On December 21, Telecom giant Chunghwa Telecom and Internet search-engine leader Google Inc. finally announced their Web-search tie-up, firing the starting gun on a new race for supremacy on the street among big players in the telecom, Internet and communications sectors. In recent years, suppliers have competed for influence in the office and home digital markets, but now the pitched battle will be fought over ever-changing mobile-phone service opportunities.

“Once this mobile Internet search service bomb ignites, it will blow open the door to the mobile content era in Taiwan,” says Topology Research Institute chairman Chen Ching-wen.

By the end of 2005, there were approximately 700 million people around the globe accessing the Internet with cell phones, closing in on the 1 billion who access the Internet with computers. In Taiwan, 1.85 million people surf the Web with their cell phones, a number that is growing as a share of overall Internet users. When third-generation, or 3G, broadband gets faster and adds more content and services, the mobile phone is expected to become the leading Internet access platform.

The information battle that started in the study and spread to the living room has now extended from the home to the street.

Google has taken the lead in this battle for the mobile market. The first step in its partnership with Chunghwa Telecom will involve “Google Inside,” a mobile Web search service to be embedded in Chunghwa Telecom's “emome” mobile service platform. That will give 8.46 million Chunghwa Telecom cell phone customers access to the Internet anywhere, anytime. With a simple push of a button on their cell phone, users can tap into Google's search engine to get information on restaurants, scenic spots and big events. 

“Mobile phones are the only medium with body heat right now,” declared Rebecca Kuei, Google Taiwan's general manager for sales, stunning those at the press conference where she revealed Google's ambition to become the lifestyle guide for all local residents, as well as Taiwan's biggest advertising platform.

In the second phase of the tie-in, both sides hope to launch location-based mobile services that could include roadside assistance or continuing care for the elderly. They also want to develop the mobile advertising field that is just beginning to emerge. Chunghwa Telecom has the densest access-point network and the newest, most comprehensive geographic information system (GIS) in Taiwan, while Google owns a powerful and innovative search application. “We know where people are and where stores are. Add to that Google Map and Google Earth, and the possibilities for the future are infinite,” asserts one Chunghwa Telecom manager, adding that the two giants had identified so many potential areas of cooperation that they could not all fit on an A4-sized sheet of paper.

Mobile advertising is a new market that both sides are desperate to exploit before anybody else does. With Yahoo! Taiwan holding a 70 percent share of Taiwan's Internet advertising, Google sees mobile advertising as its opportunity for a breakthrough in the future, and its huge telecom partner is also aggressively moving in the same direction.

On January 1, Chunghwa Telecom established a subsidiary to offer Yellow Page services. Aside from providing the traditional Yellow Pages phone book and the “HiPage” Internet Yellow Pages system, the company will also develop a mobile-phone Yellow Pages.

“Advertising will become one of Chunghwa Telecom's engines of growth in the future,” affirmed Chunghwa Telecom senior vice president Feng-hsiung Chang.

With the two powerhouses having fired the first salvo in the new battle for supremacy on the street, other big Internet, telecommunication, mobile phone and networking companies are poised for a fight. That sets the stage for an explosive 2007, with battles continuously breaking out and firing lines constantly being extended.

Translated from the Chinese by Luke Sabatier