Jun 12, 2011 ~ Web 2.0 Asia Blog

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Are Mobile Apps The New Web And Appstores The New Browsers?

11:32 PM Tech News No comments

In 2010 alone 155 million mobile handsets were sold in India and according to IDC 6 million of them were smartphones. Getjar reports 3 million app downloads per day and Nokia ovi reports 3.5 million app downloads per day. Majority of these app downloads happen from India. All indicators point to the fact that apps are the new way to deliver content on mobile. I would go as far as to say that apps are to mobile what web was to PCs, a door to access services.

So what are mobile apps? Apps are those icons on your mobile handset which allow you to do more with your mobile than just calling and texting. Mobile browser is an app itself. When I started with my company Mobisy, back in 2007, mobile apps were limited in functionality to games and some utility functions such as blocking spam calls / sms. But with the increase of penetration of GPRS and now 3G, apps have become more and more powerful. Hardly any phone sells today without advertising how facebook, twitter or orkut can be accessed via the apps on the mobile. Some of the operators in India today(like Aircel) bank on their app stores to build brand.

Apps drive smartphone choice!!

You may ask, why would users not access web on Mobile using the inbuilt browser? After all, on PCs, browsers are the medium of choice to deliver web apps and content. We have to remember that when user is using his mobile, he is much more intent on doing one activity fast. Mobile browsers do not allow users speed of executions for focused activities such as checking cricket score or changing one’s social networking status or sharing a picture with your friends and family. Apps with their native integration with Phone operating system, give much better user experience than browsers can ever imagine no matter how advanced they become.

How do traditional VAS services delivered over call or SMS stand w.r.t apps? In India traditional VAS services have long become monopoly of few heavyweights in the Industry. The market growth though impressive, it’s hardly been inclusive. Which means a small group of creative developers have hardly any way to bring their innovation to market unless they learn how to navigate a complicated ecosystem of VAS companies and operators. For such group of developers, mobile apps is a god-sent opportunity. Apps allow them to develop and deliver their innovation through largely open “App stores” without depending on operators or handset manufacturers. A relatively low cost in marketing and distribution allows them to focus on innovating and bringing added value to the users.

Apps as a medium are much more powerful than traditional voice or SMS as well. Voice apps are limited by complexity of IVRs where as content delivered over SMS is largely textual and interactivity is very limited. App solves both these problems for content developers by providing them a medium which is interactive at the same time flexible enough to make it extremely easy for users.

Apps by definition are “open” which means if a content provider or developer wishes to develop his/her app , s/he does not have to depend on operators or handset manufacturers to build it’s user base. App stores are the way to do that and they offer very little barrier to entry. Since the cost of failure is so less, it allows a developer to be more creative try out more things till s/he succeeds. We just have to look at the success story of “Angry Birds” application for android / iPhone to see what I mean. Rovio(the company behind Angry birds) tried out 52 applications before they hit on the success formula of Angry birds. App stores also take away complication of payment collection from end users. For a revenue share upto 40% they take away payment collection worries from developers. What’s more, in-app advertising options allow developers to even make their apps free. Which means that users can now access these valuable services at no cost. Almost 99% of all the app downloads that happen from India are of the free apps.

Any iPad user will tell you today how the appstore has changed his/her view of web. For smart phones/tablets, appstores are the default way to discover / browse new content. Traditionally on computer, browsers were that medium so for me, app store is THE browser and apps are THE web when I am mobile.

What do you think?

image courtesy http://xkcd.com

[Guest article by Lalit Bhise, Founder of Mobisy. Reproduced from Lalit’s blog]

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Vaatsalya Healthcare Raises $10mn From Aquarius Capital and Seedfund

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Vaatsalya is a rural healthcare startup that is building and managing hospitals/clinics in semi-urban/rural areas. The company provides primary and secondary healthcare and basic specialties at each hospital (including paediatrics, gynaecology, medicine, surgery and physiotherapy).

