Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word online. 20 news.

UNITED States Internet sales rose at the slowest pace on record as discounts cut revenue in the final days of the holiday shopping season. Online spending from November 1 through December 21 increased 19 percent from the same period a year earlier to $26.3 billion, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc said yesterday. Sales trailed last year's 26 percent growth and the research firm's forecast for a 20 percent gain during this year's holidays, Bloomberg News said. Consumers have limited spending growth this year as gasoline and food prices rise and mortgage defaults increase. The Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment for December dropped to 75.5, the lowest since October 2005. "This year will be the year of the discount," Fred Crawford, managing director at AlixPartners LLP, told Bloomberg Television on December 21. AlixPartners is a consulting firm based in Southfield, Michigan. ComScore hasn't recorded growth of less than 20 percent since

CHINA Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia's largest refiner, will complete construction of a 12.5-billion-yuan (US$1.7 billion) plant in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao by the end of next month to tap rising fuel demand. The project will help boost the state-controlled refiner's market share, parent China Petrochemical Corp said in its online newsletter Sinopecnews. It didn't say when the plant will start commercial operations.

SHANDA Interactive Entertainment, Intel Corp and Sichuan Changhong Electric have established an alliance to develop the market of online games on Web-linked TVs, the three sides said yesterday in Shanghai. The companies launched an online table tennis game, available both on computer and TV platforms, to catch the sport game booms ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games next year. According to the agreements, Shanda will provide content including games, Intel will provide related chip and chipset technology, while Changhong - China's second biggest TV maker - will produce TVs with Internet access and built-in hard disk storage, the companies said. "Shanda is proud to become content provider and the three sides will jointly promote the games including the new table tennis game X-Up," said Tom Zhang, Shanda's senior vice president. The project has similarities to Shanda's previous EZ-Center plan, which allowed users to access Internet and games on TV with a

GOVERNMENT subsidy support for meat production will be stable even when pork prices fluctuate, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Speaking at an online press conference, Zeng Xiao'an, deputy director of the MOF's Department of Economic Development, said the government would take subsidies for piglet keepers into a long-term mechanism framework. "It does not matter whether pork prices are rising or falling, the supportive policies will be successive," said Zeng. "We will only adjust the strength of the policies based on real conditions," Zeng said when asked about the policies' time limit. To combat escalating inflation, China pledged to draw up a series of measures, including more subsidies for farmers. From July next year to the end of June in 2009, subsidies for each reproductive female piglet will be raised from 50 yuan (US$6.75) to 100 yuan, said Zeng. Also, the central government will allocate 2.5 billion yuan next year to support the

Hoping your child becomes the next Richie Rich? A local entrepreneur is giving away an online educational system to make kids wealthy this season.

Teenagers still value phone calls and face-to-face meetings with friends even as they frequent online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace, a new study finds.

Continuing with a new model of on-air/online campaigns, TBS is running a holiday effort with Home Depot. They run during the net's "Breakroom" afternoon comedy block. It's the first time sponsorship has been customized with a micro site.

According to the recent release of The ChoiceStream 2007 Survey of Viewer Trends in TV and Online Video, 55% of connected consumers who watch TV watch some type of video on devices other than their TV sets, including their computers, mobile phones and digital media players (e.g., iPod). Not surprisingly, video-watching on these alternative devices is more popular among younger consumers (66%) than older ones (36%).

Complaints about late online shopping deliveries are up a third in the Christmas run-up, a consumer group says.

Is News Corp. becoming a publishing centric media conglomerate? That appears to be a pattern emerging following Saturday's announcement that the company would divest of eight U.S. television stations to private equity firm Oak Hill Partners for about $1.1 billion. The divestiture, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2008, follows News Corp.'s deal to acquire print and online publisher Dow Jones and Co. for $5 billion, and moves to liquidate other TV assets, including stakes in DirecTV and Gemstar TV Guide.

Consumers are 47% more engaged in ads that run with television programs that they view online than those watched on a TV set, according to new Simmons cross-media research.

A recording industry group announced that it had won a key court ruling against Yahoo's China unit, in connection with online music piracy.

US ONLINE sales rose at the slowest pace ever during the holiday season as customers reined in spending and retailers slashed prices on items from DVD players to sweaters.

Google News offers a new feature that allows people quoted in news articles to post a comment that will be paired with that article online.

[Automotive] The company says consumers will also be able to talk to each other and leave reviews, ratings and comments, making the site what BMW hopes will be an online community of enthusiasts, as well as a 360-degree marketing kiosk for configuring, ordering, buying, and servicing BMW cars.

India's Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd., part of the Anil Ambani-led ADAG group, is set to acquire Sony Online Entertainment for around US$300 million, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Picture this: an online photo-sharing site with a loyal customer base and no corporate ties run by a close-knit clan out of Silicon Valley. Ever the proud father, Chris MacAskill screens 20-year-old home movies of his sons -- Ben singing about a stegosaurus, Mark getting a mohawk -- on his laptop.

The Richter Scales have an online hit with a musical video parody. An offbeat a cappella group composed mostly of computer geeks, the Richter Scales have performed original ditties and pop parodies in relative obscurity for seven years.

The online dating service Chemistry.com plans to unleash a new advertising campaign that seeks to depict its competitor, eHarmony.com, as out of touch with mainstream American values.

AsianLogic will this Friday become the first major online gaming company to list on Aim since the crackdown in the US hit companies such as Sportingbet and BetOnSports last year.