There will be Apps World Asia 2011 for the first 2 days of Sept. According to ABI Research, Application downloads in Asia alone will hit 2.4 billion by 2013 – or 20 per cent of the world’s total available market. Apps World Asia 2011 will delve into this highly populated yet dynamic region and its app eco-system. With countries like China, Japan and India in the spotlight, we will also cover the unsung heroes such as Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, Indonesia and more. This event is a co-hosted event with Social Media World Forum Asia (SMWFA) 2011.
Highlighted Topics
- Understanding the fragmented regional Asian markets for apps
- Building investment for Asian app development
- Location-based apps – is there a market in Asia?
- Apps & the cloud in partnership
- Experiences of leading brands and publishers in Asia with app related campaigns
- Apps in banking & mobile money
- Handsets vs Tablets vs TV – which has the most compelling offering in this market
- Developers in the region – challenges and success stories
- Operator case studies – models and business models of app related own labels, and app store partnerships and liaisons
Registration Details
There are 2 types of pass available: Exhibition & Developer Zone Pass
It is free for everyone but workshop is not included as one of the the privileges. Interested participants can register here. TV, Mobile, Marketing Workshop Pass
With this pass, the participants will have all the privileges for the event including the workshop. By quoting “SGE3422“, SGE readers will get 15% off. Interested participants can register here.
Lion City Startup Brekkie (LCSB) brings together early morning startup folks on a bright Saturday morning. It promises to revive the kindred spirit over a hearty breakfast, a nice cuppa and healthy conversations. This is organized by Mike Fong, Martin Brochhaus, and Jason Ong.
Event Details
When: Sat, 6th Aug
Time: 10am
Where: Joe & Dough, Suntec City Tower 4 (outside Carrefour), 3 Temasek Boulevard #01-156/158 (Map) Register here. Link to full article
Today TechNode is officially launching a new free database service called Nodeble.com (alpha version). The database, available in English and Chinese, is packed with very useful information organized by China/Asia technology companies, key individuals and investors as well as information about fundraisings and acquisitions. Nodeble is the first to launch a bi-lingual tech industry database in China.
As TechCrunch’s Crunchbase serves as a very informative resource for start-ups and investors, we felt that China’s booming start-up ecosystem deserved something similar. After meeting with many VC’s and start-ups in China, a common problem we hear is not- knowing where to find a comprehensive overview of companies and people, resulting in inefficiency and frustration. So we created an easy to use database for people to see a snapshot of companies, people and investors.
Although we are based in China and have a focus here, TechNode aims to put a spotlight on the greater Asian region. So if you would like to add information about Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore or other Asian countries please go ahead!
When you first log-in to Nodeble.com, you will see the latest entries show up in the middle and links to add your own record by company, individual or investment firm. This is super useful for Chinese start-ups who want to get their profile out into the open to be discovered by potential investors or customers.
Profiles will contain different sets of information:
Company – milestones, videos, website screenshots, office location, management, products, competitors, contact info, date established
People – background, milestones, videos, education
Jumei.com, company profile example
We collected the information from previous interviews, company websites and various trustworthy news websites. As information constantly changes and since it will be eventually a wiki-style database that allows anyone to post a profile, we are relying on our great community of readers to make sure information is up to date and accurate.
As of launch today, TechNode team and its volunteers already filled the database up with 909 records. Here is a breakdown:
The Nodeble is still in an alpha version, which means the system might be a buggy, some features are not visible for public and the Wiki-feature is currently not available too (all entries submitted need be validated by the admin team). More functions will be added to Nodeble in coming days too.
Please do submit the entry about you or your company if they are not there! Any comments and suggestions for improvements will be very much welcome!
Clearbridge Accelerator, a Singapore-based technology incubator that focuses on biomedical devices, nanotech, advanced material sciences and computational algorithms, has received an investment from Tim Draper, founder and managing director of VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, according to a press release.
Clearbridge Accelerator is the Singapore incubation arm of Clearbridge Partners, an Hong Kong based venture capital firm. The incubator aims to translate promising laboratory research into commercial and sustainable enterprises.
The company is part of the Singapore National Research Foundation’s (NRF) Technology Incubator Scheme (TIS), a program in which the NRF will co-invest in promising companies alongside the incubators.