Vaatsalya has raised $10mn in a round led by Singapore-based Aquarius India Fund and Seedfund. The company will use the funds to create a pan-India network of hospitals. SN Subramanya and Vamsi Ramana Ravuri, from the investment advisory firm Aquarius Investment Advisors India, will join and represent Aquarius India Fund on the company’s Board of Directors.

Started by two doctors, Vaatsalya earlier raised Rs. 4 crores from Seedfund in April 2008 and next round was led by Oasis Fund (from Geneva) and Seedfund in 2009.

The Vaatsalya Story

At the first UnPluggd event, Vaatsalya founder, Dr. Ashwin Naik shared the Vaatsalya story and how the team built this social enterprise just like any other technology startup. Do watch this inspirational video (more context here)

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moneysights Raises $270K From Blume Ventures & Naveen Tewari

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We earlier profiled Moneysights, a Bangalore based startup that is trying to change the way an average investor makes decisions regarding investing in Stocks & Mutual Funds. The site’s USP as Santosh (cofounder) shared in detail (in the comment section earlier) is the set of tools that the product provides to an average investor enabling him/her to make informed decisions vis-à-vis investing in financial instruments (Stocks & Mutual Funds).

What we do & do in a unique way is help users take decisions on investments in Stocks & Mutual Funds. an average investor just has 1 question in mind – is this stock/MF good? does it make sense for me to invest in it? we answer these questions in an unbiased way. And in future, we would help the user invest directly from moneysights.

And NO, we AREN’T for people who like to research companies thread-bare. in fact, on the contrary, we are for users who are looking to CUT DOWN time they spend in researching & planning investments. we automate everything for them – right from discovering, planning, deciding & managing. you would notice we don’t have industry reports, balance sheets or P&L statements & plethora of information that adds confusion. we do all the complex math & come out with our views in form of ratings.

Started by ex InMobi employees, Moneysights has raised $270K from Blume Ventures and InMobi founder, Naveen Tewari. The funding was raised in February 2011 but is being made public only now. moneysights raised angel round from Prasad Duvvuri, who has held leadership positions in IBM India & Hewlett-Packard.

The funds are being utilized to grow the team and plug the online transaction platform.

moneysights’ Secret Sauce

moneysights intends to be a tech-led, low cost, online distributor of financial products (starting with Mutual Funds). Pre-buying, the biggest problem is to identify which product (from 1000s of choices available) is best suited to one’s need and risk profile.

moneysights helps users solve this problem through their smart product recommendation & discovery engine. The recommendation engine creates a portfolio of high performing Mutual Funds that minimizes investment risk & at the same time is well diversified across sectors, market capitalization, etc. You can also customize the recommendations based on your risk profile. During-buying, the product intends to provide a simpler, faster and reliable buying experience.

Post-buying, one of the biggest problem is a clear visibility into one’s investments. moneysights helps users track all their investments at one place and give them actionable insights by intelligently combining user’s data and product performance data from the markets.

Online as a channel of distribution is at early stages – only 5% of them are bought online (on an average,Online sales accounts for 18% of total financial products sales in India). The recent lowering of sales-commissions have put the current high-cost offline distribution channel at a big disadvantage. At the same time, consumers have started adopting internet for researching financial products in a big way. This has led to an aggressive push from the industry side to develop & support online Mutual Fund transaction platforms & keep transaction costs low.

According to a KPMG report, assets under managemnet of Mutual Fund companies are slated to grow to $430 Bn by 2015 which translates into distribution market size of $2.25 Bn, which is what moneysights.com is eyeing through their Mutual Fund offering. These trends combined with the clear tech-led differentiator make moneysights an interesting play.

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Do give moneysights a spin and share your review of the product.

Recommended Read: Interview with moneysights team.

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Web Wednesday – 15 Jun

10:31 PM Tech News No comments

This month Web Wednesday will have a speaker from the Big Apple, Tim O’Connors. O’Connors will speak on ‘The Rise of Real Time Bidding (RTB)’. RTB is an auction environment that allows publishers’ impressions to count towards their bottom line and ensures advertisers’ messages reach precisely the right people. RTB comes at a time when online ad spend is shifting heavily towards display. Tim’s presentation will cover a brief history of how the online advertising ecosystem developed from the proliferation of ad networks to the rise of data management platforms and programmatic buying and selling.

