Printo Story–Listen. Listen More. But Do What You Want

At UnPluGGd, we work hard to bring some of the most candid and amazing entrepreneurs to our audience and we were glad to have Manish Sharma of Printo sharing his story in the most UnPluGGd format.

Printo is a branded retail chain that provides digital printing services like posters, visiting cards, certificates etc. The company was started in 2005 and now boasts of 16 chains in Bangalore and is now expanding in other cities.

Manish Sharma, the founder has an interesting journey. He is a software engineer by profession – was 12th employee of Rediff, started one of the earliest Internet services firm in India (in 1995) called DBSIS.
Post DBSIS acquisition, Manish moved to US, worked on AI based learning and extraction engine startup (Late Prof. Rajeev Motwani was his advisor) which didn’t do so well. Later on, he went to Oxford University for MBA, worked for a company and moved to India to start a retail business, about which he had no idea of.

Here is Manish @UnPluGGd.

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Where is Indian Media Headed in the Next Five Years? [Your Views]

So, what’s your take? Where is the media headed, tell me? Comments below, thou enlightened souls!

Recently I asked this question to many guys in print, television and of course in the blogosphere as well. I asked it to myself. There were definitive answers from everyone, almost swear, but very little convergence. Print said it is doing extremely well, televisions felt its popularity soared like never before (a new channel is launched, guess in how many weeks?) and the new media – like us – feels the pulse getting stronger by the day too.

The question is who among us is lying?

I mean not lying in terms of news quality, but w.r.t the eyeballs. And then are we close to a conclusive analysis yet? May be yes, may be not. Read on.

Here are some glimpses from the latest Comscore reports:

We kissed Business Standard for the first time this week, and are intertwining with Mint (livemint.com) for more than 14 weeks! All this by plain reporting on new and young startups? Talking about technology that evolves from the trenches and there needs to be someone to reflect that? I mean come on, guys we are a startup too! We just did the #unpluggd2 a week back.

Now before I miss the point, and continue with the post, let me invite our friendly neighborhood advertisers to grab a space on us. We do provide a very targeted audience, and the numbers don’t lie, eh?

So where is the media headed, I ask you again? Let me simplify the call first. The traditional consists of print, television and perhaps the radio. They hire a 1000 plus army to collect the news, edit, package and deliver. There are tonnes of utilities that sit around the core brand to do the dirt – ad agencies, delivery boys on cycles, freelance reporters, PR agencies, satellite communication leasing, real estate providers, legal consultants, maintenance teams, operations teams etc. etc. etc.

Compare this with a blog: Just twenty people with a completely hosted online solution and sitting right next to news. The Internet provides the new media with special accessories like YouTube, Slideshare, Twitter etc. to bring out the effects. The only challenge is to earn credibility. Which again is something to come by, if the blog runs with a clear goal, honesty and discipline.

Print says, it is going very strong and when it comes to English dailies there isn’t much space for more competition. I accept it or perhaps believe that there can’t be better yield – money – for them. When I touched a nerve by saying that print is going to shrink very soon, bang came there a flat response: “India is NOT USA… We still earn the highest ad rates in the industry“. Sure, why not man, but how much do your advertisers get by spending a Ferrari?

Television media counts on the freshness of news that they broadcast. “No form of digital media or print infrastructure can match the speed at which TV’s deliver the news at your doorstep” said a friend of mine. Music, sensationally edited news, SOAPS and small bits of news in between. But hey, hey, hey. Did you look at TechCrunchTV using the web? If you guys don’t believe me yet, media is gonna evolve (most die, some cross-over ) in a big way.

I am sure each one of us has a respectful place in the industry, yet we bloggers keep growing by the day. And never to date, we have covered general news like politics or Bollywood like our friends do alongside business reporting. Our website doesn’t even have listed shares of the BSE/NSE! Our traffic now sit closer to print or television media websites than ever before. And yes we are talking about India, only.

So where is the media headed, dear readers of Pi? What do you think is the future of ‘new media’ in India?

