Newsgroup: it.economia.borsa.estero
Titolo: OK qualche notizia su YNOT

Stockreporter begins coverage of Forlink Software Corp. (YNOT) with a strong
buy recommendation and a conservative year 2000 price target of $35.00 per
share
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Forlink Software Corp. (YNOT) targets the Chinese Internet markets with a
broad service offering of e-commerce solutions, Internet information
services and Internet software and tools development.
The Company went public in early November 1999 through a reverse merger into
a publicly trading shell. Since that time, YNOT stock has taken off from
approximately $0.60 per share to its current trading level of roughly $5.00
per share. Yet Stockreporter still considers Forlink Software shares to be
drastically undervalued. In fact, we expect dramatic upside pressure on the
stock to continue as the investment community further demonstrates its
tremendous interest in this established Chinese firm that is rapidly
capitalizing upon the nation's explosive business-to-business Internet and
e-commerce opportunities.
The Company's aggressive business strategy offers YNOT a phenomenal
opportunity to rapidly capture dominant market share and generate
substantial sales levels by meeting the Chinese Internet industry's
overriding demand for business solutions. Investors should note that the
Internet industry in China focuses on business-to-business commerce and the
needs of business users, unlike its American counterpart where individual
users are dominant and a significant portion of online traffic and
e-commerce sales are derived from entertainment-related sites. This market
distinction makes the Chinese Internet industry substantially more
attractive for Forlink Software.
Stockreporter believes that YNOT is uniquely positioned to capitalize upon
the country's Internet e-commerce and Internet software development
businesses, particularly in light of the Company's quality management team.
Forlink's founders have been innovators in the Chinese and overseas computer
and Internet industries for more than 10 years. These seasoned industry exec
utives are experienced in technology development, marketing and management.
They also have an excellent understanding of the Internet business and have
demonstrated an outstanding technical capability - with YNOT's talented
software engineers led by Mr. Xiaoxia Zhao, who was the lead engineer in
creating the Yahoo!Japan site.
As a result of its aggressive business strategy and superior management,
Forlink Software is rapidly becoming one of the largest Internet enterprises
in China's explosive Internet industry. This dynamic market has posted
phenomenal growth rates in the last few years. Statistics from the China
Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) tell us that the country's
Internet users exploded from 670,000 at the end of 1997 to 2.1 million by
the end of 1998 and 4 million as of June 30, 1999. This explosive growth
rate is expected to accelerate, with 15 million Chinese Internet users
forecasted by the end of the year 2000. To ensure its market dominance in
lucrative sectors of this high-growth industry, YNOT is pursuing a two-fold
growth strategy:
The Company is building several Chinese destination sites, which are
Internet portals for a specific business sector. YNOT's first vertical
portal (Softhouse - 
www.softhouse.com.cn
) is recognized as one of the most
influential software destinations in China and sells more than 7,000
software titles through an online ordering and auction system. The site
provides software information for amateurs and professionals, including
software industry news, new software product introductions, downloads,
tools, software commentaries and forums.
Forlink is also establishing itself as one of the largest suppliers of
Internet tools and currently markets the first two of these tools under the
For-Mail and For-Business trade names. These products are currently deployed
by a number of prominent firms, including China's most popular portal sites
and Toshiba.
OPERATING DIVISIONS
Internet Destinations
Forlink Software's Internet destination division was established to create
vertical portals that service the online needs and support the web-based
expansion of specific business sectors. These types of sites are clearly
distinguished from China's existing general-purpose portals that simply
provide directories and search engines to help users find information on the
web while also sometimes offering news and other general services.
By focusing on specific business arenas through its targeted destination
sites, YNOT is better able to meet Chinese businesses' Internet needs. Given
that businesses (rather than individual consumers) are the driving force of
the Chinese Internet industry, Forlink's Internet destination strategy
positions the Company ahead of existing competitors and creates crucial
first-in brand recognition and user loyalty for YNOT. By establishing an
early position in these markets, international growth of the Internet
markets has shown that strong vertical affinity communities can be
established - thus providing a major competitive advantage (as seen with
companies such as Yahoo! and Amazon.com).
