Ortra Inc. (Makko Oko)

Ortra Inc.

Type	Public Company
Industry	Internet Online services
Founded	July 10, 1995 (1995-07-10)
Founder	Dimitry Asalov
Area served	Makko Oko
Website	ortrainc.mk

Ortra Inc., known as Ortra simply, is a publicly-owned, state-authorized, technology company in the Empire of Makko Oko focusing on providing digital services that benefit the public. Ortra provides many services including Ortra Search, Ortra Money and Ortra Box. Ortra Inc. was founded by Dimitry Asalov on July 10th, 1995 after years of being an internal military-only database search system which would become Ortra Search. Ortra is the default search engine selected for use with the Ortra Browser and is built into the government-built Sun OS. It is also the provider of the world's only search engine in Makuri.

Etymology

The name "Ortra" is Makuri for "In Space", which is a reference to everything in space is now within reach.

History

Before 1995: Military Database Search System

Ortra was originally named the Internal Defense Network, or IDN. It was established in early 1991 with the scaling deployment and growth of the military forces as a way to quickly track the whereabouts of people and update information instantly. At the time, the Department of Defense used foreign-built computers as the internet was not around in Makko Oko yet and would not be for several years. The IDN started development in early March 1990, months before the establishment of the Republic. The concept was the idea of Lieutenant General Floyd Baird, who told the soon-to-be President Julius Knudsen in February 1990: "One must have automaton in the defense of what we as a people are prideful of. The network is a concept tried everywhere; now we expand that here, and trust ourselves."

1994-1995: The Privatization Of The System, Launch Of Ortra Search

In 1994, a year after the founding of Stanford Cellular, talks began on an idea to privatize the IDN, not only due to high maintenance costs but also due to the need for a native search engine for public websites. Defense Secretary Bonnie Jeffers said in meetings on the matter: "Google will never cater to our people. That is our job as a government, and we need to let the economy manage that ideal." On March 22nd, 1994, the Department of Defense announced the selling of the IDN and all patents etc. tied to it. There were no interested buyers until September 5th, 1994, when a soldier by the name of Dimitry Asalov within the deeply-rooted Asalov Family pitched a SLO$90M buyout, which the military relunctantly accepted on October 5th, 1994 after no other buyers showed their interest.

The sale was made official a month later on November 5th, 1994, and Dimitry immediately got to work, hiring many foreign programmers to assist in converting the IDN over to a public and easy to use search engine for the web. On February 11th, 1995, a public demo of the "Internet Searcher" was made available at internetsearcher.mk after the .mk TLD was formed just a month prior. In April, the name was announced as "Ortra Search" with a slated availability of June 1995. The launch ended up being delayed by a month due to bureaucratic issues with forming the company, however on July 1st, 1995, it finally launched, with the company launched 10 days later on July 10th.

1996-2000: Growth & Introduction of Surgaan

Ortra Search being the first accessible search platform in Makko Oko made it an instant hit, before 1997 when Makko Oko would finally be connected to the outside internet however that did not hamper growth as Ortra Search was the only one at the time available in Makuri, the nation's native tongue. In 1998 it was evident that the internet would become a new daily part of our lives with new things being invented every day, and so Ortra Founder and CEO Dimitry Asalov announced Ortra Surgaan, which was the world's first image searcher. At the time, privacy advocates worried about the potential to stalk people using it, and government interests worried about national security implications however Dimitry agreed to reduce the effectiveness of the engine and restrict its usage against certain types of photos, which was a technological first.

In June 1998, Ortra introduced advertisements to raise revenue and become profitable and it quickly became a moneymaker. Originally advertisements were introduced on just the start page of Ortra Search as a demo, before being expanded into the search results and by 2000, ads prior to being taken to your requested page. Ortra Surgaan would no longer be ad-free starting in February 1999.

Products & Services

Online Services:

• Ortra Surgaan - An extension of Ortra Search, it allows users to search for photos and find the originating location of any uploaded photo
• Ortra Search - Allows users to find websites, news and other assortments that are located at URL's on the internet. Available in English and Makuri.
• Ortra Videos - Allows users to upload videos that are of 1 hour in duration or less, broadcast livestreams, and to find videos hosted on other platforms. Service provided in English only.
• Ortra Box - Provides users with a @box.mail or @ortra.net.mk email address. Service provided in English and Makuri. Optional addons include storage.
• Ortra Money - Provides users with a secure way to pay in-person using their phone, and is a payment system that merchants can implement online. Service provided in English and Makuri.
• Ortra Intelligence - For government use only, it provides users with customizable database solutions for storing anything from military records to terrorism intelligence. Service provided in English and Makuri.
• Ortra+ - Allows users to communicate with other users and network. It is a social media platform funded by an experiment of the government, which turned out to be successful. Service provided in Makuri only.

Products:

• Ven - A mixed-source mobile operating system developed by Ortra.