According to IDC, the Asia Pacific region, with more than half of the world s population at 3.3 billion, represents the second largest Internet growth opportunity after Western Europe. In addition to content, Lycos Asia s array of community services and tools encourage community building. Tripod Asia s free homepage-building site provides an easy way for both consumers and businesses to build their own content and Web pages, and encourage relationships and activities around their own communities of interest. By using Tripod Asia, they can also make these sites available immediately to the rest of the world, said Ms. Ong. Lycos Asia believes that the success of any Internet portal lies in its ability to create communities of interest and aims to do this through a combination of rich localized content and popular on-line tools.
Communities are at the core of the hub.
An Internet community personalizes the Web, allowing people with common interests to seamlessly find, communicate and interact with each other, acting as participants, rather than observers. In addition to Lycos India launched today, Lycos Asia currently operates sites in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Among portals, Lycos leads in global presence with 70 sites in 27 countries around the world. In addition to Lycos Asia, Lycos s joint venture partnerships include, Lycos Japan with Sumitomo Corporation, Internet Initiative Japan and Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Lycos Korea with Mirae Corporation, Lycos Europe with Bertelsmann and Sympatico-Lycos with Bell Canada. Lycos also operates sites in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.