Sharing the risk
Sharing the risk
It was in Netscape that Lim was convinced that most companies will move away from buying packaged client/server applications in favor of outsourcing to application service providers or ASPs.
Escalate.com takes the ASP model a step further by offering to undertake and manage the entire Internet selling chain from applications to infrastructure, merchandising, marketing, catalog management, customer fulfillment and logistics.
Lim describes it as a "Shared Risk/Reward" model. "We take the risk. We don't make money if our customer doesn't make money," he said. Customers do not need to buy software, hardware or hire additional staff. Instead, they pay a monthly subscription based on capacity used and a small transaction fee for every transaction processed.
Escalate boasts round-the-clock service, highly scalable applications and powerful data centers with enough capacity to add up to six customers every four weeks.
Lim said he is aggressive about expansion plans in Asia because he believes the region is set to boom. "The e-commerce market potential in Asia has not been realized and has only reached the sub-10% level. I project that within three years at least 20% of the largest e-commerce sites and e-marketplaces in the world will be based in Asia."
He also predicts that key players in e-commerce in the region would already have emerged within an 18-month timeframe.
Lim is projecting Asia to contribute 20 percent of Escalate.com's worldwide revenue, and will expand its headcount in the region to over 150 within two years.
Escalate.com is targetting high-traffic websites, portal players, destination sites, ISPs, ASPs, financial service providers, manufacturers, retailers and large corporations that are looking to add e-commerce capability to their websites.