Note 7 - Prepayments and Deposit to Suppliers

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Prepayments And Deposits To Suppliers Disclosure [Abstract]

Prepayments And Deposits To Suppliers Disclosure [Text Block]

7. Prepayments and deposit to suppliers

	As of December 31,
	2013		2012
	US$(’000)		US$(’000)
Deposits to TV advertisement and internet resources providers		8,907		9,463
Prepayments to TV advertisement and internet resources providers		5,292		5,069
Other deposits and prepayments		493		64
		14,692		14,596

In order to provide advertising and marketing services, the Company partners with provincial satellite TV stations or its agents to obtain time slots for resale through broadcast advertisements to advertise brands, business information, products and services of its customers. The Company also purchases internet resources from large internet search engines to attract more internet traffic to its advertising portals and provide value-added services to its customers.

In October 2013, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People’s Republic of China (the “SARFT”) issued a notice to enhance the management of TV shopping infomercials broadcasted in provincial satellite television stations, which further restricts the contents, air time and duration of these infomercials (the “Restriction Notice”). These restrictions to certain extent affected the supply of time slots for these infomercials.

Deposits to TV advertisement and internet resources providers are paid as contractual deposits to the Company’s resources and services suppliers. As of December 31, 2013, the deposits to suppliers primarily consisted of deposit to an agent of one of the provincial satellite TV stations partnered with the Company. The Company has partnered with this TV station to broadcast its advertisements for three years. According to the contract signed between the Company and this agent for the time slots to be resold in fiscal 2014, the deposit will be either applied to the contract amounts of time slots cost that are needed to be paid with the consent of the counterparty or transferred as contractual deposit for fiscal 2015 upon renewal of the purchase contact. Although the Restriction Notice has had and may continue to have a negative impact on the Company’s TV advertising business with this TV station, the Company believes that the cooperation with this TV station will continue and expand with the efforts of development of new form of TV advertising programs and non-TV shopping advertising customers. All deposits are refundable to the Company upon expiration of cooperation with suppliers.

According to the contracts signed between the Company and its suppliers, the Company is normally required to pay the contract amounts in advance. These prepayments will be transferred to cost of sales when the related services are provided.

As of December 31, 2013, the Company also had advanced payment carried forward from last year paid to another TV station which has been partnered with the Company for over five years, which amount the Company originally expected to be utilized in fiscal 2013. However, the Company became aware of that since the second half year of 2013, this TV station had decreased its broadcasting of TV shopping infomercials and adjusted their broadcasting schedule due to the adoption of the Restriction Notice by the SARFT in October 2013. In response to these restrictions on TV advertisement set forth in the Restriction Notice, the Company discussed with the TV station possible alternatives of applying the balance of the advanced payment, as the amount was unlikely to be refunded to the Company, due to internal administrative policies of the TV station. The TV station and the Company agreed that the unconsumed advanced payment balance can be consumed by any third parties designated by the Company and approved by the TV station, who will broadcast advertisements or other similar TV programs using the balance of available time slots, and the Company will directly collect the amounts from the third parties for the time slots they utilized. The Company expects that the advanced payment balance will be fully utilized within the next twelve months or by December 31, 2014.