The Company's first destination site, Softhouse, is already operational with
initial results demonstrating the significant business demand for its
software offering. After extensive market evaluation, Forlink Software
determined that the software sector was an important arena to target through
its initial destination site due to a number of market, user and internal
factors, including:
China's software development is still slightly behind other developed
countries
Gaining access to new software is the first interest of most Chinese
Internet users
China's existing software sites were not comprehensive enough to meet users'
current demand and not well positioned to meet anticipated growth in this
demand
YNOT enjoys a distinct competitive advantage in this arena since its
software engineers have been in the business for many years and have a
thorough understanding of the software market
Forlink's core 'destination' site Softhouse has rapidly grown to become a
full-scale vertical portal that now hosts software information, online
software sales, online software auctions, free software downloads and
software forums. The site sells over 7,000 software titles and provides
detailed product introduction and links to software vendors. The division
has partnership agreements with more than 500 software makers, thus enabling
softhouse.com.cn
 to market virtually all of the software titles that are
sold in China's retail stores. The vertical portal also provides free
downloads of more than 10,000 freeware titles, with roughly 100 new titles
each day. The rapid pace at which Softhouse is adding freeware titles to its
product offering clearly illustrates the significant industry void that
existed prior to the site's launch and demonstrates YNOT's outstanding
ability to identify and fill tremendous Chinese demand.
Software Information: At Softhouse, users can get timely software
information from around the world, this includes sector news, software
company news, new product introductions and upcoming product introductions.
Users can also easily search for specific software information, prices,
customer comments and suggestions.
Online Software Sales and Auctions: Softhouse sells software through an
online supermarket and via online auctions.
The online supermarket provides for direct online sales to end-users. This
means that Softhouse does not require expensive retail space and can keep
inventory levels low - some orders are shipped to customers directly from
the software vendors. Low operating costs make this YNOT division's prices
very competitive. Online sales reduce space and time restrictions, thus
allowing customer sales to occur on a worldwide basis 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. Customers can quickly find the software title they are looking for
by searching for a category or multiple key word. These advantages over
traditional sales channels make Softhouse very attractive to consumers.
The online auctions offer Softhouse consumers another sales method that
brings customers and vendors together. This sales method provides a very
exciting opportunity for vendors since it attracts customer participation
and provides reference points for future software pricing. Softhouse hosts a
number of auctions for new titles every day.
Free Software Downloads: The opportunity to download free software attracts
a substantial number of users to the Softhouse vertical portal. The division
builds its free download software offering by systematically collecting and
making available as many titles as possible from the numerous organizations
and individuals that provide free software downloads. The Company offers
category and multiple key word search functionality to help users find the
software title they are looking for quickly and conveniently.
Software Forums: The division's Software Forums are locations for users to
communicate with each other, publish suggestions, tips and information, look
for help and assist others. These forums are listed according to software
category, while users can also open up new forums according to their own
interests. Softhouse's strategy is to develop Software Forums as a virtual
community to attract more users since visitor volume, repeat-visit count and
dwell-times are key components to valuing the 
softhouse.com.cn
 vertical
portal.
Software Publishing: Traditional methods of software publishing are costly
and time consuming whereas publishing new products via the Internet is much
faster and more cost effective. Softhouse is becoming China's premier online
software publishing platform, where local and foreign vendors are able to
quickly present their new products to large numbers of software users with
minimum advertising cost. The division's core strategy is to provide
top-quality service (which will attract large numbers of visitors) and
generate substantial revenue streams through both online sales and online
advertising sales. At appropriate times, Softhouse will also open online
sales sites for other related products.
Internet Tools
Forlink Software has successfully developed its own Internet tool product
line: a carrier scale electronic messaging system marketed under the brand
name For-Mail and an enterprise based e-commerce system sold as
For-Business. Prominent customers have successfully deployed both of these
Internet tools:
For-Mail provides free email service on one of the most popular portal sites
in China (
www.tonghua.com.cn
). Users praise the system as being fast, stable
and easy to use.
For-Business has been successfully running on a site owned by Legend, the
largest Chinese computer firm, and Japanese electronics powerhouse Toshiba
(
www.ltclub.legend.com.cn
).
