This interview is a small excerpt from a comprehensive interview published in The Wall Street Transcript as part of the Consumer Sector

TWST: To begin, could you provide the readers with a brief overview of Internet Business Group (LSE:IBG.L), including the company history, products, services and core markets?

Mr. Maziar Darvish: Internet Business Group has been going originally as Mazware.com since 1996. Our core business is the provision of Internet professional services to a variety of different sectors and companies. The company has grown completely organically since 1996 until now and IPO'd, raising its first funding by these means in May of 2000. The other characteristics are that we have developed our own software systems throughout the history of the company and have built up a fairly large portfolio of intellectual property rights, which we have been in the process of trying to exploit outside of a straight services business for some time now. We are continuing to explore the product area. In addition to that, the company has an investment portfolio in other companies, which currently totals seven. We are no longer making cash investments. Instead, we have focused on our existing portfolio to crystallize returns.

TWST: What would you cite as your advantages over the larger UK groups that you are competing against in this manner?

Mr. Maziar Darvish: Our competitive advantages are basically threefold. One is time to market in that we are able to start and finish a project in a very short space of time. That also translates into a value advantage in that we are able to develop like for like, a project utilizing less man-days of our designers, developers and consultants than most of the other people that we compete with. Thirdly, there is the quality advantage in that quite a lot of the work that we do attracts a lot of positive press coverage. That provides the driver for the business in that we get a lot of referral business from the work that we have previously done. Fundamentally most of those advantages are brought out of the fact that we have our own software systems that we incorporate into solutions for clients. So, typically something like eighty percent of the technology that goes into the backend of a project that we take on is coming internally off the shelf, which provides a massive cost advantage in terms of licensing and third party products but also a speed advantage because we write the software systems and actually have the code available so bespoken it for a particular client solution is far less time consuming than taking a third party piece of software and knocking it into shape. So, basically we have our own e-commerce systems, auction systems, content management systems. Most of those things are fairly essential ingredients in developing Web-based solutions, which is what we do and that creates a fairly significant advantage.

TWST: You briefly touched upon the size and growth potential of the market in which you operate. Would you like to elaborate on this area?

Mr. Maziar Darvish: We believe that the growth potential of the market is actually quite significant over the next two, three years. We have obviously had a period over the last nine months to a year where the market has delayed a lot of those decisions. So, many companies in the market have not been committing to expenditure primarily because of the shock of the technology downturn and really reevaluating their entire strategies, which in a lot of ways is actually an opportunity for us because it has created an inroad to a lot of companies that we did not have before, analyzing their strategy efforts stands and possibly what they should be doing. We are now starting to see people coming off the fence and actually committing to investing in the Internet as both a sales channel and a cost saving channel on the supply side. As a result, I would expect the market to actually return to fairly healthy growth over the next six to twelve months.

TWST: What would you highlight as the most significant move that Internet Business Group has made over the last year?

Mr. Maziar Darvish: The most significant move that we have made, I would say, is the shifting of our focus back to SME size projects. If I give you a bit of history, what we did was, following our IPO and the fundraising we tried to position the company to take on larger sized contracts with blue chips. Now, with retrospect, that was not the best move to make and the most significant change we have made in the last twelve months is actually to go back to the area that we have had a historical strength in, which is SME size projects. So, contracts of up to around $150,000 to $200,000 dollars and stick squarely in that space where we have a visible competitive advantage and the market is a lot more healthy.

UpStart Europe conference opened last April in Paris with keynotes from number of people with a claim to having played a revolutionary role in the technology business. I went to Paris to attend the conference, in order to try and raise funding for my own venture, and perhaps in addition to learn something from some of the most successful entrepreneurs in Internet arena. I was most excited to meet with Omidyar, I was gratified on both account.

First off to speak was Pierre Omidyar, the French- Iranian born entrepreneur who founded eBay in the US. In a speech that concentrated on the success of his own company he spoke of the brutal forces of evolution that "selected out" weak business models on the Internet.

Omidyar contrasted the approach of his own company with Amazon and Yahoo, which also offer trading platforms. Omidyar said that while Amazon spent vast sums on marketing and Yahoo could offer its own auction its massive brand awareness, eBay had built itself through its interest in grass roots customers. Ebay looked to build on this community approach through a network of local sites.

