By DOUGLAS C. McGILL
(Virtual China News -- Mar. 31) In the latest sign of the increasing economic impact of overseas Chinese investors on U.S. stock markets, a major Chinese-language financial information Web site was launched today to give those overseas investors the ability to research and trade U.S. stocks in their native language.
Jointly developed by Dow Jones & Company and the Charles Schwab Company, the new service, called "Zhongwen eXun" ("Chinese e-Fast Info"), will carry real-time financial news on U.S. stock markets to Chinese speaking customers of Schwab.com, the leading online stock trading web site.
"Our Asia-Pacific business is now growing at $100 million a week coming to Schwab from investors," said Dave Pottruck, President of Charles Schwab and Company, at a news conference this morning to announce the new service. "Asia Pacific is the fastest growing part of Charles Schwab."
While many online stock trading companies are building Web sites for mainland Chinese to trade on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, Zhongwen eXun is the first Web site designed expressly for Chinese speakers interested in investing in U.S. stock markets such as the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ.
The new site, accessed through the Web address www.schwab.com/chinese, is written in traditional Chinese characters to attract investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as overseas Chinese from these regions, and an older generation of mainland Chinese who read the traditional characters as well as the simplified modern characters now used on the mainland.
About 15 percent of the overseas investors targeted by the new Web site are wealthy immigrants to the U.S. from mainland China, according to Carly Fong, vice president of Schwab's Asia Pacific Services Division. Wealthy young Chinese "dotcom" millionaires from Silicon Valley, many of whom are Taiwanese, and older Chinese immigrants to the U.S. are two other demographics the new eXun service is aiming to attract, according to Robert Liu, a press spokesman for the new venture.
The new site was developed quickly in response to rising customer demand of this nature, as opposed to more long-term customer profile trends, according to Larry Yu, senior vice president of Schwab's Asia Pacific Services Division.
A New Chinese American customer of Schwab.com just walked into the company's Silicon Valley branch office in Cupertino, CA recently and opened a $20 million account, Liu said.
The Web site offers the full range of information services now standard on the best online trading sites. The home page contains sections including hourly market summaries, real time news, analyst upgrades and downgrades, and "Most Actives" and "Stocks in Play."
A Dow Jones Editorial staff of more than 80 editors and translators will work directly on the new site, with articles also drawn from the more than 1,600 Dow Jones reporters around the world working for the Wall Street Journal, the Dow Jones Newswire, Barrons', Smart Money Magazine, and other Dow Jones publications, according to Peter Kann, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dow Jones and Company who spoke at the news conference.
For now, the service will be offered at no extra charge to Schwab.com's existing customers, with a free demonstration site available to potential new Chinese-speaking clients.
