Pingar Announces Chinese Search Platform

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March 29, 2010
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Pingar Announces Chinese Search Platform

Marks closer collaboration between Hong Kong and NZ and expansion for NZ tech firm

HONG KONG, March 29 -- Pingar, the New Zealand-tech company that has developed the next generation 'intelligent' search engine, announced today in Hong Kong that it is creating a Chinese-language version of the Pingar search platform.

Pingar also unveiled plans to open an office in Silicon Valley, CA, in the second half of 2010. Pingar is releasing its Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 application installers on May 12 to coincide with the official Microsoft release date of the SharePoint Server 2010 product.

The announcements of Pingar's overseas growth came as part of a program to celebrate the international success of New Zealand firms and to mark today's signing of the Closer Economic Partnership (CEP) between Hong Kong and New Zealand. New Zealand's Minister of Trade Tim Groser and Minister for Ethnic Affairs Pansy Wong are touring Hong Kong to assess how firms in the region can work together under the new CEP.

The ministers visited Pingar's offices at the Hong Kong Science and Innovation Park, which opened in early 2009. Pingar has partnered with Hong Kong's Compose Systems, a major developer of print publishing solutions, to build its Asian operations.

Says Pingar's CEO and co-founder Peter Wren-Hilton, "We're excited by the welcome we've received in Asia and look forward to entering the US market later in the year. Through workings with our Hong Kong partners we've identified key clients and demand for a Chinese version of the Pingar product. As such, we're developing versions of the platform in both simplified and traditional Chinese, which is a major step for Pingar."

Wren-Hilton added, "We look forward to realising what this market and the US offer. Asia and the US have become major areas of focus for Pingar."

Hong Kong is New Zealand's ninth largest export trade market and worth approximately $823 million per year. The market is also strategically placed to benefit from growth in the Chinese and regional economies.

Asked to gauge what the agreement means for New Zealand companies like Pingar, NZ Trade Commissioner to Hong Kong and Macau Sharon-May McCrostie who attended the function said, "There are immense opportunities for Kiwi companies in Hong Kong, and the CEP provides certainty for New Zealand businesses either already active in this market, or looking to do business here. New Zealand companies that take a strategic, pro-active approach to engagement with Hong Kong and China are the ones that are best-placed to maximise the opportunities that this region offers. It's great to see a high tech growth company such as Pingar doing just that, and I encourage other New Zealand companies to take a similar approach."

The traditional and simplified Chinese versions of Pingar will be further developed in association with local universities. Pingar's newest application will be demonstrated at the 2010 Shanghai Expo in July and will be available as a beta release for pilot testing with selected clients in Hong Kong and mainland China.

In short, Pingar changes the face of mainstream internet search. Pingar's solution goes inside data documents, finds the content the user is seeking and then places it into a dynamically generated PDF or XPS document, rather than just presenting a list of links like the traditional search model. As the company likes to say: "it takes the browsing out of browsing."

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

About Pingar

Established in 2006, Pingar has developed a semantic search platform that returns comprehensive search query results inside formatted PDF or XPS documents.

The company demonstrated its Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Search solution at the 2009 Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, during October 2009. Based in Tauranga, New Zealand, Pingar currently has offices in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

Pingar's technology was developed in cooperation with the University of Waikato (WaikatoLink) and Auckland University of Technology and has received significant support from New Zealand Trade & Enterprise and the Foundation for Research Science & Technology.

For more information, please visit: http://www.pingar.com

Source: Pingar
   

CONTACT:  Peter Wren-Hilton, Managing Director of Pingar, mobile, +64 21
791 120, or Julien Leys of JML Communications, +64 9 358 2828, or mobile, +64
21 655 598, julien@jmlcommunications.co.nz, for Pingar

Web Site:  http://www.pingar.com/

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