Friday, January 21, 2011

Livlis: Twitter-Based Barter Service

It’s no secret anymore that Japan loves Twitter, and as such, there’s a whole bunch of Twitter-based services coming out of Japan. One of these is a new site called Livlis, which lets users list up stuff they are willing to give away (computers, books, cell phones and other things).

Other users can indicate their interest in items by clicking the “I want this!” or “Like” buttons placed below every offer. It’s also possible to indicate which items you own or you would like to get from other Livlis users (who can then contact you about them).

Users log in with their Twitter accounts and (needless to say) can tweet out just about anything they do or find on the site to their followers.

Here are four items currently listed on Livlis:

This screen shot shows a deal that’s already over:

As Livlis is created as a barter service, the main bullet point here is the absence of money and the reliance on trust among the members. Much like the remotely similar service Sharemo, Livlis is based on a point system: users “pay” for items by using points (which they can collect by listing up items, inviting other members to join the site, etc.)

Launched last month, Livlis is free to use. The service requires an invitation, but it’s possible to browse the (many) items listed without being logged in.


Link to full article

Intuit Launches txtWeb – SMS Platform for Mobile App Developers

Intuit is localizing its product suite for the Indian market and while the company earlier launched GoConnect (in partnership with Nokia), txtWeb is a dynamic content publishing and service creation platform for making information and services available via SMS for FREE”

Think of it as a WWW for sms world, the technology which is present in 700 million subscribers. txtWeb enables app developers to build sms based apps  and as of now, there are close to 400 apps already present in the service.

The txtWeb platform is language agnostic and provides SMS-HTTP (back and forth) transformation.

As far as consumer facing side is concerned,  the access number for India is 92433 42000. You can try a few of the services by sending the following keywords as an SMS to 92433 42000:

  • @cricbuzz : to get cricket scores
  • @WIKIPEDIA <search term> – example @wikipedia SMS: to access the write up on SMS on Wikipedia
  • @stocktip  <stockname> to get stock analysis and quotes (example @stocktip HDFC)

You can also SMS anything without the “@” sign, in which case it will default to search and provide you a list of relevant apps.

Video:  Overview of txtWeb platform:

Video:  Deploying txtWeb application:

What’s your take on txtWeb app platform? As an app developer, where do you rank SMS based platforms?

Such services are mostly related to informational category, though Indians are high on entertainment. How monetizable are these platforms?

Related: 90 billion SMSes were exchanged in India on airtel last year.


Link to full article

Say Media To Sell Six Apart Japan And The Brand To Infocom

Six Apart Japan, a 100% subsidiary of Say Media, who bought a blog service company Six Apart (U.S.) in September 2010, announced [J] that the whole stock of the company will be sold from Say Media to a Japanese company Infocom soon.

According to the announcement, Six Apart Japan takes the “Six Apart” trademark, keeps its Japanese site sixapart.jp and the original English site sixapart.com.

Their blog application Movable Type will be handed over to Six Apart Japan. Six Apart Japan will provide the application and its support to worldwide.

TypePad stays in Say Media and Six Apart Japan becomes the local distributor for TypePad Pro. TypePad Micro is directly served by Say Media to Japanese users.


Link to full article

Web Wednesday – Facebook and Location Based Marketing – Jan 26

webwednesdaysingapore-logoThis next Web Wednesday will feature Stephen Chun and David Yang from Facebook Asia. They will be sharing some insights with us on some of the things they are doing locally in Southeast Asia. Their talk will focus on Location Based Marketing and the role of Brands in Social Media.




About The Speakers


Stephen has been with Facebook in Singapore since the middle of 2010 and was previously the VP at McCann Worldwide responsible for the Intel APAC Digital relationship. His experience includes McCann Erickson, MRM and Ogilvy.


David has also been with Facebook since the middle of last year and was previously the VP, Business Development at Friendster and has strong experience at MTV and Seagate.


Event Details


When: Wednesday 26th January 2011
Time: 630pm-9pm
Where: Beer Market, Clarke Quay, The Foundry, #02-02


If you’re looking for a real-time Q&A solution for your event, check out PigeonHole Live. The team at PigeonHole has kindly agreed to allow event organisers who quote SGEntrepreneurs to get to use their solution for free till end June 2011.


Link to full article

Events For The Week – 22-29 Jan

Latest Entrepreneurial Events in SingaporeFor 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.


Sat, 22nd Jan:


(1) Mobile Alliance AppVenture – Open World Engine Workshop


Thurs-Sat, 20-22nd Jan:


(1) [India] Click Asia Summit 2011


Wed, 26th Jan:


(1) IDA Industry Briefing for Infocomm Enterprises- Winning Strategies in a Global Marketplace


(2) Get A Chance To Present At Founders Drinks v2.0


(3) Web Wednesday – Facebook and Location Based Marketing


Thurs, 27th Jan:


(1) Bring your laptop – First taste of Drupal 7


(2) Chillin’ With Start-Up Chile (Check out pictures from our previous sessions with Marc P Bernegger, co-founder of Amiando (here) and Wilson Fong, Business Development Director of Threadless (here).)


Fri, 28th Jan:


(1) Buzzcity Developer Garage


(2) Strategy for Growth through International Market


If you’re looking for a real-time Q&A solution for your event, check out PigeonHole Live. The team at PigeonHole has kindly agreed to allow event organisers who quote SGEntrepreneurs to get to use their solution for free till end June 2011.


Image courtesy of joyosity.


Link to full article

Facebook Co-founder Eduardo Saverin Leads Investment In Qwiki

Singapore-based Facebook co-founder, Eduardo Saverin has led a Series A USD 8 million (SGD 10.2 million) investment round into US-based startup Qwiki. This follows its previous seed round of USD 1.5 million (SGD 1.9 million) Qwiki’s goal is “to deliver information in a format that’s quintessentially human – via storytelling instead of search.”


Link to full article