HardwareZone is an IT-oriented

Internet portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...

based in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. It is operated by Hardware Zone Private Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of SPH Media. Some features of the portal are: IT price lists for several countries, feature articles on technology and forums on a variety of topics.

History

HardwareZone was started as an online magazine in August 1998 by five engineering students from the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

: Lee Choon Yau, Eugene Low, Poh Swee Hong, Ang Chi Hoe and Jereme Wong. After a year, it had become a popular gathering place for Singapore's computer-savvy to discuss hardware and software news. By 2000, the website was attracting two million page views a month. The founders made plans to turn the website into a full-fledged portal and launch an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO) to raise capital. Had the IPO gone ahead, they would have been the first undergraduates in Singapore to launch one. In 2006, HardwareZone was purchased by

Singapore Press Holdings Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH) was one of Singapore's two state media companies, which published ''The Straits Times'', numerous other newspapers and operated radio, television and digital media. In 2021, the media division was spun ...

for S$7.1 million. SPH acquired all the magazine titles published by HardwareZone, which included ''HardwareMAG'' (''HWM''), ''GameAxis'' (a computer games magazine), and ''PHOTOVIDEOi'' (a digital photography magazine).

Controversies

Domain dispute

In September 2000, HardwareZone sued Video-Pro, a computer shop in Sim Lim Square, for registering the same

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

with the suffix .sg added as its own (HardwareZone's domain name is www.hardwarezone.com while Video-Pro had registered www.hardwarezone.com.sg). In its statement of claim, HardwareZone said that the "hardwarezone" part of its domain name had gained it substantial goodwill in Singapore, and thus Video-Pro was trying to pass itself off as the original website by using the .sg version of the name. Video-Pro counter-sued HardwareZone, alleging that the website offered Video-Pro's price lists for download without the shop's permission and that two statements which defamed the shop had been posted on the HardwareZone website. This was the first legal dispute in Singapore over a domain name. Despite being the first of its kind, no landmark ruling was made in this case because both parties settled the matter out of court four days later. Video-Pro transferred the hardwarezone.com.sg domain name and paid S$10,000 to HardwareZone. It also withdrew its counter-claims. In return, HardwareZone removed the offending statements from its website and agreed to help identify who had made those false statements.

Bomb hoax

In 2005, polytechnic student Lin Zhenghuang one day after the

7 July 2005 London bombings The 7 July 2005 London bombings, also referred to as 7/7, were a series of four co-ordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamist terrorists that targeted commuters travelling on Transport in London, London's public transport during the ...

made a malicious post claiming bombs were found in

Toa Payoh Toa Payoh ( or , , ) is a Planning areas of Singapore, planning area and New towns of Singapore, mature residential town located in the northern part of the Central Region, Singapore, Central Region of Singapore. Toa Payoh planning area borde ...

, a district in Singapore. Using the online nickname of "krisurf", he titled the post "Breaking News - Toa Payoh hit by bomb attacks", claiming bombs had been found at the Toa Payoh

bus interchange A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can s ...

. Another forum member was alarmed by the post and reported it to police. Lin had made the post while connected to his neighbour's unsecured

wireless network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking allows homes, telecommunications networks, and business installations to avoid the costly process of introducing cables int ...

, police initially arrested his neighbour, who was released after further

computer forensics Computer forensics (also known as computer forensic science) is a branch of digital forensics, digital forensic science pertaining to evidence found in computers and digital storage media. The goal of computer forensics is to examine digital me ...

tests exonerated her. It took the police more than a year to find and arrest Lin. In February 2007, he was sentenced to three months' jail and a S$4,000 fine.

False statement on the 2020 coronavirus outbreak

On 27 January 2020, HardwareZone received a Correction Notice under the

Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019, commonly abbreviated as POFMA and known colloquially as Fake News Law, is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that enables authorities to tackle the spread of fake news or false ...

to correct an online post falsely claiming a death in Singapore from the coronavirus outbreak, which had been made the day before at 5.50pm. The post was deleted before the notice was issued.

References

External links

* {{SPH Media Internet properties established in 1998 1998 establishments in Singapore 2006 mergers and acquisitions Internet forums Web portals Information technology companies of Singapore Internet in Singapore SPH Media