Outblaze looks to US
Monday, June 18, 2001
BIEN PEREZ
Amid the bleak landscape of fallen dotcoms in Asia, Hong Kong- based Internet outsourcing firm Outblaze is looking towards a sunnier future by beefing up its presence in the United States.
Chief executive Yat Siu said the company had been generating increased business in the US over the past few months as companies there tried to deal with the weak economy through the outsourcing of key Internet-related projects to overseas-based hi-tech firms such as Outblaze.
A private company, 43 per cent-owned by Pacific Century Cyberworks, Outblaze will set up shop next month in central San Francisco to gain better access to its targeted customers. It has a temporary office in Redwood City in California's Silicon Valley.
"We want to grow our US revenues to more than 50 per cent of our total business," Mr Siu said.
That growth will be based on Outblaze's revised business strategy, focused on custom-fit online tools that integrate e-commerce systems to a company's communications infrastructure.
Although a small, 100-staff company, Outblaze has become a key e-commerce systems provider to many large US firms, including Internet services providers Verizon Online and Earthlink, personal-computer vendor Dell Computer, Citibank, CNN and search engine AltaVista.
"We are one of the few Hong Kong companies who are now recognised as a noted hi-tech service provider in the US," Mr Siu said.
Unlike some dotcoms which spent heavily on advertising and corporate perks, Outblaze has been prudent in spending about US$15 million of private investment.
Besides Cyberworks, investors in Outblaze include Tokyo-listed telecommunications firm Hikari Tsushin, Seoul-based office-equipment provider Barunson and fund manager Lotus Asset Management.
The company's platforms include Outblaze Express, which enables enterprises without in-house Web design and technical expertise to graft communications and e-commerce applications to Web sites.
These services include Web-based e-mail, customer-relationship management, user-profile database, unified messaging and direct marketing.
Outblaze began in 1998 as an Internet services firm, which delivered portal systems for organisations wishing to offer private-label Web services without purchasing expensive platforms.
Outblaze's plug-in systems convert static Web sites into dynamic portals with multilingual content.
"Although we have been criticised before as being conservative, our low profile has worked to our advantage since we have steadily built up our marketing and technical expertise to become a more flexible enterprise with an eye on revenue opportunities," Mr Siu said.
Internet service firms have struggled since late last year, when many dotcoms began to crash due to their inherently unprofitable business strategies. Analysts even predicted that these firms would cease to exist.
Research firm International Data Corp (IDC), however, said those firms which weathered the storm now had broader opportunities.
"The Internet service firm of today will be replaced with a more powerful firm," said Pooneh Fooladi, IDC's senior Internet services analyst. "New opportunities are emerging with the increasing importance of e-commerce."
Mr Siu said Internet services firms were busy in the US, where some of the largest Internet-related outsourcing deals were found. According to IDC, the top 100 outsourcing deals last year reached almost US$56 billion - with 35 major deals, worth from US$58 million to US$7.5 billion - signed in the US.
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