2006 Annual General Meeting
Chairman’s Address
18 October 2006
Thank you for joining us today for this Seventh Annual General Meeting of shareholders.
For those who have been following the evolution of the Internet industry as closely as the
GoConnect management, you would probably agree with us that this industry has
achieved growth and global market penetration in the past 10 years at a pace never seen
before in any other industry. We are of the opinion that the Internet industry is likely to
evolve yet again at a much faster pace in the next 5 years, with the rapid growth of the
global broadband Internet population and the trend towards increasing user interactivity.
Operating in such a rapidly changing and dynamic environment, the GoConnect
management has to be extremely agile and forward thinking in order to not just remain in
the game, but to also be constantly ahead of the game. Such is the challenge for your
management. Many of the popular Internet brand names you have seen in this industry,
such as Yahoo, Amazon, Google, Myspace, Youtube, etc, have all originated from the
US. Their success stems from the fact that they have been able to commercialize their
offerings firstly in the large and affluent US market with 300 million people, and then
once critical mass was achieved, expand globally. For GoConnect, operating out of
Australia, with a limited capital base and a small market of only 20 million people,
presents many unique challenges that US Internet businesses do not have to face. In order
to reach for bigger markets, we have in the past few years worked with partners with
access to large user bases. These include Gaydar for the gay and lesbian market, Times
Internet Ltd for the Indian market, and recently with our parent company, Sino Strategic
International (“SSI”) for the Chinese market.
GoConnect has an extremely resourceful and creative team of professionals who are
constantly monitoring new and emerging trends in the market and developing unique
products in a timely manner to capture the market. Our partners recognize our
resourcefulness and creativity and accordingly are prepared to lend us their market
strengths to assist us to commercialize our products for shared rewards.
In the past 12 moths, we have successfully partnered with a number of companies to
deliver unique products including GoTrek IPTV with VoIP together with Wholesale
Communications Group, BollywoodZone TV video subscription service on the Internet
with Times Internet Ltd of India, GaydarDirect online business directory with QSoft, and
payment solutions for the Chinese gaming industry with Ezybonds . In the current
financial year, we will maintain this strategy of capitalizing on our and our partners’
strengths to grow our revenue while keeping our operating costs low. At the same time,
we will also be expanding internationally, particularly in Asia, by adapting our existing
directory products to cater to the Asian markets with minimal additional costs. In our
traditional businesses of IPTV and mobile TV, GoConnect is currently redeveloping the
online and mobile video sites into a new website to ensure that our online and mobile
video products continue to maintain its relevance to the Internet and mobile video trend,
and in particular to capitalize on the tremend ous growth in user interactive content. This
site will be launched in the coming weeks and we believe upon launch, it will generate
and deliver a variety of “killer” content for our users.
Launched at the beginning of October 2006, sales of the GaydarDirect online business
listings are on budget. We expect this business to generate healthy revenue for the current
financial year as well as helping to extend our revenue from online advertising sales.
In the coming weeks, we will expand our online and mobile directory products to Asia,
building on the expertise we have developed with the successful launch of Direct Assist
and online business directory.
With our parent company SSI’s significant involvement in the Chinese gaming industry,
GoConnect is able to secure business opportunities in online gaming, targeting Asia. The
recent meltdown in stock prices of online gaming companies as a result of the ban on
Internet gaming for US residents have forced those online gaming companies who have
been dependent on the US market to quickly focus on and reinvent themselves in the
Asian market. GoConnect is in discussion with a number of these companies with the
objective of partnering with one of them to enter the online gaming business in Asia. We
see the crisis in the US online gaming industry translating into significant opportunities
for GoConnect and for our company to benefit from the growth of online gaming in the
Asian market. Our access to the Asian market, in particular the Chinese market, together
with our strong in house online and mobile technologies, will make GoConnect an ideal
partner for those online gaming companies who are now repositioning their businesses in
Asia.
With so much on our plate in the coming weeks, you can see that GoConnect is poised
for further growth in revenue and shareholder value in 2006-07 and beyond. Thank you
for your attendance.
Richard Li
Executive Chairman
GoConnect Ltd
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