Local Internet infrastructure services and enterprise solutions provider Qinetics Solutions Sdn Bhd is poised to expand its offerings further, after establishing a solid presence in the Internet services sector.

The Multimedia Super Corridor company has made a name for itself as one of the leading domain name services providers in the region, and is currently the only ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) accredited registrar in South-East Asia, Qinetics is also the exclusive .cc top-level domain registrar for Asia.

Officials said they plan to build on that and introduce new products and services in the coming months.

"We are going to provide a platform with which companies in the domain name, webhosting and related businesses would be able to enhance their services," Qinetics Solutions president and CEO T.K Tan told In.Tech last week.

The flagship offering in the works is a suite of applications aimed at regional domain name registrars, registries, hosting services providers and Internet Servicesproviders.
The applications are the same software that Qinetics developed for its own use, and will include components that it is currently developing and is nearing completion.
The new offering will provide the software gear for such companies to become "full-service" providers, said Tan, who added that 90% of the company's partners operating as registries have the potential, but were not yet there.

"Our solution will give them the tools they need to expand their services," he said. Qinetics plans to sell the software as a service, with customers paying a fee to use it.
Besides its upcoming applications suite, the company also expects its domain name business to grow strongly in the next 12 months.

Qinetics is focused on the wholesale side of the business, via its WebNIC partner programme that currently boasts a 500-strong reseller network, out of which about 100 are local companies.

Qinetics is one of the fastest growing ICANN accredited registrars, and leads the market in South-East Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tan claimed.

The outlook is good, with the market having settled down in 2000 after the dotcom boom and bust period, according to Tan. "The market has set itself on firmer ground, and has been growing steadily over the last two years," he said.

Gone are the days when domain names were the domain of speculators. Tan cited statistics that showed about two-thirds of existing registrants were genuine holders.
More are signing up. In the first quarter of the year, there were over four million new registrations worldwide.

Qinetics is currently doing about 10,000 transactions a month, and expects that to grow further as more partners sign up. The target is to add 500 more within the next 12 months.

"We're seeing more and more renewals," Tan said, adding that registration renewal rate for the domain names that Qinetics handled is currently at 75%.
The company saw a 58% growth in registrations in the first quarter of the year, or about 400% compared with the first quarter of 2003.

Buoyed by the strong market, Tan said Qinetics will be pushing hard in the Asean region, and in countries lik China, South Korea and Japan.
Qinetics is also looking to grow revenues from the channel via value-added solutions.

Last month, the company struck a strategic partnership with US-based SWsoft Inc to distribute the latter's hosting automation and server management software.
"We will continue to broaden our offerings as we identify the solutions that would fill the needs of our customers and the industry," said Tan.