More efficient, reliable web-hosting on the cards

By Tan Su-Yin

The Sun, 4 May 2001

Warren Tan, CEO and founder of Nerraw.com Sdn Bhd is only 21-years-old, but don't let that fool you - he speaks with a maturity beyond his years. At 14, he started surfing the Internet and building his own websites. The teenager was frustrated by the high cost of hosting his websites and unreliable servers.

"Hey, I could do better than this!," he thought and this led to the eventual setting up of Nerraw.com. Tan started Nerraw.com in May last year and also built the company's website himself.

Being young and inexperienced has its advantages; an ability to think out-of-the-box is one of them. To promote Nerraw.com's services, Tan put his domain name registration service on auction on Lelong.com.my, with a starting bid of RM1! Only one person won the bid at RM50, but the effort itself created awareness.

Tan was awarded the Tan Sri Dato' Dr Loy Hean Heong Merit Scholarship in 1998 after scoring 8As in his SPM examinations, and has been a member of the Malaysian Mensa Society since the age of 16.

What's so special about your company?

Nerraw.com offers the lowest prices and best possible service for domain name registrations and web-hosting services in Malaysia. Its web-hosting services come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, a 30-day money-back guarantee and access to a fanatical customer support team available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The products and services are scalable to our customers' needs - domain name registrations go for as little as RM49 a year and web-hosting packages start at RM9.99 monthly. In a nutshell, anybody can put a .com on any name (if it's not taken up yet), a website and a matching e-mail address for less than RM200 a year.

How is your company funded?

It has a paid-up capital of RM100,000 and is privately funded. Nerraw.com has had several interested venture capitalists, but they were turned down as the company is self-sufficient and its high revenue growth enables it to grow without additional funding.

What is the potential and current market size of your target market?

The web-hosting and domain name industry is huge - there are 1.5 billion websites on the Net, and every one of them needs to be hosted somewhere. There are over 20 million .com domain names already registered, excluding the .net, .org, .tv and all the other country code domain names. More than 21,000 .com domain names are registered every day, and this figure is growing.

A Forrester Research report predicted that web-hosting revenue in the United States will reach US$19.8 billion (RM75.24 billion) in 2004, up from US$1.4 billion (RM5.32 billion) in 1999. Nerraw.com's primary target market is Malaysia, though it has a fair share of regional and international clients. Everybody, from students to schools, small businesses and SMIs to public-listed companies, is a potential customer.

Who are your competitors?

Other web-hosting and domain registration companies, both locally and internationally. However, Nerraw.com is different because it has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which guarantees a 99.9% uptime, lowest prices and round-the-clock technical support. There is also a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee to ensure total customer satisfaction. This move is unprecedented in the local web-hosting industry, where refunds are unheard of.

Are you offering a better mousetrap or a truly new device?

Nerraw.com is offering the best mousetrap: a 30-day money back guarantee in the unlikely event that you don't like our mousetrap.

Local customers are amazed that the company reacts so quickly. Malaysians are used to e-mails that are never responded to or replies that take a few days.

Imagine the surprise a customer got when he e-mailed the support team at 4am on a Sunday, and received a reply within 15 minutes. Nerraw.net's average response time for the past 12-month period has been below two hours, something which I am personally proud of, but wish to improve upon!

What's your burn rate? Is your business generating any revenue?

The company keeps its expenses to a minimum by utilising the Internet to the maximum and streamlining its business processes. The office is used only for administrative purposes. Customer support and sales are done online as the website is e-commerce enabled. Instead of advertising via the traditional media, which is costly, Nerraw.com takes advantage of the best form of advertising possible - word-of-mouth through satisfied customers.

Nerraw.com now has over 1,000 customers. Last year, the company achieved nearly RM100,000 in revenue and this year we hope to hit RM250,000.

Are you trying to create a wave or surf a wave?

Nerraw.com is helping people and companies get on the wave. The Internet is here to stay, despite what the naysayers of the dotcom fallout claim. It is and will be the way to the future, and it will play strong role in the way we work, play and live tomorrow.

What is your value proposition to the customer?

The company helps the customer establish an online presence in the most appropriate and yet cost-effective manner possible. The scalable packages are designed so that Nerraw.com can grow with its customers. And all these are offered at the best prices, with the fastest network and the quickest support.

Guaranteed, or the customer walks away without having to pay a single cent.

What are your main hurdles?

One of the main hurdles is that some of people think Network Solutions is the only company that can register domain names. There are many companies accredited to register domain names, usually at more competitive prices. Another hurdle is to raise awareness among consumers, convincing them that cheaper does not mean lesser.