Exabytes acquires Master Web Network, Indonesia's largest web hosting player

• Post acquisition, Exabytes Group now serves over 120,000 active clients, mainly across Southeast Asia.
• Will invest into technology, automation, talent to help MWN further improve its service offerings in Indonesia

Carrying on with its steady stream of acquisitions in the region as it cements its position as one of the top Southeast Asian hosting companies, Exabytes Capital Group Sdn Bhd on April 11 announced it has acquired Indonesia-based PT Master Web Network (MWN) including its fully-owned subsidiaries - PT Cyberdata Technology and PT Registrasi Nama Domain. Cyberdata Technology is a data center and it provides co-location services. Registrasi Nama Domain offers domain registration. The acquisition sees the Exabytes Group serving over 120,000 active clients today, mainly across Southeast Asia.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed for MWN which Chan Kee Siak, founder and CEO of Exabytes Group says has been Indonesia's leading web hosting player since 2004, based on rankings by HostAdvice, a web hosting information center. "It currently has over 40,000 active paying clients. Combined with our own PT Exabytes Network Indonesia which we launched in 2017, we are now by far the largest web hosting provider in Indonesia with over 55,000 active paying clients," says Chan.

The acquisition was done through an Exabytes’ special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Masterweb International Pte Ltd. 

"We started talking in 2017 and had agreed on terms earlier but compliance with local regulations took some time, which is why we are announcing the acquisition today," explains Chan. 

Focusing on offering Indonesian SMEs premium hosting and cloud services, Chan realised that Exabytes had to offer services at a lower price point as well if it wanted to go deep in the 230 million strong market. "As we grew we wanted to add low cost hosting as well so we could cater to a larger pool of customers in the country," he said. “This is where we saw that Master Web Network would make a good addition to our group of companies."

Founded in 1998, MWN focuses on delivering website hosting services and other services including Domain Name, Cloud Hosting, Virtual Private Server and Managed Server. It has a staff strength of around 80 today.

Exabytes will look into investing resources such as technology, automation and talent training into MWN in order to help it further accelerate its business and continue improving its service offerings in Indonesia.

“This acquisition is of great importance to us. We’ve been impressed with Exabytes’ approach in helping SMEs grow their business online. Its wealth of expertise and valuable resources will be key to our business as we continue to work on capturing a larger customer base of local entrepreneurs in Indonesia,” explains MWN founder Dhiar Lukito Adhi. There is a one year lock-in period for Dhiar and his senior management team.

Southeast Asia is an important region for Exabytes. Besides Indonesia, the company is making inroads into Singapore’s web hosting services market since 2010 when it incorporated Exabytes Network Singapore Pte Ltd. It boosted is presence there with an acquisition of a local company in 2014. Since then Exabytes has acquired several other companies in Singapore.

“2019 is going well for Exabytes. As part of our growth strategy, we are keeping a close check on the emergence of the digital economy within Southeast Asia, to discover new acquisitions,” says Chan. He expects a few more acquistions this year with ongoing talks with some companies.