Info Site set to open up China to Kiwi businesses

Info Site set to open up China to Kiwi businesses

AUCKLAND – 1 December 2016 – Waikato company Info Site Limited has opened a gateway to China for Kiwi businesses looking to advertise, promote and sell in English and Chinese. Since opening its doors last year, the demand for the online, bilingual platform has grown rapidly and the company is seeking to raise capital through AlphaCrowd's equity crowdfunding platform.

Funds raised are earmarked for expanding company headcount. The company intends to hire seven new employees in the sales, marketing and systems development areas.

Three years ago in Hamilton, Luke Lee and Fang Fang set out to build an online big data service company to provide Chinese speaking immigrants a way of transacting with local businesses online, and allowing local businesses to communicate with them in their native language. Info Site would directly target Chinese speaking consumers in New Zealand and mainland China.

Soda inc, a business incubator supporting the Waikato Institute of Technology, added Info Site to its Soda Lift programme. It provided resources and exposed the company to a network of business experts. One of them was Soda Business Growth Advisor, Chip Dawson – who is now the CEO of Info Site.

“Soda’s unique in the sense that it’s not just looking after primary services products, it looks at growth areas coming out of the Waikato,” says Dawson. “With Google, Facebook and YouTube banned in China, Info Site offers an alternative information gateway between New Zealand businesses and Chinese consumers, exponentially growing the potential customer base for our partners.”

With over 170,000 Chinese speaking residents in New Zealand and up to 310,000 Chinese visitors each year, Info Site represents a shortcut into a hard to reach market.

Info Site has experienced rapid growth. Its initial targets for website hits was exceeded five times over reaching 50,000 to 70,000 hits per day in the first year. The data also indicated strong use from China, many of the 1.5 million hits the site received came from there.

“When Fang and I looked at the online traffic, we saw it as a validation of the business model, our target market, and the opportunities we know we can provide to Kiwi businesses,” says Luke Lee, Managing Director, Info Site. “Within a year we were offering multiple services targeting Chinese speaking consumers in New Zealand and China.”

Info Site’s individual services offer value to New Zealand businesses, and collectively they make the company into an attractive business partner to grow a customer base. Info Site offers three sub-branded services:

• Info Site – Online bilingual advertising platform

• InStore – Bilingual online end to end sales platform offering online stores, SKU management, sales analytics, payment gateways and delivery

• Foodies – Bilingual mobile application with translated restaurant menus

Recently, InfoSite engaged in a strategic partnership with Microsoft to use their global Azure platform. This was highlighted during the recent visit of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to meet with local innovators including Chip. Nadella highlighted the importance of collaborative partners such as Info Site for new mobility solutions and cloud based enterprise services across wireless boundaries.

The company is now seeking investment to support its business growth and quickly scale up operations in New Zealand – with a view to position it for targeting overseas markets in the near future.

Investments begin at $1000 for asset class, ordinary shares and the first closing date is 22 December 2016. Info Site is looking to raise between $200,000 and $500,000 for a maximum share of 33.3% equity.

ENDS

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