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 a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. It is operated by Hardware Zone Private Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of

SPH Media Trust SPH Media Trust (SMT), commonly known as SPH Media, is a media organisation with businesses in print, digital, radio, and outdoor media in Singapore. Legally a company limited by guarantee, it was incorporated on 19 July 2021, and begin establ ...

. 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 public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

: 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 investment ...

(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 (SPHL) was an organisation with businesses in property and aged care in Singapore. Since its takeover by Cuscaden Peak in 2022, it has been renamed Cuscaden Peak Investments. Prior to 1 December 2021, SPHL was i ...

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 Sim Lim Square (Chinese: 森林商業中心, Pinyin: Sēn Lín Shāngyè Zhōngxīn), commonly referred to as SLS, is a large retail complex in Singapore that offers a wide variety of electronic goods and services including cameras, phones, v ...

, for registering the same domain name with the suffix

.sg .sg is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Singapore. It was first registered in September 1988. It is administered by the Singapore Network Information Centre. Registrations are processed via accredited registrars. In 2011 ...

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 A cause of action or right of action, in law, is a set of facts sufficient to justify suing to obtain money or property, or to justify the enforcement of a legal right against another party. The term also refers to the legal theory upon which a p ...

, 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 Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

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, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamic terrorists in London that targeted commuters travelling on the city's public transport system during the mo ...

made a malicious post claiming bombs were found in Toa Payoh, 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 or a bus interchange is a structure where city bus, city or intercity bus, intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus ga ...

. 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 is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and business installations avoid the costly process of introducing c ...

, 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 forensic science pertaining to evidence found in computers and digital storage media. The goal of computer forensics is to examine digital media in a forensical ...

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 Trust Internet forums Web portals Information technology companies of Singapore 1998 establishments in Singapore Internet in Singapore SPH Media Trust