Though US-based, the company is enjoying success in Europe, notably Germany. eBay, which is targeting the five largest Internet markets outside of the US, rather than opting for blanket coverage, currently has a greater sales volume through its German operation than all the other online trading companies have globally, Omidyar said.

After his keynotes I managed to catch him and I introduced BIBA to him, I found him a true professional. Omidyar’s own word confirmed that he owns shade over 30% of the company, and for that his wealth will put him most certainly the the No 1 in the Iranian living outside Iran. For someone that having build eBay to be one of the top 10 great Internet Companies, He has now earned an status that is most certainly hard to match by any one in my book.

If there is such a thing as modern-day fairy tales, Pierre Omidyar's life would be the first to go down in the story books. The 31-year old Franco-American almost accidentally turned a weekend hobby of website tinkering into what is now a $12 billion company. Born in Paris, where he lived until he was six, Omidyar moved to California as a boy and has stayed there ever since. That is, until now. A few months ago, he and his wife upped stakes and moved back to the City of Light. "I always wanted to come back here," explains Omidyar in eBay's temporary offices near he Arc de Triomphe. "The French have a different point of view on life."

From his laid-back aura and well-worn polo shirt, to his willingness to spend almost an hour talking about his life, chatting with Pierre doesn't feel like talking to one of America's youngest billionaires. In fact, long before you ponder his enormous financial success, you realize he's a supremely likeable guy.


Pierre M. Omidyar.

Omidyar started eBay in September 1995, only it wasn't called eBay then, but Auction Web. The service was just a website that Pierre created "on nights and weekends" to enable his wife to trade Pez candy dispensers with other collectors, but it quickly grew into a popular free site where users auctioned goods they might otherwise have hawked at a garage sale.

By February 1996, the site had become so popular that the ISP hosting it demanded Omidyar take out a more expensive hosting agreement. That's when Pierre started charging users to trade via the site. The checks kept flowing into his home mailbox, and by spring, "the checks totaled more than my salary from my day job," he explains. "I was just doing all this as a hobby, but by spring 1996, I realized I had to get serious." The company grew up on its own, says Omidyar, "it wasn't a plan."

Not exactly the typical way an entrepreneur goes about starting a company, but then Omidyar had no intention of turning Auction Web into a real business. He was writing code at General Magic when he started eBay, but before that, Pierre had helped found a company called eShop in 1991, which was sold to Microsoft in 1996. "I got the whole startup experience there," Omidyar says, adding, "it was fun, but I realized it was just too difficult to run a company."

His reluctance to run a company may in fact be one of eBay's saving graces. The firm is one of the few profitable Internet companies around and Pierre chalks that up to tip-top management. "I don't know how to run a large company," he says, "finding Meg (Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay) was crucial." Many entrepreneurs, he claims, are too reluctant to give up control of their companies, but ceding management to more experienced people is probably one of the best decisions an entrepreneur can make. "Nothing is better than finding the right people, it frees you up to think about the future, and if you don't let go, you can't succeed."

From his roost in Paris, Pierre will still have an active role in eBay's development, but he also plans to spend more time on philanthropic projects. Having a lot of money is great, he says, "but it's also a big responsibility." He's setting up several charitable foundations with his wife, as well as turning his attention towards the plight of entrepreneurs held back by the business climate across Europe.

"My interest lies in helping encourage entrepreneurship," Omidyar says. Germany is ahead in terms of enabling entrepreneurship, but France is "one of the worst" when it comes to barriers to starting successful companies, he says. The whole startup scene in Europe "is a lot like it was in the old days in the US, the Internet is really happening now," he says. But while the energy may be there, the infrastructure for supporting startups hasn't necessarily kept pace.

Pierre spends a lot of time thinking these days, mapping out eBay's international strategy with a goal to create "a single global marketplace." When he's not working, he's collecting - Tin Tin figurines are his passion.

"I have the best job in the world these days, I could have an impact on the global economy," he muses, "besides, I don't have to worry about the little details."

