Riverbed Technology Inc, a provider of network data solutions, is launching its business in China, one year after it set up in the United States and Europe.

"We are setting up two offices soon, in Beijing and Shanghai," Jerry Kennelly, chief executive officer of Riverbed, told China Daily.

US-based Riverbed, founded in 2002, began to market its solutions last May in the US and in European markets. It will begin business in China by providing sales support and some localized research and development work in the software sector.

More offices will be opened in China's other cities soon, added Kennelly.

Riverbed is seeking Chinese partners as "we will rely 100 per cent on local partnerships," said Kennelly.

The company signed an agreement yesterday with China Putian Information Industry Group Corp, he said.

State-owned China Putian is the country's largest supplier of communications equipment.

"Our ambition for the market is that China will be among our top three markets, in terms of revenue in three years," said Wang Guoxing, general manager of Riverbed's Greater China region.

Riverbed globally serves the manufacturing, communications, banking and financing sectors, as well as global trading companies, according to Kennelly.

Riverbed's flagship product, Steelhead, can significantly enhance the performance of wide-area networks by reducing by as much as 95 per cent the redundant data flow that slows up information transmission, the company says.

Adding bandwidth that increases the speed of transmission, which many people prefer as a solution to this problem, helps little, the company says.

Companies, including Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, are also coming up with similar technologies, yet "we are at least two years ahead of the market," said Kennelly.

The company started up in the Asia-Pacific region in March, setting up a regional headquarters in Singapore. In addition to China, it plans to open offices in India and Australia.

(China Daily 08/11/2005 page11)