KINIBIZ Independent business news publication KINIBIZ will close on Feb 1, 2016, nearly three years after it started, after an unfruitful search for new investors.

The search began in mid-2015, shortly after the subscription-based business news portal launched its fortnightly print magazine in April. It culminated in an equity crowdfunding campaign announced in December, although this has since been called off due to the lukewarm response owing to uncertain economic conditions.

“We had a good run and covered a lot of breaking issues,” said founding editor and publisher P Gunasegaram. “Unfortunately, we are a niche product and the funding just wasn’t forthcoming for us to stay long enough in the business for a turnaround.

“I would like to thank the wonderful staff at KINIBIZ for staying with us during these years. Each of them made valuable contributions to what I consider to be a great editorial product.”

“ Malaysiakini believed that an independent business news site would be a great complement to our current affairs news,” said Premesh Chandran, CEO of Malaysiakini and KINIBIZ director. “The team did really well these past three years with some great business stories. It’s sad that we could not get sufficient subscribers to make it profitable.”

According to Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan, who is also a KINIBIZ director, both partners in the joint venture have limited funds and without new investors, it would be impossible for KINIBIZ to continue its operations.

The difficult decision to close down was made by shareholders after an unfruitful search for new investors to inject fresh funds and keep operations going, said the management.

The website will continue to be updated with the latest news up to Jan 31, 2016. Updates will cease from Feb 1. The website and all published content will remain online after the closure and the paywall will be dropped - all content would be accessible for free for research and analysis purposes.

Existing subscribers are invited to contact the company for a prorated refund of the unused portion of their subscription fees. This can be done by e-mailing their username, contact details and bank account number to [email protected] before Feb 28, 2016.

For the full story go to KINIBIZ .