Scheduled for the next quarter, the launch of a Momo.com Malaysian JV has been postponed.

“There are some details and uncertainties we are still negotiating with our partner,” says president Lin Chi-feng of the Taiwanese television and online retailer.

A subsidiary of telecom company Taiwan Mobile, Momo.com announced plans in February to set up a JV with Malaysian shopping mall group Pavilion Trading Enterprise. It is to have paid-in capital of NT$400 million (US$13.23 million), with Momo.com investing NT$180 million for a 45 per cent stake.

Momo.com’s first overseas JV was in Thailand in 2014, followed the next year with another in Beijing. Earnings from these ventures contributed about 10 per cent to Momo.com’s net profit of NT$309.92 million last quarter, says Lin.

Momo.com had been hoping it could start running a 24-hour TV shopping program, online sales and catalog shopping businesses in Malaysia next quarter so they could contribute to revenue this year.

While the details of opening a TV channel have been settled, other issues relating to running a retail firm in a foreign nation still need to be sorted out, says Lin.

Meanwhile, the company is continuing to seek co-operative opportunities in other Southeast Asian markets such as the Philippines or Vietnam, he says, noting that he is going to Vietnam this week to visit retailers.

Lin says the company expects domestic sales this year to outpace last year, supported by a recovering economy and increasing co-operation with brand vendors such as Microsoft and South Korea’s Korean Ginseng.

“Domestic demand in the first five months of this year strongly exceeded the company’s expectations,” he says.

Momo.com sales grew 9.64 per cent annually to NT$10.04 billion in the first four months.