Focus Media to concentrate on China, Asia

By Fei Ya and Yu Liang (China Daily )
Updated: 2007-06-05 09:09

Focus Media, China's biggest multi-channel advertising company, will for now focus its business on China and other Asian countries instead of exploring the global market, said Jiang Nanchun, its chairman and CEO.

Jiang, who has successfully converted a small company into a NASDAQ-listed advertising empire worth $4.1 billion in four years, said he has no intention on spreading his model to Europe or America.

"Instead, Focus Media will strengthen its efforts to explore the Internet and mobile advertising market in China," Jiang said in Monte Carlo while attending the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur 2007 award ceremony.

The company is aiming to promote its Internet and mobile advertising business to generate half of its total revenue, according to Jiang. Now, over 60 percent of the company's revenue comes from electronic billboard advertising.

Jiang was named the best China entrepreneur and was the first man from the mainland to win the award.

The Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur awards program, which started from a single American city two decades ago and now covers nearly 125 cities in 40 countries, was designed to recognize outstanding entrepreneurs on a regional, national and global level who are building and leading dynamic, growing businesses.

"The robust economic growth in the Asia-Pacific area has resulted in the fact that a number of entrepreneurs have reached global standards," Raymond Woo, managing partner of Ernst & Young Northern China, said.

The award highlights six standards to judge a good entrepreneur, including customer recruitment and management, people recruitment and retention, managing risk, transactions and alliances, operational effectiveness and managing finance.

Woo said the awards provided Chinese businesspeople an international entrepreneur network, which is vital in these times of globalization.

Horst Julius Pudwill, chairman and CEO of Techtronic Industries Co Ltd, a leading power tool maker based in Hong Kong, was also awarded the country winner along with Jiang.

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Techtronic is home to a list of well-known brands in the power tool and home appliance business and No 2 in the United States power tools market, with 20 percent share, and global No 1 in floor care appliances.

Guy Laliberte, founder and CEO of Cirque du Solei, a Canadian circus founded in 1984, won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 award.


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