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EyesAndFeet–Helping Local Businesses Understand Social Media

Foursquare. Facebook. Twitter. Yelp. Groupon.
Well, the list goes on and local businesses in US certainly need a tool to understand social media in their own language.

EyesAndFeet, a Chennai based startup is targeting the local businesses in US, especially the restaurant category.

The product has two key modules – See and Do.

‘See’ module enables a business to understand what the competition is doing (in Facebook/Twitter etc) and enables a business to drill down to category/city specific data.

‘Do’ module helps a business to get social and push updates to selected social media channels like Facebook/Twitter/Yelp/Groupon and Foursquare.

Why is the company focusing on US businesses (and not Indian)? Well, the founder, Lakshamanan Narayanan earlier was cofounder of Vembu.com and has substantial experience selling in US (and ofcourse he believes in making dollars over rupees, as he replied to a similar question during UnPluGGd ).

Monetization ofcourse will follow the freemium model (mium part being driven by value-added services).

[EyesAndFeet was one of the top startups demoed at UnPluGGd]

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Jiepang, the Leading Chinese Check-in Service Announces the Partnership with Starbucks

You would not agree that Starbucks could serve you the best coffee of the world, but definitely it is one of the best cafe shop embracing some new ideas, e.g. social media. With the partnership with Foursquare in U.S. , yesterday, together with Jiepang, the leading Chinese check-in service, Starbucks (Shanghai) announced an interesting campaign, Check-in your Chrismas at Starbucks.

Started from 9th November till 23rd December, all Jiepang’s users who check-in at any Starbucks cafe in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces would be awarded a virtual Starbucks badge and the opportunities to win a set of limited edition Starbucks Xmas Crystal Ball. If lucky enough, the check-in users could also win HTC phones and Starbucks 2010 laptops. According to the Digital Marketing director of Starbucks Shanghai, 189 Starbucks (~40% of Starbucks in total) in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces will participate this campaign, which is expected to boost the check-in market in China.

Jiepang, a startup launched at 13rd, May this year and driven by a young and passionate post-80s team, has quickly became the leading location-based service in China. Although Jiepang is still small with around 150k users and 1,500-2,000 new users per day (according to David Liu, CEO of Jiepang), it has built up good partnership with cool brands like Nike, HP, HTC etc and is very active in various events such as music festivals to provide check-in service.

With no exception, in China, Jiepang is facing a tough competition from a couple of Foursquare-likers including e.g. RenRen the leading social network, Dianpin the very popular Yelp-like service and startups like Play4f, K.ai, Linxun etc. So how to stand out in the crowded market, David said, Jiepang would focus on location-centric social networking. It positions itself as a tool for social communications, not just a game for fun; it is not to compete with other social networks or yelp-like service, instead, it could be the best and more efficient tool to synchronize people’s real life with their virtual social networks with better and cool location-awareness.

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A Performance Guide on Singapore’s Groupon Clones Scene – Part 2 of 2

Following the boiling hot Groupon Clones scene in Singapore, Southeast Asia deal aggregator, All Deals Asia, started collecting data since August 2010. They are now tracking 15 daily deal sites in Singapore.

This Part 2 article is the concluding piece to the previous part about the performance of daily deal companies in Singapore.

Below, you can find an updated Performance Chart and a ranking review of the various companies.

Updated Performance Chart as at 26 Oct 2010. Click to enlarge.

Daily Deal Companies Ranking. Click to enlarge.

This article was contributed by Yiseng Chan from AllDealsAsia and was originally published on their DealPulse blog. It has been republished with permission.

Image credit: adactio

Related posts:

1. A Performance Guide on Singapore’s Groupon Clones Scene – Part 1 of 2
2. TWIA #56: Attack of The Groupon Clones
3. Feed Your Laziness With Daily Deal Aggregator AllDealsAsia

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Events For The Week – 6-13 Nov

For a one-stop to all events related to or concerning entrepreneurship, certain industry-meets-business forums and seminars in Singapore, check out our Calendar. If not, you can also follow our bite-size updated posts for upcoming events for the week.

