YTL Comms launches big new ad campaign

The newest player in Malaysia’s mobile internet scene, YTL Communications, kicked off a huge advertising campaign to promote their ’4G’ network on Nov 8. The firm’s ad agency for the campaign, BBH Asia Pacific, said it is the biggest account win by value in Southeast Asia this year. BBH won the account in May.

When asked, BBH Asia Pacific wouldn’t say how much the account was worth, saying only that YTL Communications has earmarked about US$800,000 for the entire ’4G’ rollout, including marketing and advertising.

The campaign, called ‘YES’, starts with a series of 10 television spots directed by award-winning Singaporean filmmaker Royston Tan (watch them here). The films show Malaysians from diverse backgrounds experiencing a positive moment captured in extra-slow motion of up to 1,000 frames per second.

One of YTL Communication’s marketing exercises for its ’4G’ rollout, the Myprize Global Developer Challenge, has been criticized by Malaysian developers. Several developers, like prominent developer and blogger Nazrul Kamaruddin, questioned the company’s sincerity in running the contest at a forum with company executives at the Open Web Asia event in Kuala Lumpur in August.

YTL Communications has also courted controversy for using the term ’4G’ in describing their service, when in fact Wimax may be the correct term. The company is competing with P1 Networks, which is offering a similar service.

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iWeekend Coming to Beijing at 19th Nov

iWeekend is an intensive and innovative experience that brings together talented entrepreneurs and professionals of different profiles to select 3 ideas and bring these ideas to reality by collaboratively developing a business plan and a prototype, all in one weekend.

Although I do think it would not be easy to organize an event like iWeekend because it’s so different from other startups event where people just need come to talk. Still, I really love the idea behind it. A good startup is initiated by a good idea, a successful startup is executed by a good team. However, for people who has the idea and want to do a startup, usually what stops them grow the idea is they can not find the team. As iWeekend organizers believe, there is no better way to network and meet other restless minds than by working with them side by side for two full days.

Also reads from iWeekend’s official site, the mission of iWeekend is to

1. Promote the culture of entrepreneurship in new technologies
2. Foster a practical methodology of knowledge sharing and learning-by-doing, and
3. Help talented entrepreneurs to get started in 2 days flat

So if you are or want to be entrepreneurs (Note: English is the preferred language in the event, which I hope it can change it next time.), and wish to meet professionals and freelancers who may take on the challenge and collaborate in your project, iWeekend sounds the ideal event you may consider to go. The dates are 19th Nov – 21st Nov. You can apply for it here.

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SmartPhone Sales Market Share – Symbian Falls, Android Rises

Apple vs. Nokia? Well, add ‘Others’ as well.

Latest report by Gartner suggests the top five mobile handset manufacturers’ combined share has dropped from 83 percent in the third quarter of 2009 to 66.9 percent in the third quarter of 2010. And ‘Others’, i.e. white-box manufacturers from China have moved up the chart from 16.1% in Q3,2009 to 33% in Q3, 2010.

Worldwide Mobile Terminal Sales to End Users in 3Q10 (Thousands of Units)

Company	3Q10 Units	3Q10 Market Share (%)	3Q09 Units	3Q09 Market Share (%)
Nokia	117,461.0	28.2	113,466.2	36.7
Samsung	71,671.8	17.2	60,627.7	19.6
LG	27,478.7	6.6	31,901.4	10.3
Apple	13,484.4	3.2	7,040.4	2.3
Research In Motion	11,908.3	2.9	8,522.7	2.8
Sony Ericsson	10,346.5	2.5	13,409.5	4.3
Motorola	8,961.4	2.1	13,912.8	4.5
HTC	6,494.3	1.6	2,659.5	0.9
ZTE	6,003.6	1.4	4,143.7	1.3
Huawei Technologies	5,478.1	1.3	3,339.7	1.1
Others	137,797.6	33.0	49,871.1	16.1
Total	417,085.7	100.0	308,894.7	100.0

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q10

Company	3Q10 Units	3Q10 Market Share (%)	3Q09 Units	3Q09 Market Share (%)
Symbian	29,480.1	36.6	18,314.8	44.6
Android	20,500.0	25.5	1,424.5	3.5
iOS	13,484.4	16.7	7,040.4	17.1
Research In Motion	11,908.3	14.8	8,522.7	20.7
Microsoft Windows Mobile	2,247.9	2.8	3,259.9	7.9
Linux	1,697.1	2.1	1,918.5	4.7
Other OS	1,214.8	1.5	612.5	1.5
Total	80,532.6	100.0	41,093.3	100.0

Symbian is falling steadily and Android jumped from 3.5% to 25.5%. What remains to be seen is whether Android can take over iOS in terms of developer’s choice.

For 2010, Gartner now expects overall devices sales to show over 30 percent year-on-year growth fueled by white-box manufacturers. The impact of media tablets on mobile device sales will be tested in 2011. Gartner forecasts that media tablets (such as the Apple iPad) will reach 54.8 million units in 2011.

If you look at Indian market, Nokia’s market share in India continues to fall and expect a significant blow when Micromax (and others) start launching Android phones.

Recommended Read :

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Plug-n-Play Startup Office For Rent In Mumbai [Sponsored]

[Sponsored post by Sutralite team that is looking to rent out office space from their own 40 seater office to startups/SMEs.]

Imagine this – vibrant colours on the wall, designer modular workstations, full length windows overlooking skyscraper skyline and a huge terrace lounge to de-stress your worries.
That’s the SutraLite (www.sutralite.com) office. We’re a Mumbai based startup, and we’ve got spare work stations/office rooms to rent out – here are the details.

