CREATING A VIRTUAL MARKETPLACE.

LATIN AMERICA AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB ARE AS HOT AS RICKY Martin's mug. And Thomas Lin is the latest Latin bricks-and-mortar executive to jump on the Internet bandwagon.

Lin is the director of development at Infolatina, a Mexican version of the popular U.S. online database Lexis-Nexis (www.infolatina.com.mx). For roughly US$2,000 a year, Infolatina allows its clients unlimited access to its database, which includes more than 300 business, financial, legal and government sources.

The data is culled mainly from major newspapers and magazines such as Reforma, El Financiero, El Economista, Expansion, Proceso and Business Mexico (as well as LATIN TRADE). But Infolatina also provides financial data from the Mexican Stock Exchange and regulatory information from government agencies and publication. The service now has 250 clients, which are typically corporations, law firms, government agencies and news organizations.

The 36-year-old Lin was previously director of strategic planning for Grupo Elektra, a chain of Mexican electronics and furniture stores owned by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas. Lin is credited with developing a wire-transfer business with Western Union and expanding customer credit programs.

In 1996, he quit Elektra to work as an independent business consultant and create his own Internet company. His chance to work in cyberspace came last year after a meeting with Jesse Devlyn, co-owner of a Mexican version of Lens Crafters and Lin's former classmate at Tulane University's business school.

Lin asked his old school chum for advise on setting up an Internet company and how to overcome such common e-commerce problems in Latin America as lack of credit cards and security, the threat of devaluation and poor telephone service, Devlyn was impressed by his friend's business acumen and hired him to help develop his three-year-old sideline venture, Infolatina.

At present, Lin is devising a plan to create an e-business website in which companies sell products to other companies over the Internet, eliminating the middleman. While mum on details, he hopes to have the new site up and running by the end of March. "It may be a separate [website] and it may use Infolatina resources," he says.

In Latin America, there is an ever-growing community of e-commerce companies, including portals such as StarMedia.com and Yupi.com and e-trading companies like Patagon.com. But no regional Internet firm has yet to put together a full-fledged business-to-business website. Lin hopes to be the first and is currently looking for financial backers. "We can't find anybody doing what we are thinking of doing," he says. Stay tuned.