For-Mail
YNOT's For-Mail product is a large-scale messaging system that is designed
for ISPs, free email service providers and other Chinese businesses that
require scaleable and stable email systems that can be administrated
in-house (through browser-based administration tools). Running on UNIX or
LINUX platforms, For-Mail is ideal for small, medium, large and carrier
scale email server systems that have the capability to support more than one
million users.
Features of the system include the fact that it is highly scaleable (so it
can easily be extended when demand increases) and that it is capable of
providing mass access due to its high-speed operations. Since the system is
designed on an open platform using standard protocol, it also supports all
RFC related to email as well as all other email applications. Unlike other
email systems such as Sendmail, the Company's For-Mail service is not only
on an SMTP and POP server, but also has a web mail subsystem that enables
email users to complete their email operations on their own browser. The
system is performing successfully on one of the best known portal sites in
China (
http://tonghua.com.cn
), which provides free email service.
For-Business
The Company's For-Business service is a complete e-commerce system that also
runs on both UNIX and LINUX platforms. It has a friendly user interface,
supports remote maintenance, requires minimum data transfer and is secure,
stable and scaleable. The system is currently in use on a number of large
e-commerce sites, including Toshiba's 
www.ltclub.legend.com.cn
 site.
For-Business comprises the following subsystems:
Product Register System: YNOT's product register system enables authorized
operators to list new products, categorize their products and suppliers, and
register their product information into the database. Product information
includes maker information, supplier information, product description,
product picture, FAQ, installation information, product specification,
purchase price, list price, sale price and minimum price. Authorized
operators can modify this product information at any time.
Page Design Support System: Forlink's page design support system enables
users to select whether pages are designed manually or automatically. The
manual subsystem requires users to design the main page and other regular
pages of the e-commerce site while the automatic subsystem utilizes a
program to automatically generate the design of regular pages.
Product Search System: The Product Search System offered by the Company
enables users to obtain product information and inventory status. This data
retrieval is achieved either through a category search or a keyword search.
Online Shopping: Users of YNOT-designed e-commerce sites can buy products
online as if they were shopping in a supermarket. Advantages of the Company'
s online shopping service include the ability for users to inquire as to the
status of their orders after purchasing products via the e-commerce website.
Administration System: Forlink's administration system includes inventory
management, order sheet management and sales management subsystems - all of
which are web-based and can be operated from any location by administrators
and authorized users. Operators are informed every time items are purchased
on line and able to update the order sheet on a real-time basis.
Administrators benefit from the system by researching sales and inventory
status in a friendly and easy-to-use format.
Supplier Inquiry System: The YNOT e-commerce solution package enables
suppliers to make inquiries regarding the sales status, inventory status and
accounts receivable for each product sold on the Internet site.
Dealer Support System: This system also enables dealers to request
information from the e-commerce site regarding their purchase prices, deal
structure, support information, new product information, product maintenance
messages and accounts payable.
Post-sale Service and Support System: YNOT's e-commerce solution enables
purchasers to automatically become members once they buy products from the
site. As members, they can use this system to obtain many value-added
services, including discounts, special prices, desk-help and new product
information.
Security System: The For-Business e-commerce package also incorporates a
state-of-the art security system that uses three levels of protection.
Computer system and network security is provided by firewalls, port
reorganization and access control to prevent unauthorized access. Data
transfer security uses SSL, RSA, RES and other advanced technologies to
ensure that unauthorized users cannot decode data. User level security
employs user password, dynamic password and one-machine-one-password to
ensure user security.
MARKET ENVIRONMENT
There are a number of reasons why the Chinese Internet industry provides
YNOT opportunities for dramatic revenue and earnings growth while offering
savvy investors the possibility for superior returns. These factors stem
from the size of China's population and the focus of the country's Internet
market on business uses. They also derive from worldwide statistics
demonstrating the Internet's proven ability to provide overwhelming
efficiency improvements and lower costs.
The Number of Internet Users in China
Statistics provided by the China Internet Network Information Center show
that the number of Internet users in China was 670,000 in December 1997. The
number reached 2.1 million by the end of 1998. Just six months later, the
number of users had already nearly doubled to 4.0 million. Although this
user base is still relatively small, it is increasing at a rate of 200% per
year or more; with estimates for the end of the year 2000 stating that China
will have 15.0 million users online. Converging socio-economic factors,
targeted resource allocations and strategic infrastructure decisions under
the Chinese administration's New Revolution vision for Information
Technology could expand these projections exponentially.