The 1999 Visionary Awards were presented to:


Front row: Pierre Omidyar, Kaye Caldwell, Doug Engelbart, Ann Winblad
Back row: Steve Savignano (standing in for Marc Andreesson)
Sandy Herz (SDForum's Executive Director), James Gosling, Bill Gates

BIBA's 80th Business Meeting was held at the Institute of Directors on the 4th of October 2000, and the theme of the meeting was dedicated to raising capital.

Nader Haghighi and Maziar Darvish have successfully managed to raise substantial capital (£56m and £20m) for MBO and Company flotation. They gave speeches about how to raise capital in a cost-effective manner talking about the process and practical side of raising capital, how to deal with venture capitalists and how they operate, what they look for and how to be recognised as a credit worthy individual.

''Even the best idea in the world will not go very far without the money to get it off the ground. Inventors, entrepreneurs and ideas generators seem to think that all their good ideas need, is professional marketing help. Nothing could be further from the truth. Marketing is a game fought in the mind of the prospect. You need money to get into a mind. And you need money to stay in the mind once you get there. You will get further with a mediocre idea and a million pound than with a great idea alone.''

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Maziar Darvish Chief Executive, Internet Business Group plc.

Maziar launched Mazware.com in 1996 and has established the company as one of the UK's leading new media agencies Maziar is widely recognised as an expert within the industry with extensive experience in the new media sector. Earlier in the year 20% of the company was floated at the market value in excess of £20m. The company is an Internet business group product services and investment company focusing on delivering a competitive advantage to clients through the intelligent application of new media. The company brings together business consulting technology and design to increase profitability. The focus of what the company does for their clients is to increase revenues or reduce their clients' costs. They work for a range of classic early start-ups and other investment companies.


Maziar Darvish

Fundamentally there is no shortage of capital in the UK. Investment funds have announced their intention to invest in new economy related business that has amounts to over a billion pounds just in London. There are many kinds of funding available providing the proposition has strong management and is genuinely compatible to both the customers the business industry and also the investors and has tangible ROI (return of investment). The classic way of funding is through venture capitalists or the institutional investors. Finding the right source of investment is the key issue.

However to raise any form of funding you must first see if there is a real market for your product or service and work out what is so different and unique about your business model of your proposition that you are trying to raise funding for. Unless there is something interesting and unique about your business model there is no real value to funding it. A fantastic business proposition is not necessary a good investment proposition.

For any business proposition your management and their commitments are important to venture capitalists. They invest in the management of your company not in your idea. Also knowing what the risks are before going to an investment house is vital, as the investors often want to do a sensitivity test which means going to an accountancy firms then deciding they can't make an investment because of it being too risky. So it will be to your advantage to know the risks before going into an investment house.

The Independent - United Kingdom; May 2, 2001 BY SUSIE MESURE

The original US site was set up in September 1995 by Pierre Omidyar, chairman of eBay, to please his wife who, as an avid collector of Pez sweet distributors, was keen to enlarge her collection via internet contact with other Pez fans.

THE INTERNET auctioneer eBay has usurped amazon.com, the online bookstore, as the world's favourite e-commerce website according to an internet survey published this month.

Launched in Britain in December 1999, eBay offers shoppers all the possibilities of a giant car boot sale with none of the downsides such as getting up early on a Sunday morning or crossing a soggy field in the rain. Jennifer Mowat, country manager of eBay UK, summed up the site's popularity: ''It's just about choice really. It's like shopping in Bluewater [a vast shopping centre near Dartford, Kent] rather than going to the corner store."

The survey, compiled by Nielsens/Net Rating, shows that March's visitors to the eBay site grew by nearly 4 million to more than 22 million people. Amazon.com, the world's leading online retailer, gained only a million more visitors and now trails eBay in audience terms by just under 50,000.

On average, eBay surfers spent considerably longer logged on to the site than those visiting amazon.com - just over one-and-a-half hours compared with around 13 minutes. The report, a monthly study of global internet users, also saw eBay setting a new record for the e-commerce industry in terms of page views, with 1.3 billion for the month. Amazon recorded 164 million.

