Sydney – 22 October, 2003 – Hostway Corporation, a global leader of web hosting services and online business tools for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SME), today announced the launch of its multi-tiered reseller program in Australia in a further signal of its market expansion in the region. The flagship program allows resellers to choose from a variety of membership levels while continuing to receive technical support directly from Hostway.

Chicago-headquartered, Hostway, opened offices in Sydney in April and currently has more than 300,000 customers globally for its range of domain name registration, shared hosting, ecommerce hosting, dedicated server and fully-managed complex hosting services.

Hostway’s channel partner program is split into three levels to accommodate different member models and provide opportunities for success at varying levels of participation. Potential partners can opt for an Affiliate, Agent or Private label.

Affiliate Program: Enables organisations and individuals to collect a commission for referring qualified clients interested in receiving Hostway services. Commission is provided if customer remains using Hostway services for a minimum of 45 days. Hostway manages all activities associated with closing the sale and provides customer billing and support.

Agent Program: Designed to provide reliability of service to resellers. It enables a range of organisations from web design firms to system integrators and IT consultants to offer co-branded Web hosting services through Hostway. For every hosting plan sold through the reseller’s marketing efforts, it receives a percentage of the revenue incurred, offering the reseller the possibility of gaining additional profits.

Other benefits include:

• First-rate Hostway technical and customer support focused on the agent’s customers
• A reseller portal that can be accessed through Hostway’s intuitive and robust control panel, SiteControl, enabling agents to receive targeted information related to their specific needs and services
• Dedicated Service Managers focused on offering support and assistance to all agents and their specific needs
• Commission structure based on revenue rather than number of orders, enabling resellers to receive additional dollars for any service upgrades, product add-ons and other special promotions
• Private Label: Hostway provides Private Label partners with a comprehensive line of hosting solutions that can be rapidly deployed.
• Hostway is responsible for maintaining the facilities, network, equipment, architecture, deployment, software and billing.
• Reseller partners are responsible for marketing, sales, billing and customer support activity. Resellers retain the ownership of their customers. Monthly fees are discounted based on the volume of business completed and adjusted according to monthly volume.

“We listened to our customers and partners and constructed our Australian channel partner strategy based on that feedback. Our program allows channel partner members to deliver best-of-breed hosting solutions to SMEs who want to rapidly improve their web presence for business benefit but not pay the earth for service,” said Michael Farrell, general manager, Hostway Corporation.

Reseller participants that sign up for any program will receive a number of benefits, including:

• Sales training and support from Hostway in Australia
• Access to the Hostway partner Web site, marketing, artwork and sales tools.
• Regular channel communications updates, including a monthly
  newslettter and customer packs
• Monthly prizes

Established in 1996 and headquartered in Chicago, Hostway supports web hosting provision for more than 300,000 customers globally and has been profitable every quarter since its inception.

The company is one of the five largest pure-play web hosting companies in the world and has compiled a successful record of integrating acquired companies smoothly and delivering superior service to customers of these companies. In recent months, it has become one of the fastest growing domain name registrars.

About Hostway
Hostway Corporation is a provider of award-winning web hosting services and tools, supported by superior customer service. Working primarily with small- and medium-sized businesses, Hostway provides the best of hosting technology with innovative online tools to assist customers to broaden their reach and grow their business. Hostway offers a wide range of shared and dedicated server plans to partner with their customers – from the launch of a Web site through every stage of online growth.

Founded in 1996, the Chicago-based company supports more than 300,000 websites worldwide. Hostway has expanded its global reach by opening an office in Korea in 2000, a UK office in 2001 and a Dutch, Canada and Australian office in 2003. Hostway is a private company, has posted a profit every quarter since its inception and does not rely on outside capital.

For more information on Hostway Corporation please contact:

Terri Stewart-Williams
Hostway Corporation
Terri@hostway.com.au
Tel: 02 9922 6300

David Bass/Jo Balfour
LEWIS PR
davidb@lewispr.com / joanneb@lewispr.com
Tel: 02 9901 4235