A leading European provider of Web-based
e-mail, X and Mail, is seeking to
develop business in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong and China, for its
Xwebmail software.
In January, the French software firm is touring Asia to look for potential
partners to customize Xwebmail for use with 16-bit Asian characters.
“We feel that these markets have reached a critical mass of users that can
now support Internet advertising, which is the most popular means of
funding Web-based e-mail,” said Patrick Duboisset, business development
manager for X and Mail. “The purpose of the January tour is to increase our
visibility in Asia and locate potential partners.”
Xwebmail is a Web-Based e-mail client that is designed to support
one-to-one marketing by utilizing information from a user profile database.
E-mail users are targeted with specific advertisements based on their
profile.
According to X and Mail representatives, Xwebmail integrates IMAP4, runs on
Windows NT, and provides users with the ability to access e-mail from any
dumped terminal such as a WEB-TV, a screenphone, a PC or a cellular phone.
Founded in 1990, X and Mail claims to have been the first e-mail software
publisher in Europe and, in 1995, it allegedly controlled 60 percent of the
X400 e-mail market in France.
On its tour of the region, the Paris-based firm plans to meet with Internet
service providers, OEM’s, and system integrators.
X and Mail’s prominent customers include Club Internet in France, the
French post office (La Poste), the French Ministry of Defense, Active Minds
in Germany, and Telefonica in Argentina.