Although eBay does not police all the goods displayed for auction - with more than 4.5 million a day there are too many - the site's users do the job for them. ''If something goes up that shouldn't be there, within minutes another eBay auction user has emailed us to say so-and-so is trying to sell their kidney - or whatever," said Ms Mowat.

The site, eBay.co.uk, guides visitors through the steps to buying and selling goods online and will give even the most-devoted shopping junkie a decent fix. Yesterday, eBay's list of goods available ranged from a pair of tickets for one of Madonna's sell-out London gigs - currently going for pounds 800 - to an Austin Powers fancy dress outfit, seeking bids at the bargain reserve price of pounds 29.

Cars, dolls houses, film memorabilia, paintings and toys - nothing is too far-fetched for eBay, as long as it is not on the list of "prohibited, questionable or potentially copyright infringing" goods. The site warns, for example, that door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen hoping to make a quick, easy buck from the comfort of their living room risk violating their contracts.

Since its launch eBay has made money. Last month it posted a huge increase in first-quarter net income to $21.1m (pounds 14.4m) from $1.76m in the year-earlier period, on the back of more people listing items for sale on the site and increased user-fees in Canada and the USA. Revenue rose 79 per cent to $154.1m. In contrast, Amazon reported a net loss of $49m for the first quarter.

Ms Mowat said: ''It's one of those amazing business products. We don't touch anything, we have no warehouses, no delivery charges and unusually for an internet company we are very cost conscious." She points to eBay's functional and cheap UK base in the London suburb of Chiswick, which is staffed by just 30 people.

The eBay concept rests on the Utopian notion of an eBay community in which ''people are basically good", and where "everyone has something to contribute". Not easy on a medium that conjures up all manners of gloomy images, havens for rip-off merchants and possible fraud scams.

But the eBay site offers "safety aspects" to protect both parties involved in any transaction. It encourages buyers to contribute to a "sellers' feedback forum", which allows users to cement a good eBay reputation, helping to ensure repeat business.

The site has a safety resource and protection arm called SafeHarbour, which helps unhappy customers investigate fraud cases and file complaints or insurance claims. All goods sold through the site are insured up to a value of pounds 120 - although in practice the average purchase is well under this sum. ''Our insurance is there more as a feelgood factor," said Ms Mowat. ''People rarely need to use it."

She admits that fraud can still be a problem, but emphasises that the onus is on eBay to make the site a safe place to trade. Of the California- based company's global staff of a couple of thousand, over half work in customer support.

Plans for eBay include adding to its March success with the imminent international launch of what it terms "a fixed price concept". Sellers, which Ms Mowat hopes will one day include the likes of Marks & Spencer, will be able to set the prices of their goods, turning the web-based car boot sale into a much larger retail platform.

Over the last few years, the internet has rapidly grown to become one of the most important and widely used technological advances in history. Its information gathering potential is immense, and it serves its purpose equally well in communication. The internet can be used for business, education or leisure. Since the arrival of the "information superhighway", as the internet has come to be known, the advances made in international business have been staggering. Almost all major companies and organisations have a web-site which acts as either an advertising tool, or a way to conduct business. The service it provides is not exclusive to business and industry, but is utilised by every group in society imaginable. So you might wonder what use Iranians around the world have put the internet to. The following is a very brief guide to help those who have difficulty navigating the "net" to find some interesting or informational sites.

ARTS & CULTURE:

www.neda.net
www.sogol.com
www.iranian.com

Although officially not a site but a part of Sogol Tour and Travel, the section on the different Iranian cultures and tribes gives a brief, though efficient, insight into the various traditions still popularly followed in Iran. Although most elder generation Iranians may already know all there is to offer here, it will still be highly informative for those younger people who wish to find out more about their homeland's culture.

BUSINESS:

Unfortunately, as business is such a broad topic, there is no real site as such that gives a concise summary of Iranian businesses and businessmen (at least not to our knowledge!). However, if what you are looking for is a particular kind of tradesman, then the best way we can suggest is to go to www.iranian.com and search through their list of businesses.

EDUCATION:

www.iranbooks.com

With books in both Persian and English, this site offers literature with subjects ranging from culture to religion business. The books are for sale, but there is a $12.00 additional charge for overseas orders, as the company is based in the USA.