Online Payment
The success of online software sales also depends upon the availability of a
secure and convenient online payment service. After their success with ATMs,
Chinese banks are developing and implementing online payment systems.
Merchant Bank, Bank of China and China Construction Bank have already begun
to provide Internet online payment service. By early 2000, an authorizing
center led by the Bank of China will be online with participation by 11
major Chinese banks.
Product Delivery
Presently there are several ways of delivering an order to a customer:
Postal Service: This method is inexpensive and typically takes 3 to 10 days.
EMS/Express Delivery: This method is roughly three times more expensive than
postal service although it is faster, with delivery usually in 1 to 4 days.
Delivery by Forlink: This method provides for same-day delivery at no charge
within the Beijing city limit. As distribution centers are established in
additional cities throughout China, this same popular service will be made
available and will increase domestic sales dramatically.
Consumer Purchasing Power
According to Chinese Software Association statistics (
www.csia.org.cn
) the
Chinese software market posted a 35% year-over-year increase in 1996, 22% in
1997 and a further 24% in 1998. It is estimated that total software sales
will reach RMB 16 billion in 1999. China is en route to join the WTO and is
intensifying its control of software copyright violations. As a result, YNOT
expects to see further dramatic increases in online software sales.
Internet Tools Market
Since the number of Internet users is rapidly growing, and due to the fact
that the Chinese government is energetically promoting the Get to the Net
project that requires government agencies to go online, there will be an
exponential growth in websites in China. This will also generate related
growth in the ISP, ICP and other secondary and service markets. There will
also be a corresponding increase in demand for Internet tools. Forlink's
strong technical team places the Company in an excellent position to capture
a dominant share of this Internet tool market. In addition to its For-Mail
and For-Business tools, YNOT continues to develop its extensive pipeline of
Internet tools designed to meet specific and substantial market demand.
In the global market, the demand for messaging systems and e-commerce
systems is very large and expanding at a rapid pace. The Computer Industry
Almanac reports that by the year 2000, 327 million people around the world
will have Internet access and that there will be 25 countries with over 10%
of the population online. Since many Internet users maintain more than one
email account, the number of messaging system users will grow exponentially
relative to the number of total Internet users.
Online purchases also represent another substantial channel for YNOT's
long-term growth. Having increased dramatically over the past three years
and now at an estimated 43 million users purchasing over the Internet. A
recent International Data Corporation report predicts revenues from
e-commerce will reach US$51.1 billion by the year 2002. As e-commerce
business continues to expand, demand from around the world will grow for
advanced, low-cost and easy-to-use e-commerce systems. As a result of
Forlink's low labor costs, the Company will be able to market its high-end
messaging system For-Mail and state-of-the-art e-commerce system
For-Business at very competitive prices in order to rapidly capture
international market share.
CORPORATE OBJECTIVES
Established in 1998, Forlink's founding members built the Company as a new
technology enterprise - thereby qualifying for tax holidays, tax credits,
access to bank credit and other benefits from the Chinese government. Also
during the initial stage, the founding members attracted and assembled a
management and technical team of superior caliber and developed the
Softhouse site.
Having achieved tremendous growth momentum with its initial Internet
destination site and rolling out the highly successful For-Mail and
For-Business Internet tools, YNOT is now focused on the following objectives
through the second quarter of the year 2000:
Improving and promoting Softhouse to establish the vertical Internet portal
as the premier, most visited software destination site in China
Marketing the For-Mail and For-Business Internet tools by teaming with at
least one American group as a partner/distributor to sell these products in
the U.S. and other countries
Raising $4 million in equity funding through a private placement that allows
the Company to quickly implement its aggressive business plan
Recruiting additional technical talent, thus expanding the technical
development team to 50 engineers
Long-term goals at YNOT from the second half of the year 2000 and through
the year 2004 are structured to enable the Company to enter a rapid growth
period and begin preparing for a secondary offering of Forlink's shares.
