CONFIDENTIAL: GERMAN SATELLITE START-UP RAPIDEYE GATHERING

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INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
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RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1032
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000788 

SENSITIVE 

SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/CE PETER SCHROEDER
STATE FOR ISN/MDSP DICK BUENNEKE 

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: TSPA EINV ETRD PGOV PREL PINR CH BR FR LH GM
SUBJECT: GERMAN SATELLITE START-UP RAPIDEYE GATHERING
CUSTOMERS; EMPHASIS ON CHINESE AND USG MARKETS 

REF: 08 BERLIN 1537 

¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  German satellite imagery provider
RapidEye AG, which began selling its imagery products in
January of this year (see ref A), has established its first
contracts with France and Lithuania.  In the next few years,
RapidEye is confident that its customer base will expand by
ten, with an eye toward markets in China, the US, and Brazil.
 Although the firm originally sought to become a niche
provider of value-added imagery products and analysis, it is
finding that its customers are only interested in raw imagery
data.  This has caused RapidEye to re-focus its business
model to be a provider of data that offers direct satellite
downlink services.  Please see ref A for previous reporting
on RapidEye AG.  END SUMMARY 

FRANCE AND LITHUANIA ARE RAPIDEYE'S FIRST CUSTOMERS
--------------------------------------------- ------ 

¶2.  (SBU) On June 15, 2009, Econoff and NGAoff met with
RapidEye CEO Wolfgang Biedermann and discussed RapidEye's
current and future business developments.  Biedermann said
that RapidEye had contracts with its first customers, France
and Lithuania, totaling one million euros.  Biedermann
boasted that RapidEye had beat the competing French
commercial satellite imagery system, SPOT, on a crop
monitoring project in France.  (COMMENT:  SPOT is a
high-resolution, optical imaging satellite system run by Spot
Image in Toulouse, France.  The SPOT system has been
operational since 1986 with its most recent launch in 2002.
END COMMENT)  Biedermann explained that the main reason why
RapidEye won over SPOT was that RapidEye has a superior
imagery revisit rate, a feature valued by the French customer. 

CUSTOMERS IN THE FOLD: CHINA, BRAZIL AND THE US LEAD THE PACK
--------------------------------------------- ---------------- 

¶3.  (SBU) Biedermann said RapidEye has 10 more customers in
its sights, led by China, Brazil, and the United States.  He
estimated these would bring RapidEye's revenue up to around
10 million euro.  He emphasized that the customers would be
"operational" and not simply "pilot users."  RapidEye views
the sale of land cover data (including purchases by NGA) to
US defense and intelligence agencies to be a key component of
business success in the US market.  To support this goal,
RapidEye plans to set up a small office in Northern Virginia
to serve as a liaison to USG customers.  RapidEye views
Brazil as a large scale potential customer due to its size,
rapid development, and well-organized national use of remote
sensing data. 

CHINA MAY HAVE THE MOST POTENTIAL FOR RAPIDEYE
--------------------------------------------- - 

¶4.  (SBU) China appears to be the focal point of RapidEye's
current marketing strategy, with principal target areas
identified as the Chinese Ministry of Land Management (MLM)
and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA).  Biedermann said
"other" Chinese ministries might require similar coverage,
but that RapidEye will approach each sale independently.
Noting that some Chinese ministries do not coordinate well
with each other, RapidEye envisions selling change-detection
data products to MLM on a nation-wide basis.  Biedermann said
China has three tiered priority areas related to acquiring
remote sensing data for land management: 1) China's rapidly
developing coastal region, 2) Central China, and 3) the
desert and semi-desert terrain of Western China.  For these
areas, Biedermann estimated the average cost per square
kilometer would be between 0.70 and 0.90 euro. 

¶5.  (SBU) RapidEye's primary competition in the Chinese
market is the French SPOT satellite system. Biedermann is
eager to demonstrate the superiority of RapidEye's products
and services to the Chinese customer.  Simply put, RapidEye's 

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goal is to supplant SPOT as the vendor of choice in the
Chinese market. 

RAPID EYE PLUGGED INTO WORLD MARKETS; WAITING FOR CUSTOMERS
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 

¶6.  (SBU) As RapidEye strives to expand its worldwide
customer base, it has already established distribution
contracts covering the US, China, Russia/Eastern Europe, and
Mexico/Central America.  In January 2009, RapidEye announced
an agreement with China's Beijing Earth Observation, Inc.
(BEO) (a subsidiary of Eastdawn Group Inc.) as its Chinese
distributor.  Eastdawn Group CEO, Mr. Bing Sun said RapidEye
has great potential in the Chinese market, especially in the
agricultural, environmental, insurance, and government
sectors.  In February 2009, RapidEye announced an agreement
with the Mexican company Bufete de Ingenieria en
Telecomunicaciones y Sistemas (B.I.T.S.) to be RapidEye's
sole distributor in Mexico and Central America.  In April
2009, RapidEye announced an agreement with the Moscow-based
company Sovzond as its sole distributor for markets in
Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic
of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Krygystan, and
Turkmenistan. 

¶7.  (SBU) Also in April, RapidEye announced an agreement with
the US company MakaLani LLC of Honolulu, Hawaii as its sole
distributor to the US market.  MakaLani LLC, a Native
Hawaiian Organization (NHO), will focus on distribution to
the US Government market, particularly defense, the
intelligence community, and homeland security.  (COMMENT:
RapidEye may have chosen MakaLani LLC based on an earlier USG
recommendation to establish US distribution ties with a
minority-owned or disadvantaged US company in order to be
better positioned to compete for US Government contracts.
END COMMENT) 

RAPID EYE TO OFFER DIRECT DOWNLINK SERVICES
------------------------------------------- 

¶8.  (SBU) RapidEye signed a contract with the Canadian firm,
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), in April
2009, designating MDA as the sole supplier of direct downlink
solutions for RapidEye's international customers seeking
ground segments.  The contract allows international ground
station customers the ability to task, acquire, and process
RapidEye imagery in near real-time.
Koenig