Verio Expands Global Reach of E-Commerce

Verio (Nasdaq: VRIO), the world’s largest domain-based Web-hosting company and a provider of e-commerce services for small businesses, is taking e-commerce global in a major way. Today, Verio announced an agreement with Cybersource, a leading supplier of e-commerce transaction services, to offer businesses the ability to process and settle online transactions in 29 currencies.

The service will provide real-time credit card processing for VISA, MasterCard, JCB, American Express, and Diner’s Club transactions. Currencies supported include the Austrian Schilling, Australian Dollar, Belgian Franc, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, German Mark, Danish Krone, Spanish Peseta, Euro, Finnish Markka, French Franc, British Pound, Greek Drachma, Hong Kong Dollar, Irish Punt, Indian Rupee, Italian Lira, Japanese Yen, Malaysian Ringgit, Dutch Guilder, Norwegian Krone, New Zealand Dollar, Philippine Peso, Pakistan Rupee, Portuguese Escudo, South African Rand, Swedish Krona, Thai Baht, and United States. Dollar. PVerio Has Resellers in 170 Countries

Under the terms of the deal, Verio will sell Cybersource’s payment processing services through its distribution channels, including Verio’s network of more than 4,000 resellers in 170 countries worldwide.

“To date, the global e-commerce market has been stymied by a lack of coordination, multiple competing currencies, and technology limitations,” said Herb Hribar, president and COO of Verio. “With this new offering, Verio and CyberSource together are removing the major barriers to entry for international e-commerce by delivering a solution that allows businesses to do what they do best — sell goods and services — regardless of geography or currency.”

Tapping Into Exploding Market pThe goal, of course, is to cash in on the exploding global market for e-commerce. IDC senior analyst Paul Johnson predicts that e-commerce will grow from $50.4 billion (US$) worldwide in 1998 to more than $1.3 trillion in 2003.

“While commerce in regions outside of the United States accounts for just 26 percent of the total Internet commerce market in 1998, that number will increase to 46 percent by 2003, totaling $610 billion,” Johnson says.

Stock Impact

Shares of Verio saw a sharp climb in early trading today, rising 4 to 69-1/2. Verio stock closed at just 32-1/2 on March 3, but shares have steadily risen since then. On March 4th the stock climbed to 36-1/2 after Verio was chosen as the exclusive business Web-hosting partner for America Online (NYSE: AOL) and AOL-owned Compuserve. Verio will pay at least $42.5 million to AOL and share a percentage of revenue with AOL under the terms of the deal.