Outblaze is a

technology company A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details According to ''Fo ...

that develops and provides digital media products and services including

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

games and other apps,

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

applications, computer and

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

, online transaction systems, and web communication software. Although it started out as an application service provider of hosted

Web applications A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

, the company gradually transitioned to the

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...

. In 2009 Outblaze sold its messaging business unit in order to focus primarily on

digital entertainment Digital entertainment Industry includes, but is not restricted to, any combination of the following industries (that themselves have a considerable degree of overlap): *digital media *new media *video on demand *video games *interactive entertainmen ...

History

Outblaze was founded in 1998 in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and received considerable media attention around the time of the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

."How Outblaze Outlasted the Bubble", ''BusinessWeek'', August 19 2002
At the peak of its activity in the messaging sector, Outblaze was reported to provide services to over 75 million users around the world, with 40 million email accounts
operated by Outblaze plus at least 35 million
protected by Outblaze's anti-

spam Spam may refer to: * Spam (food), a canned pork meat product * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...

solution. In 2009 Outblaze sold its messaging assets to IBM, which incorporated them in

LotusLive IBM SmartCloud for Social Business is a suite of business networking and collaboration cloud-based services hosted by the IBM Collaboration Solutions division of IBM. The integrated services include social networking for businesses, online m ...

. Since then Outblaze has focused its attention on video and online gaming, smartphone apps, and social network applications."Some Outblaze Milestones", ''Outblaze Web site''

Products

Outblaze's various smartphone game apps have been downloaded about 30 million times for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

devices as of September 2011.

Advocacy

Outblaze has engaged in a number of policy discussions, primarily via consultation and position papers authored by Outblaze executives. In 2004 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

) asked Outblaze Head of Anti-Spam Operations Suresh Ramasubramanian to assist the OECD task force on spam. The result was the 25 May 2005 report ''Spam Issues in Developing Countries'',"Spam Issues in Developing Countries", ''OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry'', May 25 2005
which alerted governments and organizations to the specific dangers that spam poses to countries with underdeveloped Internet infrastructure. Suresh has further written a paper on botnet mitigation for the

ITU The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

. The Office of the Telecom Authority (OFTA) of Hong Kong put out a consultation paper in June 2004 requesting comments on Proposals to contain the problem of unsolicited electronic messages.ofta.gov.hk
/ref> The Outblaze response encouraged the government to adopt a range of measures to effectively combat spam, among them: opt-in standards, prompt removal of spammers and hacked or insecure systems, adoption of authenticated email schemes, unequivocal anti-spam legislation, rapid response times at ISPs, and diffusion of better email marketing management techniques.''Response to OFTA consultation paper: Proposals to contain the problem of unsolicited electronic messages'', Outblaze, October 2005
The response was approved and endorsed by the Asia-Pacific chapter of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (

CAUCE Cauce is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Ana Mari Cauce (born 1956), American psychologist and college administrator * Elīza Cauce (born 1990), Latvian luger See also *Caunce Caunce is a surname. Notable people with the surn ...

References and footnotes

External links

*
Hoovers on Outblaze

''Pretty Pet'' series Web site

Dream Cortex Web site
{{IBM Online companies of China Entertainment companies of Hong Kong Companies established in 1998 IBM acquisitions