Going places: Ooi is confident the company will be able to continue accelerating its Asean expansion.
PETALING JAYA: Software development firm Web Bytes Sdn Bhd is on an aggressive regional expansion drive to make itself a “South-East Asia champion” within the next three years.
Web Bytes chief executive Ooi Boon Sheng expressed confidence that the company, which is 38%-owned by listed logistics player GDEX Bhd
, is halfway towards achieving its goal.
He had, earlier in the year, revealed that the company is targeting overseas contributions to make up 30% of its total revenue going forward from the current 7%, adding that revenue from its foreign business should increase to 10% in terms of contracts by the end of 2024.
“We are making inroads into markets in Vietnam and in the Philippines presently, and at the end of the year, we should see the latter becoming the largest contributor to turnover outside of Malaysia,” he said, adding that Web Bytes is set to record more than RM30mil in turnover this year.
Ooi said net profit for 2024 should hit RM1mil, and although he acknowledged there is still room for improvement there, he said the “low” profit margin was attributed exactly to the company’s goal of forging a significant regional presence.
He said Web Bytes is investing a major proportion of its revenue to further its growth in Asean, especially in the past 18 months, as he commented that Malaysian businesses generally do well in the Philippines.
The company was founded in 2007 by Ooi, and since then it has made more than 5,000 retail merchants its customers across South-East Asia with its flagship product Xilnex, one of the pioneer cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) solutions in the region.
Ooi said Web Bytes had secured clients for Xilnex in every country in Asean with the exception of Laos, and physically, it is also in Cambodia besides Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The company’s business focuses primarily between the food and beverage (F&B) as well as the retail sectors, with an approximate 60/40 split between the two.
“Compared with retail, or any other industry, you may see F&B chains opening 100 stores in a short period of time, or you may also see them closing down,” said Ooi.
When asked why the company is not in Singapore, Ooi pointed out that the city-state is too small a market for Web Bytes.
“We are obviously aware that Singapore has a strong currency (RM3.28 to S$1 at press time), which means its market could theoretically pay up to three times as much. But the number of stores we can serve there is probably 10 times lower than what we can find in other Asean countries,” he explained.
As such, it is always about scaling the effort, he said, as he revealed that Web Bytes will pitch and close deals hands-on in larger markets.
For Singapore, the company will utilise a franchise-based model, leveraging on its potential partners to run operations in the island nation.
Interestingly, in its regional expansion, Ooi discovered that many Malaysian firms are also doing the same.
With Web Bytes itself being a retail technological company that manages matters on the “front end” of business, he said many Malaysian tech players have been “cultured” to build end-to-end.
“The mentality of US or European solutions providers is that they are very focused, which means if they are in POS, they do not move out, or if they are in customer relationship management, they stay there,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysian solutions providers build from top-to-bottom, and using his own firm as an example, Ooi said Web Bytes may produce multiple products.
However instead of selling it to multiple clients, it may sell it to a single client to ensure it meets the customer’s requirements along the whole service chain.
“This is where Malaysian players may hold a competitive advantage in the retail tech sphere,” he added.
At present, all international airports managed by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd are utilising Xilnex retail solutions, a fact which Ooi is proud of, but is happy to continue building on.
Separately, Ooi said Malaysia stands to gain on multiple levels from the capital-heavy data centre investments into the country in recent times.
However, he said returns are not immediate, but may start to bear fruit in the next three to four years.
“These investments give us a leg-up especially in competing with Singapore. We can market ourselves as Singapore with a discount.
“It is a good mentality to foster to see if we can generate value to Malaysia by exporting our solutions, and the mega tech corporations that are building data centres here will be saving right away.”
On top of that, he said data centres are also serving to strengthen the ringgit, which means it is now more cost effective for players in the sector who are looking to expand overseas.
Earlier this year, Ooi was recognised as one of the Male Entrepreneurs Of The Year for 2023 at the Star Outstanding Business Awards.
