Ivy Wong, chief operating officer of TVB.com, resigns

Wong has been with the company since 2007, but will leave in order to start a new venture in August. TVB made an internal announcement on Saturday and are currently looking to recruit a replacement.

Wong has successful revamped TVB.com, growing it from a corporate website with one million users in 2008, to a much wider entertainment portal with 7.2 millions active users recorded last November. It is now the leading entertainment web portal in Hong Kong. Wong was also instrumental in the launch of the MyTV Catchup online platform in 2008, and the further expansion of MyTV mobile on to iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and android smartphones.

TVB.com also has active blogging community of 300 TVB artists. Wong says TVB will also sign a partnership with Tencent on 28 July, through which these blogs will be synchronised with QQ weibo.

"I think I have achieved my maximum at TVB.com starting from zero, I have played all the fun things at TVB.com and it's time to move on and do something new," Wong said.

Sources close to the news said that Wong is tipped to join Next Media in a senior marketing role.

Campaign Asia Pacific followed up with a senior executive at Next Media. The undisclosed source said, "I can't say your information is wrong, but I could not comment at this stage."

Wong joined TVB.com as COO in 2007, after a high-flying career with Yahoo where she climbed up the career ladder from account executive in 1998 at Yahoo Hong Kong to senior director, global sales at Yahoo Asia in 2006.

“I prefer setting up a new business and really like to achieve something from nothing,” Wong said in a profile interview with Media in February 2008. “Once that business has been established and stable, I then want to move on and try something new, I like to do things that other people think won’t work.”

According to AdmanGo's report last May, TVB.com recorded year-on-year growth of 126 per cent in 2010, compared to Facebook's 158 per cent, and On.cc's 147 per cent.

"TVB has its own established culture, and it has sometimes blinded them," explained Wong, "As they have been so successful already, there is no strong desire for them to do something really creative. They don't need to get out of the box, as they are already so successful where they are."

Catherine Lee, marketing manager at TVB.com, has also confirmed that she has resigned for a 'career break'.

Reported last January, TVB.com has partnered with San Miguel for indie band showcase 'Music battle'.