ENTERTAINMENT:

www.iranianmovies.com

With a wide variety of films and music videos on offer, this site can either serve as an informational site to help you keep up with new releases and old favourites, or as an internet "shop” with videos available for sale. Worth a look, especially for those old enough to remember classics like Daei Jon Napoleon.

www.jokestan.com

VERY funny site with plenty of jokes , though not for the fainthearted. Some of the content is unsuitable for a younger audience.

GENERAL:

www.IranOnline.com

Easy to use and extremely informational, this site not only allows access to cultural sites dedicated to Iranian Literature, music and folklore, it is also packed with the latest news headlines, and a host of other services.

www.Persian.com

Packed with information, and very sophisticated. One of the best internet sites available to those who want to keep up with everything from the latest news in Iran to health tips to traditional Iranian cuisine. There is even access to a full translated copy of Firdowsi's Shahnameh. Definitely my tip for some excellent net surfing!

www.Payvand.com

Not as easy to navigate as others and fairly limited in what it has to offer, Payvand.com is, however, worth visiting and may come in useful where others fail.

POLITICAL:

www.netiran.com

A compact yet very useful guide to Iran's political structure. Includes daily news from top Iranian newspapers, a brief outline of the laws and regulations of the country, and a look at who's who in Iranian politics.

www.caisuk.com

Cais is a London based agency dedicated to the gathering of information on Iran and Arabic countries. Not a very exciting site, but more importantly it offers an up-to-date look at the political and economic happenings in Iran, and is packed with information on the country's international standing. The strongest asset of this site is that it offers tailor-made reports and specialised consultancy, although some may find what they have to offer a little expensive.

SHOPPING:

www.PersianBazaar.com

Fun site with a wide range of products and services to offer, from Persian software to music to foodstuffs. Very professional layout, and so easy to use that even those who suffer from "Netphobia" when it comes to on-line shopping may be tempted to take their credit cards out. However, as most of us know, the real fun in shopping lies in doing it in person. Definitely worth a browse though.

SPORT:

www.IranSportsNet.com

Up to date and easy to use, what this site lacks in imagination it more than makes up for in pure sporting information. Definitely one for those who have trouble in keeping up with highlights in Iranian sports.

Conclusion -

These are just some of the web-sites that are dedicated to Iranian issues. The first thing that strikes the browser is the relative lack of business and industry based sites, and those that are available are vague and sketchy at best. The above are just some of the better ones, but it does seem that most of the sites are dedicated to art, culture and literature. The way forward for any country is to invest in its business and industry, and although it is very important not to lose sight of one's culture and identity, it is also important to recognise that every issue has got its time and place to be aired. Most of the sites are vague and sketchy at best. There is hardly any dynamism in the reporting, and this is probably due to the fact that the internet writers are young and are not actual reporters. The journalistic content available is too politically orientated and does not concentrate on economic or business issues. The solutions they offer are local as opposed to global.

Without ignoring the role of politics, it is crucial not to ignore the solutions that would ease business problems in the long-run. There is a desperate lack of imagination, vision and innovative new ideas. Those who are in positions to do so must offer constructive advise on how to reach higher grounds. Others do just that, so why can't Iranians match them, and even surpass them. There is no lack of talented Iranian businessmen overseas, and it is their moral duty to put forward global solutions for world business and economic problems. Is the internet not the ideal place for the wealth of young Iranian talent to express their views and share their insight. It is essential for those Iranians outside of Iran to be successful, and to share their success with Iranians all around the world. What has to be remembered is that a website is a universal product and must offer universal solutions.

Manouchehr Honarmand was looking through the Iranian papers one day when he noticed how many marriage proposals there were, and he realised that this was the best way to get in touch with people. He felt that the Iranian community has been looking for a web-site that can introduce people to each other, as most of the web pages that you find are mostly informative as opposed to classified. As a novelist and computer illiterate he taught himself without tuition how to create a web-site, resulting in www.irantamas.com.

BIBN) What is your marketing strategy?

(MH) I am targeting the Iranian community all over the world and especially in Europe. Since I started the site on the third of September there have already been around 5000 visitors to the site, which is a considerable amount for such a short time. I have started to advertise in the Iranian papers as well, so I believe that if we work very hard then we will have a large Iranian audience in Europe which we estimate to be around 800,000.