Events range from simple get-togethers to full-blown conferences. Get to meet fellow developers, entrepreneurs, startup CEOs & founders, and meet & learn from CEOs of established companies who have seen it all.

Our aim here at SGE is to make it easy for you to pick & choose from the event buffet. Enjoy.

Here are the events for this week. Events are mostly in Singapore (generally 30 minutes drive from anywhere), but we also include key events from around Southeast Asia and beyond.

Tues, 9th Nov:

(1) SiTF Social Media Workshop

Wed, 10th Nov:

(1) “Change by Design” By Tim Brown of IDEO

Image courtesy of joyosity.

Related posts:

1. Events For The Week – 13-20 Feb
2. Events For The Week – 23-30 Oct
3. Events For The Week – 4-11 Sep

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Mig33 goes after Indonesia, gaming, with $8.9 mil in new funds

Mig33, the mobile social networking platform, announced today a new round of US$8.9 million in funding from Japan’s GREE and Indonesian mobile phone entrepreneur Sugiono Wiyono. Existing investors Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and DCM also participated in the round.

GREE is a Japanese casual gaming platform while Wiyono runs Trikomsel, one of Indonesia’s largest handset distributors, with over 800 retail outlets under the Okeshop brand.

“Indonesia and India are a priority for Mig33 in 2011,” Mig33′s press contact, Timothy Johnson, told us in an e-mail.

Johnson also alluded to the fact that the investment was a departure for GREE, which didn’t usually invest internationally, and the “acquisitive” nature of some Valley firms.

“This is one of GREE’s first commitments outside of Japan.  This is significant give (sic) that the Chinese have mixed success (QQ/Naspers), and some of the Silicon Valley companies are acquisitive,” he e-mailed.

The GREE and Wiyono investments are clearly strategic moves for Mig33. Casual games driven by GREE could be a significant revenue driver for Mig33. Meanwhile, working with the extensive Okeshop retail network gives Mig33 a direct way to reach Indonesia’s roughly 170 million mobile phone users. Here’s some good analysis on the funding round at Inside Social Gaming.

Mig33 has raised US$34 million since its launch in 2005. It moved its offices from the US to Singapore to be closer to its user base in India, Indonesia, South Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.

Here’s the complete release:

Mobile Social Networking Service mig33
Closes $8.9 Million in Series C Funding

Singapore  – Nov. 8, 2010 — mig33, the world’s largest mobile-first community, today announced it has received $8.9 million in Series C funding.

The funding is designed to boost mig33’s expansive growth as the leading mobile social entertainment service in emerging mobile-first markets and to further develop its unique monetisation channel.

The Series C round was led by Indonesia telecom entrepreneur Pak Sugiono Wiyono and GREE Inc., Japan’s leading social networking service.  The round was supported by mig33’s existing institutional investors Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and DCM.

mig33 is modeled on successful East Asian social networking services such as Japan’s GREE and China’s Tencent QQ, valued at USD$2.5 billion and $43 billion, respectively.  However, mig33 differentiates by bringing mobile community and entertainment to billions of consumers residing in the emerging, mobile-first markets of Indonesia, India, South Africa, and many more.

“mig33’s goal is to replicate the East Asian Social Networking Service model to the rest of the world,” said Steven Goh CEO and co-founder of mig33.  “The partnerships we’ve established today will be strategic in helping us consolidate our lead in emerging Asia, as we tap these big, underserved markets.”

This Series C funding brings mig33’s funding to more than $34 million since its 2005 launch.  mig33 received a $10 million Series A round in May 2007 from Accel and Redpoint. It closed a $13.5 million Series B round in January 2008, led by DCM and joined by Accel and Redpoint.

About Sugiono Wiyono
Sugiono Wiyono Sugialam, 48, is an Indonesian entrepreneur with ties to leading Indonesian companies in telecommunication products and distribution, including cellular phones, operator products (such as pre-paid SIM cards, starter packs and top-up vouchers) as well as mobile content and accessories. They manage and operate close to 800 retail outlets under the OkeShop brand across 153 cities and have business relationships with close to 12,000 dealers throughout Indonesia. Sugiono is well recognized in the telecommunication industry with more than 15 years of experience, and he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2008, in the category of Services Entrepreneur.

