MB: What motivates you to start Exabytes?
C: I just needed money at the time. I was 19 years old, a college student, and needed pocket money. I am very good with computers and IT, and because of that, I decided to launch my first company selling computer hardware. From there, it motivated me to learn more about building websites, and it was then that I realised that hosting was crucial. A server is required to host a website in addition to the design itself. Further research revealed that not many hosting providers were available then, and I see this as an opportunity. When I was a customer back then, I desperately needed hosting but could not find one. Therefore, I knew immediately that this was an opportunity to start a business.
MB: What are the insights on the Exabytes 21st Anniversary Campaign?
C: This year, we are delighted to celebrate another milestone, our 21 years in the industry. Through the campaign, we will help our customers to grow by adopting our digital marketing solutions, digital tools like chatbots and cloud solutions which are a bit technical. Therefore, we can assist them in doing so. However, this is a GROW stage, and when our customers have problems, that is when Exabytes comes into the picture to offer them solutions. The idea and spirit exist on how we can support our customer’s growth and grow together with them simultaneously.
After over two decades of helping SMEs grow, this year, in conjunction with Exabytes’ 21st Anniversary Campaign, we came up with four themes: Dream, Create, Grow and Manage. Each theme is creatively associated with our digital products and solutions.
The first requirements for starting a business are the ability to dream, follow your goals and make them a reality. There are three digital solutions that we can help you follow your dreams, that include domain names, premium domain names and international domain extensions.
To take the dream to the next level, we will also assist entrepreneurs in creating an online presence to reach a broader market. We currently offer digital solutions for website creation and design, web hosting, and email hosting.
Our wide range of digital solutions may satisfy the growing demands when your dreams come true. The solutions we provide for our customers include VPS hosting, marketing tools, helpdesk solutions, and so much more. Hopefully, our support will encourage entrepreneurs to keep coming up with new ideas.
In my opinion, aspiring entrepreneurs should adopt digital solutions to facilitate optimal management of their businesses. We can help by managing your company’s digital marketing and eCommerce, providing cloud solutions, disaster recovery and lots more.
MB: What is digital transformation all about?
C: At Exabytes, we try to simplify the meaning of digital transformation into three steps. Digitisation (D1) started 30 years ago, which means you convert anything from paper into digital. For example, businesses have shifted from printed forms to online forms, and I believe most companies today have moved to the D1 stage.
The second stage is Digitalisation (D2), which automates processes using digital technologies. Nowadays, people can submit claims and reimbursement requests online. Another example would be that more businesses are switching to digital point-of-sales systems.
Lastly, implementing new business applications incorporating all digitalised data and processes is known as Digital Transformation (D3). The evolution from calling a taxi service to instantly booking a grab through an app. Additionally, many businesses have revised their business models due to this revolution. Some restaurants are now more focused on deliveries than on the dine-in business. Apart from that, digital parking is becoming more popular, and the reason behind this transformation is basically to collect data and create a new business model. In conclusion, these three phases of digital transformation can assist companies in determining which category they fit into and from there, they can restructure their business model.
MB: How did you start Exabytes, and what are the current and past initiatives that have helped businesses to grow in the last 21 years through the acceleration of digitalisation?
C: About 20 years ago, the internet started to be widely utilised, and at that time, all you needed to get connected was a website and a domain name. You need a website to introduce your business and establish an online presence. Even so, people used to view a website as fulfilling only marketing purposes.
There have been many advancements and changes throughout the last 21 years. Today, a corporation can use a website to manage its services, accept orders from clients, and allow customer engagement.
As a company, Exabytes is constantly innovating and evolving. Back in 1992, we only provided limited domain hosting services. However, today we offer a wide range of services and products to meet various needs. We continue to provide domain hosting, which has become our main product, along with more advanced solutions like cloud, disaster recovery, and digital marketing. In addition, we assist SMEs manufacturers to sell their products on Alibaba.com's B2B export platform. This year, we continued to assist retailers by introducing Exabytes' new retail solution. Additionally, we have retail and internet businesses to fill the gap. We are providing all of these innovative digital solutions.
MB: Could you please elaborate on the free business solutions and CSR initiatives Exabytes provided to help SMEs and small businesses accelerate their digital transformation?
C: We fulfilled many projects last year to support the community and assist business owners in thriving during their digital transformation.
FoodBank.Digital
Together with our supporting partners such as EasyParcel, EasyWork, EasyStore, Pgeon Delivery, 91 app Malaysia and other contributors and customers, we launched the food bank digital campaign, which supported more than 30,000 families in the country.
Exabytes made it easy for those who needed help. Everything is just a click away. All they had to do was fill out an online form, and the box of necessities was delivered to their doorstep. We were the pioneers in using this method of CSR initiative in Malaysia. The success of our digital food bank campaign has influenced a lot of NGOs to adopt a similar approach to ease the community’s burden during the trying times of the pandemic.
Accelerating Women Entrepreneurship with Exabytes (AWEWE)
At Exabytes, we have always empowered women. Last year, we launched #WomenWeCan in conjunction with International Women’s Day and sponsored free workshops and training to support women entrepreneurs in Malaysia and Singapore further. Juggling between family and work is not easy. However, through this campaign, we managed to help women entrepreneurs to set up a business, create an online presence, and run a basic e-commerce operation. Our initiative is to groom women entrepreneurs and help them embrace digitalisation by offering free business solutions.
Digitalise Penang for Youth Programme
Other than women, we also help to educate the younger generations between the age of 15 and 35 on how to survive and thrive in the digital economy. Launched in 2021, this CSR initiative is called Digitalise Penang for Youth Programme. A lot of Gen-Z and Millennials are passionate about starting their online business. But mostly, the concern is lacking the financial support to invest in programming workshops. Through this programme, they will learn the skills needed to thrive in this digital era, including how to set up a domain name, develop their own website and improve their programming skills.
Let’s Plant a Tree
In April 2022, to further support our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives, we collaborated with the Habitat & Penang Inshore Fishermen Welfare Association. We launched the Let's Plan A Tree campaign that aims to plant 1000 mangrove saplings in Simpang Ampat, Penang.
MB: What are the current and upcoming projects that Exabytes is working on?
C: Earlier this year, we launched two important partnerships. The first one is with Huawei Malaysia, and through this partnership, we introduced more cloud base solutions to our customers. Business applications include Smart Traffic, Smart City, Smart Building, Smart Agriculture, Smart Healthcare, Smart logistics and other smart solutions powered by the Huawei Cloud.
Besides that, we also partnered with Amazon under its Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud computing platform. This partnership targets to assist local manufacturers in adopting the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).
MB: Exabytes is Southeast Asia's leading digital, cloud, and e-commerce provider. Would you consider entering any other regions?
C: We have offices in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. At the moment we have no intention to expand in other regions. However, we are currently capturing more market shares in the country by introducing our new additional products and solutions that we have before we enter new regions.
EXABYTES
Founded in 2001, Exabytes Network Sdn. Bhd. is Southeast Asia’s leading All-in-one Business Cloud, Digital and eCommerce Solutions Provider. It specialises in providing services of cloud hosting, shared hosting, email hosting, Virtual Private servers, dedicated servers, domain name registration, digital marketing and others. The company currently serves over 160,000 small and medium-sized businesses in 121 countries.
Exabytes Network Sdn. Bhd. is part of Exabytes Capital Group Sdn. Bhd. It is headquartered in Penang, Malaysia.
