Sejoong Namo Interactive aims to specialize in delivering total solutions in the Internet sector by developing and supplying the software to manufacture homepages and various application software based on its own technology.

Sejoong Namo Interactive was established in December 1995 under its original name of "Hancom Research." Namo changed its name to "Namo Interactive" in 1996 and began business in earnest under the leadership of its president, Park Hung-ho.

While experiencing a dispute over managerial control in 2003, its name was changed again to Sejoong Namo Interactive under a new president, Chun Shin-il. It is now striving to achieve a "second take-off."

Namo began in business by selling its "Namo Web Editor," software developed entirely in-house.

Sales of Namo Web Editor account for about 80 percent of total company sales; meanwhile the web editor remains unrivalled in the domestic software market.

Namo's other big earners are its "Namo DeepSearch," an Internet information search engine, and "Namo Active Square" a WYSIWYG (abbreviated form of What You See Is What You Get)-style component software. In addition, it is developing a variety of Windows application software. On the basis of these initiatives it plans to become a total enterprise solution provider in the domestic Internet field.

The business fields of Namo can be classified as to the development and marketing of Web-based software, Web-based production software (e.g., Namo Web Editor), Web search engine (Namo Deep Search), component software (Namo Active Square), KMS solution (Namo Active Square, Namo Deep Search), and PDA solution (Namo Hand Story).

Namo Web Editor is an item of software for individuals, and accounts for over 80 percent of the domestic homepage market. It is now exporting Namo Web Editor to 30 countries, including the U.S., Britain, France, Japan, Australia, and Switzerland. It received excellent appraisal of the editor from leading companies in the U.S., Japan, and Europe.

An official of the Namo corporation in the U.S. said, "Namo Web Editor is a Korean software that we can purchase at anywhere in the U.S."

Namo is now approaching the market with the improved version of "Namo Web Editor FX Sheet."

It is also now selling the "version 3 HandStory," a software product for individuals that has received an excellent response from overseas customers.

In particular, Namo places emphasis on the "Namo Flash Creator" it introduced this year. This is software that enables users to draw up and edit flash animation or flash button by using timeline controlling the flash movement. It is superior to the flash products of Macro Media in terms of price and function, Namo said.

Namo also supplies Namo Active Square 5, Namo DeepSearch 4, ICT Class 2005, and Namo KC-ERP for enterprise applications.

ICT Class 2005 is an e-running solution that Namo developed by applying Namo Web Editor to the Internet-based educational solution.

Namo KC-ERP, on which Namo is now placing emphasis, is software for smaller domestic companies. This product, an ERP solution for the manufacture of auto parts, was developed for smaller companies with 20-50 workers. In particular, Namo offers KC-ERP in a form of ASP lease. It is priced at the 300,000-won level in order to gain popularity among small-scale businesses.

Namo anticipates it will attract custom from 300-odd companies. Namo now plans to develop an ERP solution for small and medium-sized companies with over 50 employees.

Namo tries to diversify its profit sources by offering a variety of such solutions.

Through the Web Editor, Namo is wining customers both at home and abroad. Namo said that it places more emphasis on its overseas business than the domestic market. Actually, its overseas sales accounted for 40 percent of total sales last year. It plans to expand the portion to 60 percent next year.

Namo devoted considerable effort to expanding its overseas network at an early stage of its existence and the results are now becoming apparent. It has built a firm distribution network in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, winning approbation in the educational and public sectors.

Namo said that within just two years of their launch, its products accounted for 50 percent of the total educational software market in Taiwan.

Namo products also enjoy popularity in educational and public markets in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Major outlets in the U.S. are supermarkets and specialized electronics retailers, among them the 227 CompUSA computer super stores, the 1,000 OfficeMax office super stores, and JandR & DataVision in New York.

Accordingly, Namo established a locally incorporated firm in the U.S. to manage distributors directly in order to better grasp the market situation, enjoying $2.5 million in annual profits in the U.S. market.

In the Japan, Namo joined hands with "LiveDoor" to promote package products. In Europe, it sells its products through large stores in France, Germany and Britain, and plans to expand its marketing effort to other European countries. It also plans to enter the Chinese market after preparing countermeasures against illegal reproduction. To establish itself in overseas markets, Namo introduces Japanese-, Chinese-, and English-versions of its products continuously.

In the meantime, Namo is investing heavily into R&D, in a manner far ahead of its competitors. Gauging that persistent R&D investment is the only way to survive, Namo invests about 30 percent of its annual total sales into R&D. In fact, 30 out of its total of 85 employees are engaged in R&D.

Through these activities both at home and abroad, Namo is projecting revenues of 10 billion won this year (6 billion won from the domestic market and 4 billion won from abroad). Namo expects its annual sales to increase by 30 percent next year through new businesses based on such new products as ERP and Flash Creator.

For the long-term, Namo plans to make the best use of its overseas distribution network and concentrate its efforts on its software publishing products. In the first half of this year, Namo and SRCTEC of China jointly sold Flash Creator in the Japanese market through the Japanese distributor, LiveDoor. Namo also plans to launch sales of the product in other overseas markets, including the U.S.

Sohn Ik-sang, manager of the overseas business department of Sejoong Namo Interactive, said, "By making the best use of our efficient overseas distribution network, Namo will sell not only its own products but also those products, which are competitive in terms of technology but for which there is no overseas sales networks. By thus expanding the product lineup of Sejoong Namo, we plan to expand the company's overseas publishing business in total."

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