HK, local firms to set up $2.5-M Internet venture

Hong Kong-based Herbvigor.com Limited has formed a $2.5-million (P100-million) joint venture with two Filipino partners for the development and operation of an Internet portal on natural health and wellness.

Chosen as partners are Evoserve, a local Internet solutions provider which is aggressively pushing electronic services that are available all over Asia, and Vision Technology and Management Services Inc., one of the pioneers in distributing natural health products in the Philippines for over 12 years.

Evoserve and Vision will have an over 50-percent stake in the undertaking.

Steven Goh, Herbvigor. com president said the site is an interactive online magazine that provides the latest breaking news on health, wellness and living such as findings on the nutritional value of different food and supplements, research results on conventional and alternative medicine, information on medicinal herbs around the world, and even tips for natural health and beauty.

It is also a one-stop health and information center on the Internet as well as a forum for health experts from all over the world who will answer inquiries and share their knowledge in their respective areas of expertise, he added.

Apart from the formal launch in Manila over the weekend, the site will be promoted all over the Asian region through a road show that will start in Singapore and move on to Hong Kong, Thailand, and Indonesia before yearend.

"We have been impressed by the Philippines and have chosen it to launch this ambitious project because there is a high degree of dynamism in Filipino information technology business. And it was here that we found partner companies with a regional and global orientation, wanting to be competitive market leaders beyond the borders of their own country," Goh said.

He pointed out that the online magazine has a potential worldwide audience waiting to be tapped, thus, they are determined to become the "CNN of Health" in the Internet.

On the other hand, British investor Nicholas Leese, expressed optimism that the company would break even in nine months despite the conventional wisdom that dot.com firms could not earn money in 18 months.

"The demand for information on alternative medicine is tremendous especially among Asians and we believe that given a critical mass of eyeballs, we could easily meet our target. There are a lot of uncertainties but we want to be there before anyone does," Leese said.