About The Speaker

Tim O’Connor has over 13 years experience in the digital advertising industry. He is currently responsible for overseeing the development of major publisher accounts for Admeld. Prior to Admeld, Tim led online sales teams for both startups and top-tier Web properties, having held senior positions at companies such as Ringleader Digital, Eyeblaster, High Five Media, Homestore (now Move.com), Pennyweb and AltaVista.

Event Details

When: Wednesday, 15th June
Time: 630pm-9pm
Where: Blk 3B River Valley Road, #01-17/02-02 The Foundry @ Clarke Quay (Map)
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Chinese Browser Vendor UC Released New Engine U3

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Chinese mobile browser manufacturer UC has just released its brand new mobile browser engine U3, which is poised to deliver ‘ultimate’ mobile surfing experience in 3G era.

U3 combines the strengths of webkit layout engine (also used by Google Chrome and Apple Safari) and cloud-based infrastructure, it’s fast, safer, smart and highly extensible. One of its intriguing feature is its ability of traffic compression which can reduce up to 60% of mobile traffic consumption, which is a bless for mobile users.

Some highlights of U3 mobile engine:

FASTER – Based on Webkit layout engine, speed increased by 60%

SMARTER – U3 engine can smartly and automatically adapt to complicated mobile network coverage in China (Wifi, 2G, 3G).

SAFER – Based on the UC Cloud Security Center, U3 engine can serve as a defense against security risks.

TRAFFIC CONTROL – With new compression algorithm, UC can save over 60% of mobile data consumption

EXTENSIBLE – New engine supports all kinds of 3^rd party extensions, including Xunlei(for download), Video&Audio(for amuse) and so on.

According to UC, new browser will be released in the second half of this year, including Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and Symbian version.

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Inside Real Innovation: Follow The Innovation, Not The Company

7:26 PM Tech News No comments

Inside Real Innovation is a book that tries to show “how fundamental innovators really work” and looks at “explaining why the “innovation system” in the United States is failing to work as it once did, and what all parties can do to build a better system for the future”. Guest contributor Fabian Lua sent us this interview he did with Eugene A. Fitzgerald, co-author of Inside Real Innovation.

In this interview, he talks about limitations people set for themselves, the pigeonhole phenomenon, the difference between incremental innovation and fundamental innovation, how he knows Singapore well but is not here to tell Singapore what to do, and how the book is essentially particularly critical of the US.

Apart from being an author, Eugene is also the Merton C. Flemings SMA Professor of Materials Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visiting Professor of Management in the Johnsons School, Cornell University, and Fellow in the Singapore-MIT Alliance.

Fabian takes us through his interview with Eugene:

Fabian: The general perception seems to be that different skill sets are required for finding success as an inventor versus an entrepreneur. What do you think about that?

Eugene: I have had the experience of being in many different environments, ranging from large corporations, universities to small start-ups in various fields. In start-ups, at the beginning you have to run everything – I hated accounting but I had to do it.

People would always try to pigeonhole you – some investors would say, “professors can’t run companies.” If you are a researcher bringing your idea to the market yourself, you just have to get used to that.

I believe most people can develop more skill sets but they limit themselves. It is pretty common for people to self-limit, but we should be actively teaching them how to remove these limits and extend their skill sets constantly.

Even when the experiences don’t appear to relate to each other, the skills, reputation and communities you gain from one field would usually help you in some way in the future.

Fabian: Which inventor/entrepreneur do you admire?

Eugene: Edison. I am fascinated by how people extended their skill sets and to know Edison as the guy who invented the light bulb is just a ridiculous reduction. Edison was an inventor, entrepreneur and general business bad boy. He disrupted markets where incumbents were too tied up in the status quo to innovate. He vertically integrated the industry, creating electrical distribution in order to sell the light bulb. He was also a visionary manager and hired the right people (like physicists) before others realized that would be useful.

Fabian: The title “Inside Real Innovation” implies some innovations are fundamental while others are not. What is real innovation to you?

