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By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
NETOPIA is pulling the plug on its Thailand
operations, according to the Internet café chain operator, Digital
Paradise Inc. (DPI).
In a briefing, George Tan, DPI president, told
reporters that the company decided to close its remaining Internet
café branches in Thailand next year. “It’s hard to manage a
branch that is far away. Its hard to promote [our products] because
of [the] language barrier,” he said.
DPI is 75 percent owned by ePLDT, the
information communication and technology (ICT) arm of Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Co. The Internet café chain entered the
Thai market four years ago with four branches as a “pilot
project” for its planned expansion overseas.
“The last store in Thailand is doing well, but
we decided to close this as our lease agreement will lapse next
year,” Tan said.
At present, Netopia has 177 branches nationwide,
of which, 90 stores are company owned and the remaining operated by
franchisees.
Tan said the company expects a net loss in the
third quarter of the year because of typhoons during the period.
“We may not [post a net income] because of the
typhoons,” he said.
For the first six months, DPI posted a net loss
of P11 million, 70 percent lower than in the same period last
year.
Tan attributed the improvement to the reduction
of 18 unprofitable stores last year and efficient operations.
The company’s revenue during the period
reached P168 million to P170 million or an average monthly revenue
of P27 million to P28 million.
In the first half, 55 percent of Netopia’s
business comes from Internet surfing, communications, training and
educational research, 15 percent from on-line and LAN games, and 30
percent from the value-added services such as desktop publishing,
photo printing and retail sales of prepaid cards, game cards and
storage media.
The company also partnered with Drake Training
Systems Ltd. to deliver Englishlink training in its Internet cafés
nationwide.
Lesley Rogan, creator of Englishlink, said the
online English school can help Filipinos brush up on their skills
through video-streamed English as a Second Language (ESL) online
training program for non-native speakers 18 years and older.
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