Page 28 - Sphere No.16 (Apr 2006)

F O C U S
T ONY MA is facing a lot of late nights this summer but he doesn’t mind one bit. In fact, he can’t wait. Mr Ma, a life-
long football fan, is the COO of ESD Services Limited which has been granted the exclusive rights to operate the
official FIFA World Cup online store in Asia and the Middle East.
ESD Services, the leading e-commerce and e-government services provider in Hong Kong, is responsible for op-
erating the FIFAworldcup.com Online Shop in 50 countries including Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia,
Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, India, and Indonesia. The tournament, to be staged in Germany between June
9 and July 9, is the biggest sports event in the world and because of the time difference many of the games will be
played in the early morning in Asia.
Mr Ma can barely contain his enthusiasm. “Yes, it will mean staying up late to catch the big
matches but it will be worth it,” he said. “I’m an England fan but it is always a pleasure
to see the best teams in the world compete. Brazil have got great players like Ron-
aldinho and Ronaldo, so they will be the favourites. Soccer is definitely the
number one sport in Asia. People are just crazy about it.”
The FIFAworldcup.com store will provide football fans with every-
thing from shirts and caps to sports accessories, footballs and sou-
venirs. Available in English, Chinese and Korean, the store will
provide round-the-clock online service until the end of 2006.
“We are very proud and excited to provide memorabilia
to millions of football fans in Asian countries,” he said.
“With our sound Internet and e-commerce expertise,
we believe customers will have an enjoyable shopping
experience in the online store. It is the first time
FIFA has awarded these licences by region, which
shows how important Asia has become.”
The World Cup will also illustrate how online
shopping has become an important retail tool
in parts of Asia. “South Korea will be the big-
gest market for us,” said Mr Ma. “The Koreans
are in the finals in Germany and reached the
semi-finals four years ago, so expectations
are very high. E-commerce in South Korea
is very strongly established and online shop-
ping is particularly popular. Almost everyone
has broadband. The Hong Kong market is
much smaller but is growing very fast.”
And so is ESD Services. A joint venture
between Hutchison Whampoa Limited and
Hewlett-Packard, the company started with
a contract to imple-
ment the government’s
Electronic Service Deliv-
ery Scheme and launched
an award-winning bilingual
portal, ESDlife ( www.esdlife.
com) in January 2001. ESDlife
now offers more than 200 public
services from over 50 government de-
partments and public agencies. Through
the establishment of a vast digital informa-
tion infrastructure, the company is dedicated to
providing a one-stop shop for public and commercial
electronic services, as well as professional web solutions.
TheWorld Cup
will illustrate
how online
shopping has
become
an important
retail tool
in Asia
PHOTO: SINOPIX 26 SPHERE
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