Eugene: The big mistake today is that people can’t recognize the difference between incremental innovation and fundamental innovation. There are two lenses that you can see through to figure out if it is fundamental. One is time: if you can get an accurate recording of how long it took to commercialize, most fundamental innovations take a long time. The other is the degree of disruption – did the innovation change the structure of the industry or create an entirely new market segment? This is clear in hindsight.

Fabian: To move innovative ideas from R&D to market, the book proposes the right approach as having inter-disciplinary team members iterate between Technology, Market and Implementation. Do these team members have to start off with skills crossing disciplines?

Eugene: That’s the ideal case. If I am an investor, that’s what I will look for. But someone can eventually be part of that team without starting off that way. They can get there by accumulating experience in inter-disciplinary work and through learning from failure.

Fabian: For a high rate of innovation, people should “follow the innovation as opposed to follow the organization.” Do you think people are doing that?

Eugene: I think up to the 80s, there was a cultural tendency to work for a large corporation their whole lives. It kind of explains how Bell Labs and Xerox did many initial innovations so well but couldn’t finish them off.

But today, we are transitioning into the future. To keep the innovation going, people need to move into new business models that the initial corporation may not have or support. In the United States, it has become easier to follow the innovation. It makes for a more chaotic world with this high fluidity. But people moving around is better for the innovation in the later stages of its development.

That is beneficial from the perspective of the individual and society but what about the organization?
I believe this paradox is the key strategic element that large corporations have to face for the next ten to fifteen years. People have already seen that it is not true that you just build linear organizations inside you company to deliver innovation. You would have to identify innovators and figure out how to keep them in the company and let them blossom, even if innovation requires them to do very different things.

One way that has been done so far is spin-off companies. It might be the right path if it is not seen as a purely financial move. The focus needs to be on bringing innovations to market. That focus should drive the decision of whether a separate company is needed.

I believe eventually a large company would show the way of how to innovate for the long-term and that would create expectations for other companies to do the same. The current situation is more like the tragedy of the commons. Each corporation has ceased investing in long-term innovation, resulting in a less productive innovation system for all.

Fabian: The current start-up process seems to involve significant capital injection from an early stage. How does this money change things?

Eugene: I think excessive easy capital is destroying innovation. If a start-up really wants to be successful, they should actually resist large initial investment for as long as possible. Then when they take the investment, it would really be at their own discretion and not because they need it.

Inc magazine lists the Inc 500 every year, the 500 fastest growing small companies in the US, and typically only 7% or so of them were VC-funded. It shows that there is a really vibrant part of the economy growing more organically that isn’t usually covered by media reports.

One analogy of injecting investment into start-ups is how people react when they discover a nice garden. They try to reverse engineer it. They concentrate on the environmental factors like the water, soil and sunlight but no one seems to think about the trees themselves. It is only when the tree is ready, then taking in more of the elements like water (VC money) would cause it to grow. Otherwise, the water may even get it killed.

Fabian: Singapore has been pumping resources to build up our innovation system and start-up environment. How do you think we are doing?

Eugene: I have been coming to Singapore since the 90s, so it is one country I know well other than the United States. But still, I am not here to tell Singapore what to do.

In the book we are particularly critical of the United States because we want people to be aware of the problems. That said, the fundamentals are there. The U.S. understands that innovation happens with people, rather than processes, so there is the fluidity of people moving from job to job.

Singapore is great in that investments are made on grand trends that are usually hard to justify on a microscopic scale. For example, Singapore accumulated the necessary human resources for science and technology for years before it was clear they were needed. It has been attracting the necessary financing so that innovations will not be cash-starved when they are ready for funding and it has built up the institutions like the local universities to be research-centric and regional hubs.

The missing element for now is perhaps the transition from a visionary top-down experiment to a ground-up movement embraced by society. It takes time for societies to experience the innovative economy and realize that people are the wellspring of innovation – that’s when the next step would come.

About The Guest Interviewer

Fabian LUA is part of the executive team behind the MIT Enterprise Forum of Singapore and a supporter of ideas conferences like TEDx and blinkBL_NK. Say hello to him on Twitter.