Location Features of the Place

• located in the heart of suburbs, Andheri-lokhandwala area, making it accessible via Bus Depot (3 mins), Jogeshwari/Andheri Stn (10/15 mins), Airport (30 mins).
• The building houses companies other major business offices, and also a high-end restaurant on the ground floor.
• Walking distance surroundings include malls (Mega, Infinity & Citi), best restaurants (close to 30 of them), and corporate offices.
• The office is on the 6th floor of a commercial building with fantastic views of the andheri skyline.

 

Workstation

Each workstation consists of

• Maple wood desks
• CPU trolley
• 4 plug points
• grey softboard
• comfortable adjustable chairs.
• Ample storage space

 

Ready-to-use Office Features

The professionally designed ready-to-use office features:

• Waiting area
• Fully furnished, wooden-floored conference room with big writing board and several bean bags
• Fully functional Pantry with fridge, microwave, water cooler, sink, etc.
• 600 Sqft Private Terrace for recreation purpose, with designer cane furniture, and comfortable bean bags
• High speed wireless internet connectivity
• Daily office cleaning services
• Split AC
• Free tea/coffee and Mineral water [more pictures]

Price/Details

Each seat will cost Rs.5000 per month (incl. of all above features).  Minimum of 3 months rent in advance and 1 month rent as deposit, both are refundable if unused.

The above facility is ideal for startups or small/medium companies who want to use a small office consisting of 1-5 people. If you wish to rent an entire 8-10 seater room for yourself, we can work out some good deals as well.

To discuss this in detail, you can email Jay [at] sutralite.com (or call 9221 526 099 / 9833 59 2727).

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Myntra Raises $14mn in Series B Round

Myntra raised $5mn from IDG, NEA-IUV and Accel Partners in 2008 and the Bangalore based startup has raised Series B round of $14mn.

Post Series A, Myntra took the offline route and established their presence in retail malls and also launched brand stores for corporate houses.

The retail gifting plus custom tee market has seen immense growth in the last 3 years and Myntra is one of the early players in this space. But as any successful Internet venture (in India), the real monetization will come from offline medium and that’s where Myntra (and other players in this space) is focusing on.

At $14mn round, what do you think is the company valuation?

PS: We will update this article once we have the details of investors participated in this round (apart from Accel Partners).

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eTechies, Managed IT Helpdesk for SMB and Consumer Secures Angel Investment

There surely is need for managed IT helpdesk & technology support for SMB plus consumer segment in India and eTechies.in, a Delhi based startup has announced their first round of funding today.

While the SMBs so far had to rely upon the services under the aegis of annual maintenance contracts (AMC), without the surety of timely professional services, eTechies.in brings cost effective professional services for full IT end-to-end service and support in Delhi and NCR. For SMBs, where manpower cost is a major hindrance towards setting-up efficient internal IT teams, eTechies.in steps-in to provide holistic and customised IT solutions. With certified trained engineers, eTechies.in will attend and help resolve problems within stipulated enterprise class SLAs, never before experienced.

Annual Maintenance Contract vs. ETechies

If you look at the IT cost of SMB segment, almost a half goes in procuring PCs/Laptops and networking solutions and almost 20% goes towards servers, printers and peripherals – a branded support/service surely has a huge growth opportunity in India.

eTechies.in already have both online & feet-on-the-street service teams covering entire Delhi NCR region and is on plan to establish a pan-India presence by the end of next fiscal. The company has raised investment from Rajan Anandan, former Managing Director of Microsoft India and Country General Manager of Dell India.

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News Roundup : Reliance’s Big Net Radio (Talk Internet Radio), Rediff Acquires VuBites

Anil Ambani’s  Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL) has launched India’s first Talk Internet Radio, BIG Net Radio enabling users to listen to radio channels over Internet (no music channels though). Currently, the radio offers three channels – humour, celebrity and devotional.

The Internet radio talk is primarily aimed at netizens who have a good broadband connection and a logical extension is the availability to mobile users, once 3G is launched.

Rediff Acquires Founder Ajit Balakrishnan’s Company, VuBites

Rediff has acquired VuBites, a television advertising company started by Ajit Balakrishnan. VuBites enables one to create TV advertising and recommends TV advertising slots and the target segment includes local and small businesses.

Essentially, Vubites brings the power of TV advertising to small and local businesses and offers a suite of three web-based tools that help small businesses to advertise on TV:

• a tool to create TV ads for free,
• a tool to plan and buy TV time to match the geographical and socioeconomic profile of their users a secure delivery system to display these ads at the city and sub-city level.

“The Board of Directors of Rediff.com India Limited (“Rediff”) has proposed by a resolution passed at their meeting held on October 26, 2010 to acquire 100% stake in Vubites India Pvt Ltd (“Vubites” or “the Company”), as a going concern. The total consideration for the purpose of the said acquisition is fixed at Rs.150 Million (USD 3.38 Million)” [SEC filing]

As a company, Rediff has been gung-ho about local market, but if you look at their offering and execution, a lot needs to be achieved. Vubites is a great acquisition only and only if the company can sell their advertising slots at premium and can really reach out to the small business community.

An Emotional Read : Remember Rediff ?

Axel Springer/Bag-it-Today

Germany based Axel Springer has acquired the option of increasing its 19.1 percent investment in the coming years and take over the majority of Bag It Today, an Internet-based lifestyle marketplace from India Today group.

Axel Springer has increased its presence in India with acquisition of Carwale.

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Google Blocking Facebook [PI Cartoons]

Dear Friends of Sid,

Google is complaining about Facebook’s data protectionism. Here is how Sid thinks about the situation!

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