About GREE, Inc.
GREE is the largest social networking service provider in Japan with approximately 22 million users. GREE is also a leading social game developer with more than three years’ experience in Japan; the world’s leading market for mobile social games.  The Revenue for the Fiscal Year 2010 was more than $433 million and the current market capitalization is approximately $2.5 billion.

About mig33
mig33 is the world’s largest mobile-first community, delivering communications and social entertainment to more than 40 million members. Everyday, members in over 200 countries engage in chat, share photos, join groups, send gifts, play games, create avatars, call friends, email and much more. The service is available worldwide and optimized for more than 2,000 handsets. Launched in 2005, mig33 is backed by Silicon Valley venture firms Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and DCM. For more information, please visit www.mig33.com.

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The Social Network Movie Releasing in India this week. Will you ‘Like’ it?

Geeks. Entrepreneurs. Mark Zuckerberg.

Well, ‘The Social Network’ movie is all set for release in India this week, i.. November 12th. The Social Network movie, as we all know is about Facebook and most importantly, the geek behind the company, i.e. Mark Zuckerberg.

The film, directed by David Fincher (who earlier directed Seven, Fight Club and Zodia) and written by Aaron Sorkin, stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and how he created a ‘website’ on the lines of HotorNot, and eventually Facebook.What’s interesting is that on the same day,  5 Bollywood movies will also be released – Allah ke Banday, Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun, Diwangi Ne Had Kar Di, A Flat and Ramaa – The Saviour.

Will Indian geeks ‘Like’ Facebook more than the other movies? What’s your take? Do you expect this to be a super hit?

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Business Model 101: Making the most of the free users

To round off the discussion on Freemium, it’s interesting to understand how the free users can tilt the business model favorably. The discussion so far has been on base-case Freemium where the free users add costs to the business. However, there are several scenarios where the free users can help make Freemium more viable than the base case.

Virality: The most obvious way in which free users can tip economics favorably for a Freemium business is by promoting the product virally. This is also one of the main reasons one would want to go Freemium because apart from allowing users to try the product before deciding about buying, it also helps in generating positive buzz about the product. Virality, if it kicks off well, helps bring down the cost of customer acquisition substantially making the Freemium business a lot more viable. It is interesting to note that, very often, Freemium businesses that shut down prematurely are also the ones that were just pushing traffic to their site without ever hitting true virality.

Monetizing the free users: The other key model of using the free users to tip economics favorably is to monetize them. After all, you have the audience, why not make some money. One of the most common ways of doing it is to push an advertising-intensive interface to the free users, often frustrating them to a point where the clean non-cluttered interface of the Premium version is actually one of the attractive features worth paying the premium for.

Data as an asset: If the product captures real-world user data (spend, interests etc.), free users also provide the volume that can make this data interesting from an analytics perspective to run the right lead-gen campaigns or just create macro-level market customer intelligence for third party consumption.

Of course, the free users help in other ways as well:

1. In Freemium with network effects (e.g. LinkedIn), the free users make the community valuable for the paid users (e.g. premium recruiters) in the first place and the model cannot survive without free users.

2. Free uses provide great data to help optimize the product and improve paid uptake over time since an ongoing free user base provides more usage patterns than a 30-day free trial user base ever will.

Finally, one of the spaces I am yet to see Freemium work well is the content business. Looking at companies like Imeem, the cost of giving licensed content to free users is far beyond whatever the service can make out of the paying users, landing the companies in large amounts of debt. Newspapers have seen low uptake when exposing part of the article for free and hoping for users to pay a standard premium user fee for full access. Perhaps micropayments, in a manner similar to song-by-song sales of iTunes, will make article-by-article unlocking as the standard of the newspaper industry someday, perhaps not, but that’s another discussion.

Author: Sangeet Paul Choudary

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