Latin eVentures sells IT products on the Web

Company launches eAQUIB2B in Brazil in order to meet corporate needs. Next year, the service will be available in Mexico, Argentina and Chile. A consumer version is planned for later.

Jô Elias

Tuesday, December 7^th, 1999 12:30:23

Brazilian companies can already count on a portal that sells IT products, eAquiB2B. This is the first business of Latin eVentures, an electronic commerce holding company based in California. During the first three months of 2000 Latin eVentures will expand its operation to México, Argentina and Chile, in this order. To make this idea of selling through the Web come to life, Latin eVentures has entered into a partnership with Ingram Micro.

In Brazil the service started with five companies testing eAquiB2B: Antárctica, Santista, Nestlé, Ecovias and GR (Accor Group). By January it will be fully operational allowing customers to buy products from a catalog of more than 10 thousand hardware and software items, from about 40 manufacturers such as Compaq, Apple, 3Com, IBM, Microsoft, Novell.

The site allows the Purchasing Manager to customize the page for each user level. This way, he/she can define the product range that each user inside the corporation will have access to, by modifying the status on the website itself (that works as an extranet with password access).

According to Cenmar Fuertes, President & CEO of Latin eVentures, the company should start business to consumer e-commerce by April next year, "only with IT products in the beginning, but later with other product categories". He did not comment on the investments needed to launch the services here or in other Latin American countries, nor did he offer any revenue forecasts.