At the end of 1998, two FT.com executives were having a drink at the bar of the Pudong Shangri-La hotel in Shanghai, lamenting the difficulties of doing business far from home.

Almost two years later, Donal Smith and Jonathan Schmidt are about to launch eCountries (due September 28), an internet business designed to address those complaints. As media executives wrack their brains at trying to turn their content-rich sites into money-makers, eCountries may have outfoxed the opposition with its admirably direct premise.

Sometimes described as an online version of the Economist Intelligence Unit, which also churns out country analyses, eCountries is a site that provides news and analysis for 150 countries. As with most publishers, the information comes free of charge. The site consists of profiles on countries from Austria to Venezuela and up-to-date news feeds.

eCountries is hoping to attract traffic by being listed on various news sites such as ABC.com and would eventually like to license its content to news outlets that have trimmed their foreign coverage. But the ace up the company's sleeve is its Marketplace matchmaking service for companies wishing to do business on foreign turf.

Marketplace seeks to take the hassle out of international transactions, sparing companies the trials and tribulations that afflicted Smith, 38, and Schmidt, 36, during their dealmaking for FT.com years ago. Matchmaking has proved to be a successful formula for technology and internet networking group First Tuesday and eCountries has taken the concept further by adding a global twist.

"There is a large volume of international professional services that gets traded," Mr Smith said from eCountries's headquarters in Clerkenwell, the area of London where internet companies are proliferate as fast as the trendy cafes and restaurants in the neighbourhood. "But the market is very disaggregated. The internet is a fantastic way of introducing buyers and sellers to each other."

Say a British company needs a translation of Bulgarian telecommunications legislation in a hurry - an actual request that came to eCountries recently. The company then fills in a form at the eCountries site and eCountries will try and come up with matches for appropriate services; at least two or three.

If the transaction is completed, eCountries takes a cut of up to 10% of the fees. Transactions are expected to range from £5,000 to £100,000, with eCountries counting on commissions to make up at least half of revenues.

Other companies have spotted the potential for business matchmaking via the net. Business.com and Work.com are doing something similar for firms in the US. The two American companies have constructed big directories organised around business topics and plan to place partners' services and news feeds around these databases. But shrewdly, eCountries has its eye on the global market.

With cross-border trade growing, eCountries believes there is plenty of scope for its venture as companies seek out reliable lawyers, accountants and other professionals in the countries in which they are doing business.

Building up a database of service providers from accountancy firms to law firms was tough at first. It took six months to sign up the first supplier, but then momentum built up and eCountries now has about 400 service providers in its database, which covers four areas: legal translation and market research; recruitment; property services and insurance; and financial services. When a client posts a request on the site, it will get, at the very least, a global and a regional player in the specified sector.

Great care is taken to vet the companies for marketplace. Of the 400 Russian companies suggested for eCountries's marketplace, only 50 survived the cull. In the most important part of the vetting process, a candidate who wishes to be included has to provide references from three companies with which it has done business.

Clients "are entering a walled garden for vetted suppliers," said Smith, who sold a broadcast monitoring business to Pearson in 1995 for £4m and then went on to run the company's FT.com subsidiary. Schmidt, meanwhile, founded Asia Intelligence Wire and ran the Asian division of the Financial Times.

eCountries expects to break even by 2002. Investors like the look of the top team, which includes Michael Elliott, the editor-in-chief, who jumped ship as international editor of Newsweek to get involved. He had no qualms about joining the new venture.

"I'd become more and more thrilled by the possibilities of the net," he said, "Especially by its ability to be a global distribution mechanism for international news and information and I thought, 'If I don't make the leap into something new now, I never will.' I'm having a blast."

eCountries has undoubtedly hit upon a good idea. The dual keys to success will be the thoroughness of its vetting process to keep out less-than-reputable companies and of course, whether people use the service.

It could be cheaper and easier to conduct searches on the net and call up a few local companies, though there is no guaranteed safety net like with eCountries. If companies want their hand held as they strike out into new markets, eCountries could be their guide.

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