An article in our "vaunted" local paper, the Taipei Times, today said that Yahoo-Kimo, the awkwardly named local Yahoo affiliate, had a 30 percent rise in sales. Problem is, through either crappy reporting (very possible) and/or obfuscation by the local company (also quite likely), neither sales figures (!) nor sales breakdowns, profit/loss, nor actually ANYTHING real is provided in the article.

The sum total of "hard facts" given:

"Yahoo-Kimo Inc.'s (¶®ªê©_¼¯) online shopping business defied the economic
slowdown with annual 30 percent growth in revenue from January through
last month, a company official said yesterday." (Taipei Times)

Now, I'm all for a reporter trusting his/her sources. However, while this isn't Journo 101 lab, here's a tip: Ask some followup questions!

We find out that supposedly... wait for it... online shopping is the fourth-most popular shopping channel in Taiwan, ahead of the perputually crowded but sales-lacking department stores. If true, this is HUGE information. Of course, we are given no facts, not even industry figures to back this up!

We are helpfully also told what the top times of day are for Yahoo-Kimo sales. This is helpful for... well, not much of anything. Basically, the whole "report" is the opposite of useful and simply promotional propaganda for the company. My grade: F/incomplete!

I guess we'll have to wait until someone with a brain/principles decides to find out if Yahoo makes any money in Taiwan.

More to come.
--jag

 

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