BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 7, 2000 ISSUE
INTERNATIONAL -- ASIAN COVER STORY Rushing the Net in Taiwan (int'l edition) Just a year ago, Chinatrust Commercial Bank CEO Jeffrey J.L. Koo Jr. doubted the Internet could ever take off in Greater China. He figured few Chinese speakers would bother with a medium in which English was so dominant and that required them to type out complicated characters. Then he visited Seattle and saw Microsoft Corp.'s William H. Gates III and Steve A. Ballmer demonstrate voice-recognition software. Soon, he realized, Chinese speakers won't have to bother with keyboards. ''It was a tech shock,'' recalls Koo, 35. ''I decided to come back and push this thing.'' Now, Koo is one of the new princes of Asia's Internet. He has certain advantages: Koo comes from a long line of heavy hitters in Taiwan. His family's holdings include the island's two biggest cable-television companies. Uncle Koo Chen-fu advises President Lee Teng-hui and is Taipei's top negotiator with Beijing. His father, Jeffrey Koo, built Chinatrust Commercial Bank into one of Taiwan's top private financial groups. Jeff Jr. and his younger brother, Angelo, 34, chief operating officer at securities house KGI Asia, want to transform the family empire into the main broker of Asia's New Economy. Angelo directs the regional online-trading drive. In three years, he has snapped up brokerages in Hong Kong, Thailand, and South Korea that together manage $2.9 billion. The Koos also have links with Goldman Sachs and Sony. ''The first one to produce a platform will be the winner,'' says Angelo. Meanwhile, Jeff is laying e-commerce foundations at home. He has recruited like-minded, U.S.-educated Taiwanese to seek investments. So far, Chinatrust has bought into Ubexco, a new portal specializing in supply-chain management. In November, Microsoft paid $35 million for a 10% stake in the Koos' GigaMedia, which will offer broadband Net access to 3.5 million cable subscribers. To keep up-to-date, Jeff Koo spent a third of his time in 1999 exploring North American technology hot spots. ''The important thing is to get into the game,'' he says. With the insights they have gathered abroad and their enviable contacts at home, the Koo brothers are on their way to ensuring a role as major Internet players in Asia. By Bruce Einhorn, with Sarah Davison, in Taipei _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Taking Asia Digital (int'l edition) ASIAN COVER IMAGE: Rich Kids Go Digital TABLE: Asia's First Familes Rushing the Net in Taiwan (int'l edition) INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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