This offering will fund the necessary expansion required to meet the Company
's more aggressive long-term objectives. Specific plans of action call for
YNOT to:
Continue the development of its Softhouse business
Develop several number one destination sites in select areas that offer the
Company the greatest growth opportunities and most profitable operating
potential
Create an online advertising business
Further develop its Internet tool product offering and market these services
to the global market
GROWTH STRATEGY
Softhouse
YNOT will quickly increase the number of visits to its Softhouse site
through a series of promotions, including:
Traditional media advertising through television, newspaper and magazine
campaigns
News conferences highlighting new features added to the Softhouse vertical
Internet portal
Online advertising and links placed on portal sites that have been qualified
as attracting a demographic base of users to which Forlink can cross-market
the 
Softhouse.com.cn
 product offering
Home page cross links with large and influential websites in target markets
Cooperation with large portal sites and other influential web locations to
provide free download services on these urls under both the Forlink name and
through private label agreements
Marketing efforts for the Softhouse site will also include the continuous
addition of new features to the portal that are designed to attract a
greater number of visitors and increase both software and advertising sales.
Additional marketing will focus on enhancing partnerships with software
vendors (to obtain lower purchase prices and more software information) and
developing a broader agent network for the portal (with the YNOT logo and
link on websites that are extremely popular among the Company's target user
base).
Internet Tools
Forlink is pursuing a multi-faceted marketing strategy to achieve rapid
sales increases of its For-Mail and For-Business Internet tools. This
aggressive plan of action calls for the Company to:
Use its client's names to promote Forlink Internet tools on the Softhouse
site, through traditional media channels and via Internet portals - both
For-Mail and For-Business have well-known companies and sites as clients
Form a marketing team to showcase Internet tool products in exhibitions and
trade shows - this team will also visit targeted potential clients to
demonstrate the software and its competitive advantages first-hand
Recruit agents in various cities to market Internet tool products and
provide service and technical support on a local basis
Establish strategic partnerships with large U.S. companies to market
For-Mail and For-Business throughout the U.S. and in other target
countries - Red Hat (a leading Linux player) has invited Forlink Software to
join its Developer Partners Program, thus enhancing the credibility and
visibility of the Company's Internet tools in the worldwide market,
positioning YNOT's Internet tools demo version on the Red Hat Application CD
and gaining access to Red Hat's extensive base of prestigious customers
MANAGEMENT
Forlink Software's formidable senior management team provides the Company a
distinct competitive advantage over its Chinese and international
competitors. These veteran industry players have the knowledge, expertise,
contacts and insights necessary to ensure YNOT's short- and long-term
success.
Xiaoxia Zhao, chairman, president and chief technical officer, participated
in the creation of Yahoo!Japan as lead engineer. In this position, he was in
charge of Yahoo!Japan operation and support, cooperated with Panasonic to
develop the search engine, worked with Microsoft to develop a specialized
search engine, liased with Lotus on category and search system development
and worked with Reuters and Daily News on news page development. After
returning to China, Zhao co-founded and was chief technology officer of GBS
Info Tech. Co. (which was owned by the Great Wall Computer Group Co.,
Beijing Telecom and Beijing Ping Cheng Jia Ye Electronic Corp. Ltd.). During
his work at GBS, Zhao designed and supervised the creation of the
www.tonghua.com.cn
 search engine and portal site, which became one of the
best known websites in China within just six months. He was also in charge
of the Beijing Telecom 8188 ISP project, with the 
www.cj.net.cn
 site in
operation since August 1998 and now an ISP with RMB 100 million in monthly
revenues. Through his cooperation with the Great Wall Computer Group Co. and
Legend, Zhao also led the development of the China National Commodity
Exchange Center's 
www.ccec.com.cn
 website (which has been in operation since
August 1998) and the Legend PDA network software, respectively. His prior
work also includes serving as chief engineer at Beijing Long Ma Software
Development Co. Ltd., where Zhao was in charge of technology management and
the system integration department, and where he obtained the contract to
develop the first phase of the Tonghua project. He holds a master's degree
in computer science.
