are insecure, expensive, time consuming and ineffective."

PromoDuck's revenue will mainly come from listing fees of around 500,000 manufacturers in the Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South East Asia. Despite the inherent "free-of-charge" nature of the Internet, Ms Wong is highly confident of gaining revenue, she explained, "A standard exhibition booth in the Hong Kong Gifts and Premium Show costs HK$30,000 for four days (not including set up, labor, brochures, etc). We are not greedy. We aim to serve the industry. Our basic package is only HK$12,800 a year, a cost roughly equivalent to 1.5 days rental for a trade show, but with global exposure, on a 24/7 and year-round basis.

"We will market PromoDuck vigorously all over the world including the USA, Europe, South East Asia, and of course, China, one of the biggest buying markets in the world. We have also committed to all notable and important trade shows including the Chicago National Premium Show and the Premium Show in Frankfurt.

Ms Wong expects the marketing efforts to generate "relevant" traffic to the members' site to pave way for the next step of e-commerce. She added, "At present, we have already secured over 200 regular corporate customers, and some of them are actually on our trial program. Improvements have been and will be made according to their suggestions."

Ms Wong is confident that the portal will be warmly accepted by the trade because there will be contents which will be invaluable to those who are in the trade. Apart from Premium Finder and e-Premium Show, the site will have seven additional features, all of which will combine to become an invaluable knowledge base and ideas generator for the industry.

The site has created a duck mascot to market itself. When asked the reason for the name and mascot, Ms Wong explained, "Duck is a word play in Cantonese, it means Can-do, OK or Done. We expect our members and traders to get business done through the site. Also, the idea will not come to being if not for the elusive order for the duck items four years ago."