Cari Internet
Cari Internet Sdn. Bhd. is a Malaysian company founded in 1996. It operates the eponymous website Cari.com.my, the country's first search engine and web portal, along with online florist Flowers.com.my and web hosting service Onnet.Cari Forum, a multilingual internet forum, is a particularly popular portion of its website, and has been reported to be Malaysia's largest internet forum.
The word cari (IPA: /tʃari/) means "search" in the Malay language.
Business development
Cari was founded by Liew Chew-Keat (柳树吉). It was unique for its early provision of trilingual services: English, Malay, and Chinese. After its founding, Cari grew to become one of the country's top ten web portals, while maintaining tight control over costs. It received RM2.5 million (US$657,808) in venture capital funding from AKN.com in 2000 in exchange for a 15% stake, which was later transferred to Swansoft Technologies. The bursting of the dot-com bubble actually aided Cari's cash flow, allowing it to cut advertising spending from RM450,000 in 2000 to just RM50,000 in 2001. However, it was still not profitable in 2001.