Exabytes targets more SMEs

MALAYSIA'S largest web hosting provider, Exabytes Network Sdn Bhd, is looking to service more small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) this year.

Founder and chief executive officer, Chan Kee Siak, told Business Times the company expected to add another 20,000 new SME customers to its current 50,000.

"Our strength is in serving the SMEs. They are our biggest customers," he said.

Apart from SMEs, some of Exabytes' other customers include government agencies and public-listed companies.

About 70 per cent of its customers are locally based with the others mostly from the United States and Canada.

Having a 100 per cent online business, Chan said the company basically caterred for any industries that need a web host.

"We don't have any specific targeted industry as our product is quite general and we also have a complete range of hosting services.

"Nowadays, having a website and email is important for any business, no matter its size," he said.

For the financial year ending March 31, 2012, the company reported RM14 million in revenue.

Since partnering with AIMS Data Centre Sdn Bhd (AIMS) two years ago, Chan claimed Exabytes' revenue had been seeing double-digit growth.

With the partnership, Chan said Exabytes could focus on its core business, which is managing servers, while AIMS focused on running and managing the data centres.
"AIMS gives us a peace of mind. We don't have to worry about the facilities where our servers and our clients' data are hosted. With that, we are able to focus and expand on our web hosting business," he said.

Exabytes was unique compared to other web hosting companies, in which its business model was completely online, Chan said.

"We are focused and are very online-centric. A lot of providers do a lot of things like web design but we focus on only one thing, that is web hosting," he added.

The challenge to run a web hosting company, he said, was to sell the business to the traditional business owners.

"They don't really understand what web hosting is. So we have to educate them and teach and share with them the knowledge of what web hosting exactly is," he said.