(BIBN) What distinguishes your site from the other Iranian sites on offer?

(MH) The other sites are mostly targeting English-speaking Iranians. To be frank, these sites are more intellectual. My site is not as serious in nature and will therefore will probably be more popular. It is not politically motivated as most of the other sites are. They focus on serious events and issues such as the recent demonstrations and so on. I want my site to be more commercial.

(BIBN) Will there be a great demand for such sites?

(MH) I believe so. The younger generation Iranians are attracted to the sites that are based in English, but in Europe we also have a number of Iranians who are looking for a more Iranian language based site to find very simple things, such as somewhere to sell a car. It is more of a commercial site than anything else.

(BIBN) Are you planning on expanding the site at all?

(MH) I am planning to expand, but I have had to start very small. It is impossible to try to jump too far ahead right from the word go. My target is to create a site that will attract Iranian and Arabic readers. This site will be very attractive for advertising from the big companies, because of the audience. There is great potential buying power there. I want the site to concentrate on various issues, but before that I need to change the current equipment, buy new computers and so on. It is a step by step process. Actually, I recently received a call from an Iranian factory manager who assembles computer parts here and he told me that in the export market they sometimes have special orders and they need casual labourers and technicians for a couple of months, and the cost of hiring from agencies is too much for them, so he suggested that we add a section on the site for Iranians looking for employment.

(BIBN) How will your site become profitable?

(MH) In my opinion there is great potential. The more I see of the business the more dimensions become apparent to me. The site can continually be supplied with interesting new things such as games, photos, discs and so on. Then big companies such as building societies and banks can be contacted and a lot of advertisement can be obtained through them. If one can keep up with the market and use some creativity, and if people can identify with the content on the site, then that site can become immensely successful. If I can eventually succeed in creating a site that is based in English, Arabic, and Iranian then I will consider my job done.

Mondus.com is the first global, online business-to-business marketplace designed exclusively to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. It streamlines the request for proposal process, resulting in greater efficiency for both buyers and vendors. Its market bidding structure ensures buyers receive low cost, high-quality services and eliminates the inconveniences of identifying vendors and exploring bids, allowing the re-allocation of resources to the most important task of all- profitability growth. Vendors enjoy the benefits of e-business, including exposure to previously inaccessible markets.

Rouzbeh Pirouz and Alexander Straub, both 27 and graduates of Oxford, started Mondus.com, and they have very ambitious plans for its future. Rouzbeh Pirouz is CEO for Europe of the company. He worked for the Charles R. Bronfman Foundation (Montreal) as a merchant banker. His education includes graduate degrees in Oriental and Political Sciences from Stanford, JFK school at Harvard, and Oxford University. He is a Rhodes Scholar for Canada.

Their philosophy is that e-commerce does not only change your route to the market, but it actually changes the entire relationship with the customer. With $12.5 million first round funding, Mondus.com has already established websites in the UK and Germany, and is about to expand into the US. Straub claims that Mondus.com will "become one of the fortune 1000".

The concept behind the company is simple. If a medium-size company needs some new computers for its employees. Although the Yellow Pages provides an enormous amount of information, not to mention the internet, both of these are laborious, time consuming, and in the end not even full-proof methods of finding the right deal for your company. Rouzbeh Pirouz sums up what the company has to offer: "Buying faster, easier and cheaper are the keywordswhich best describe what we offer".

Ebay, which is the most active auction site on the internet, operates an online person-to-person trading community. The site brings together buyers and sellers in an auction format to trade personal items, including antiques, coins, collectibles, computers, memorabilia, stamps and toys. Ebay is the brain-child of Iranian-born Pierre Omidyar. Before establishing eBay, Omidyar was, amongst other things, the co-founder of Ink Development Corp., which became eShop and was later bought by Microsoft. As an early Internet enthusiast, he came up with the idea to design a site via which people could buy and sell unique items and meet others with similar interests. Today, Omidyar's position as Founder and Chairman involves being in charge of overseas strategic direction and growth, model and site development, and community advocacy. The eBay community includes over 5.6 million registered users, and they buy and sell in more than 1600 categories.