Liang Che, director and chief executive officer, has an extensive technical
background with senior management positions at a number of prestigious
Chinese companies. His background includes serving as President of Shenzen
Shen Pu Computer Co. Ltd., where he developed the Shanghai railway ticketing
system (which is the largest ticketing system in all of China). Che also
worked as the general manager of the Middle China/Southwest China district
at Legend Advanced Systems Co., Ltd., which he co-founded in 1992 and helped
to grow by 1996 into the largest system integrator in China with annual
revenues surpassing $100 million. Che holds a master's degree in computer
science.
Jie Zhang, director, vice president and manager of the technology
development department, has vast expertise in engineering and operating
systems. He previously worked as senior manager of South China Computer Co.,
where he was in charge of CEDGA monitor card development, iron temperature
control ASIC chip development and network design for SUN, SGI, and CISCO
equipment-composed networks. During his work at South China Computer, Zhang
was also sent to Japan to research international banking software systems.
His broad background also includes work in the development of the Chinese
version of the Hua Sheng Operating System Shell and the Chinese version of
the UNIX system (which is a national project of the Chinese government).
Zhang has a master's degree in computer science.
EARNINGS PROJECTIONS
Stockreporter estimates the following projections to be both very realistic
and achievable given YNOT's current operations and its short- and long-term
growth objectives.
Revenues:
Year 2000: $ 8,300,000
Year 2001: $23,400,000
Year 2002: $62,500,000
Net Income:
Year 2000: $(9,400,000)
Year 2001: $(2,900,000)
Year 2002: $16,200,000
Management estimates that YNOT will have approximately 28 million shares
outstanding for the year 2000 and roughly 30 million shares outstanding in
the year 2001. Based on these forecasts, we project the following earnings
per share.
Earnings Projection per Share:
Year 2000: $ (.33)
Year 2001: $ (.09)
Year 2002: $ .54
EVALUATION AND OUTLOOK
Although Stockreporter expects negative earnings per share for the year
2000, we set our share price target to at least $35.00 for the year 2000,
which we expect is very conservative given YNOT's early market positioning
within the explosive Chinese Internet industry. Even after the recent run up
on the Company's stock price since it went public through the reverse merger
at the beginning of November 1999, we believe Forlink Software's shares are
drastically undervalued at a current price of roughly $5.00 per share.
Share Price Targets:
Year 2000: $ 35.00
Year 2001: $ 60.00
Year 2002: $ 90.00
One illustration of the drastic undervaluation at which YNOT shares are
currently trading is clearly seen in a quick study of Forlink's For-Mail
system. We believe that this system alone values the Company at
substantially higher levels than its current trading price of roughly $5.00
per share. A simple case study of Software.com (NASDAQ: SWCM) demonstrates
this point. A U.S. company that provides comparable products to small and
carrier scale messaging products, Software.com's shares are trading at
approximately $115 per share and the firm has a $4.5 billion market
capitalization. We believe this clear comparison between Sofware.com and
For-Mail (which is only one of YNOT's exciting products) highlights the
phenomenal potential for tremendous upside pressure on Forlink's stock
price. When combining the Company's Internet destination division and its
For-Business Internet tool (not to mention a growing pipeline of vertical
portals and Internet tools), we believe YNOT is positioned to be one of the
most exciting small-cap stocks in the high-tech sector over the short,
medium and long term.
Given all of the foregoing, Stockreporter concludes that the current YNOT
stock price of roughly $5.00 per share represents a very attractive buying
opportunity for investors looking to profit from the explosive nature of the
explosive Chinese Internet industry. Investors will also profit from Forlink
Software's superior management team, which is made up of seasoned industry
executives who have the technical expertise and successful experience
necessary to build sophisticated destination sites and develop Internet
tools. Recent listing in early December 1999 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
(under the symbol YNO) is already sparking additional interest from the
European investment community. This is expected to substantially increase
YNOT's shareholder base and contribute to more rapid share appreciation in
the near term. For all of these reasons, Stockreporter is confident that
Forlink Software's shares will appreciate from today's undervalued levels
and will offer investors some of the greatest profit opportunities in the
small-cap arena over the short, medium, and long term.
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il sito che hai citato é sufficiente a capire che tutto quello che è
riportato su queste notizie é attendibile?Le hai comprate?
ciao spero che mi risponderai al piu presto.Michele

 wrote in message
38581b93...@news.tiscalinet.it...
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