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eKorp and Lonely Planet launch new product for travellers

The State Government has announced that a new venture, eKorp.com Pty Ltd, is to invest $20 million in Melbourne and create up to 600 jobs in developing Internet applications and telephony services.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury and Multimedia, Robert Clark, said the company had established its global centre for operations and research and development in Melbourne and aimed to generate $1 billion in worldwide revenue by 2004.

Mr Clark said the first application of eKorp’s service would be in partnership with Lonely Planet, the Melbourne-based travel information provider.

He said that the product, Lonely Planet eKno, was targeted at independent travellers and aimed to provide communication options to meet their needs and circumstances as they travelled.

"eKorp is a new generation of telecommunications company, specialising in services that integrate traditional telephony, Internet services and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoLP), allowing telephone calls to be carried over the Internet rather than over existing telephone networks," he said.

Mr Clark said eKorp would pursue opportunities in research and development and capital investment as part of a five-year strategy.

He said eKorp represented a range of Australian and US interests seeking to provide services to more than 60 countries in its first year, including America, UK, Singapore, Japan, Germany and Australia.

(News Release, Office of the Parliamentary Secretary, Treasury and Multimedia, May 20, 1999)