Each day, eBay hosts over 2.5 million auctions, and over 50 million auctions have been completed on eBay since its inception.

Last year, when the IPO market was dwindling, EBay more than doubled in its first day of trading. This was a strong indication of Investor's high expectations for the Internet business. Its shares rose from $26.625 to $44.625 in late trading, and at one point they had hit $54.25. There is a huge growth potential in the Internet market, as 32 year old Omidyar has discovered, and some companies are valued at breathtakingly high prices. Another factor leading to the success of Ebay is the strength of its management team. Scott Cook, 45, founder of the Intuit, a financial software developer, and Howard Schultz, 45, the founder of Starbucks coffee chain both sit on the board.

In the city Ebay is best known for its astoundingly high stock prices, but to the users of the site, it is more fondly regarded as one of the best places to buy anything from Beanie Babies to antique clocks. Either way, this gigantic online auction is one of the major internet success stories of the decade. Auction-based web pricing systems are highly in demand, and Ebay is pioneering the way along with only a handful of other companies. In January 1999 the stock market had assigned the auctioneer at market value of $12 billion.

The future of Ebay and Internet companies in general cannot be accurately defined, but judging from the present climate, it seems that a large number of people believe that the way forward is through investing in them. Only time will tell whether the huge investments will pay off or, as many of the more sceptical market observers warn, will cause a market collapse of apocalyptic proportions.

Javad Ebrahimzadeh and Behnam Looyeh started an internet cafe four years ago. They have entered this business because that is where their expertise lies. They were educated in the field of computers and IT, so the natural progression was to work in that field. Although they were not the first internet cafe around, they were one of the first, and are still one of the only ones to offer real solutions for real problems. What most of the other internet cafes offer is a relaxed environment in which to sit back, enjoy a cup of coffee, and use the computer for casual purposes. Although their business is a cafe, its main purpose is to be an internet service provider, and to offer help and networking to those who are experiencing problems.Of course they do offer drinks to their customers, but they try to concentrate mainly on offering solutions. That is where having highly trained staff comes in extremely useful. They thought at the time that this was a good idea as there was a gap in the market for a place to which people could go with their problems and receive on-site professional advice. As it turned out, there has been a great demand for their services.

(BIBN) What problems did you face when you first set out on this venture?

(BL) Our main problem at the beginning was the lack of experience we had in this market. There were, as with most businesses, many things that we got wrong at first and had to learn from as time went on. There are many factors at the beginning that shape the future and the right decisions have to be made in terms of which I.S.P to choose, what sort of connection is needed, what hardware to get and so on. But really, the problems that we faced could be divided into two categories; technical problems and management problems. The way that we decided to tackle these was by dividing the responsibility between us. Javad took control of the management side, and therefore took over the responsibility of making sure that the business ran smoothly on paper. So really, we have been very lucky in that we can successfully work together and complement each other as a unit. Of course, we cannot take all the credit as our staff have been exceptional during this period as well.

(BIBN) What sort of clientele do you attract?

(JE) Inside the actual cafe the clients tend to be mostly tourists and students. They come in to use our computers and leave feeling very satisfied with the technical support that they were offered. Outside of the premises though, we work on a more corporate level. We deliver solutions to large firms, whether it be network design, technical support or consultancy. To give an example, we recently acted as consultants to OSPRAY, so you can see that we are beginning to play in larger playgrounds. In a nutshell, we sell solutions!

(BIBN) What is your long-term plan?

(BL) We are at a very important point in time right now. We have just established ourselves in the market, you might say got our feet on the ground, and most importantly we have established some very useful contacts. Our policy is to try to always keep our clients happy so that they can continue to use our services. Now we want to go towards giving more web solutions for e-commerce on a corporate scale. Our plan is to go further than just providing computers for use, but to actually offer our expertise on a broader scale. There is no reason why we cannot be as big as, or bigger than any other company. Eventually we want to be able to do anything to do with I.T, in essence to offer "one-stop I.T solutions". I believe that we are only three or four years from where we want to be. But for now, we will concentrate on delivering quality.


A Couple With A Laptop