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Are price, technology and delivery enough? A Miami-based computermaker tries to go international on the cheap with the Internet.
ALL OVER THE WORLD THESE DAYS, people forsake name brand computers to buy computers parts and assemble them to get good machines at low prices. "We know that if people can get computers and parts locally they will," says Bruce Matthews, vice president of business development for computermaker TigerDirect.com. "But they often don't have the latest technology so we offer things they can't get."
That technological edge installed in made-to-order machines backs the Tiger brand's online bid to become a force in the Latin American computer market from Miami. It is part a growing number of companies that are using the Internet to seek new international business with minimal investment.
According to statistics compiled by Internet analyst Forrester Research company more than half of the world's 259 million Internet users are in countries outside the United States and more than half bought goods online in 1999. A part of the New York state-based Systemax, TigerDirect.com's international sales are currently less than...