Gakufu Camera [J] (gakufu = music score) is an iPhone app released by music instrument vendor Kawai. The camera application lets you scan music score by camera, recognize musical notes in real-time, play the recognized notes.
("the world's first real-time music score recognition", as they claim. probably on smartphone I guess.)
The app can recognize not only printed score but handwritten ones.
Playing demo starts around 0:25 on the movie above. Personally, it is not what I imagined first when I saw the news. It seems almost impossible "to play" as you need to take correct timings, it gives you tones of the symbols but no length info. However, it may still good tool for people studying how to read scores.
The app costs 350 yen (US$5) at iTunes App Store, seems only in Japan at now.
Reported today by Washington Post, Square, the revolutionary mobile payment service is now processing $4 million per day. China, now has over 318 millions mobile internet users, and good mobile payment solutions are definitely needed. So there is no reason we shouldn’t look at the Square.
QFPay (the Chinese name means Money Square), the Beijing-based company is rumored to provide a similar solution like Square. QFPay has been working in a stealth mode for a couple of months, just today it published several messages on Sina Weibo to introduce itself for the first time and also look for more engineers. It says,
QFPay is an innovative mobile payment service which enables everyone to pay with bank cards anywhere and anytime. QFPay team is very experienced with members are from the product teams of MasterCard, IBM, ZTE, Motorola, Baidu, Tencent, Yeecha etc. QFPay is to create a brand new product for online payment.
QFPay’s official site, QFPay.net has not been launched yet, and there is almost zero information published about its bank card reader, yet. But according to an insider, he said,
the company is backed by a few angel investors with strong connection in the industry;
the bank card reader may come with a small keypad for users to enter the pass code;
instead of using the audio jack, the bank card reader is connecting with iPhone’s 30-pin dock connector.
We also heard that the UnionPay, is also working on a similar idea. Instead of working on the hardware solution, Alipay is seeking the software solutions to make the mobile payment easier, such as the Barcode Payment.
Coinjoos.com (earlier called FlipGraph) has been acquired by the HomeShop18 (part of the Network18 group). Coinjoos is an eCommerce portal that sells books and movie/music DVDs. Coinjoos also buys books from users and offers them loyalty points (coins) in return. These coins can used to purchase used or new books on the site.
CoinJoos.com was a property of OnGraph Technologies (parent company) and only CoinJoos.com has been acquired. Other initiatives remain part of OnGraph and with OnGraph
Around 15 people team would move (technology + operations).
Product strategy – CoinJoos technology, catalog and built-in operational/support processes around product discovery, fulfillment, predictability and customer support are intended to power the new books vertical of HomeShop18 to start with, and take further the value proposition of HomeShop18 platform to new heights, for its ever-increasing customer base.
CoinJoos.com would get merged ultimately, the how-and-when’s would be clear in next few days.
OnGraph Technologies is in a separate main-line business of software development outsourcing services, and coinjoos.com was one of its assets which got acquired. There are 100 or so people who work in OnGraph and have an established line of management. It is only CoinJoos.com team which is moving as part of acquisition.
Companies are hiring and one of the pain point in mass-hiring is that the entire process is quite manual, thereby taking away a lot of company resources, effort and time.
It takes hours to manually evaluate paper and pencil screening tests in a hiring event. Traditionally companies use OMR scanners to scan answers, but OMS scanners are not customizable beyond a certain point.
Bangalore based startup, SkillRack’s Quick Score solves these pain points. SkillRack’s QuickScore is a tool to automate the scoring and rank the candidates instantly based on their performance in the paper and pencil screening tests. The startup claims to score & rank 2000 candidates within 1 hour using the tool!
The service is specifically meant for campus hiring, but there is no reason why it cannot be applied to other areas (like hiring events in banks etc). Here is a brief QnA with founder of SkillRack, Karthikeyan Chockalingam.
———-
QN: How does the process work? Can you share the workflow once you send the scanned copy of the answer sheet?
[Answer] Once we scan the the answer sheets and get the images, we extract the data (like the exam set identifier, hall ticket number, options marked as answer) and convert into XML format.
This XML data extraction helps our software to be flexible (when compared to conventional OMR/OCR software) by configuring options like negative marking, section wise cut-off and importance and multiple exam sets with ease.
QN. How did you come across this idea?
[Answer] Not many colleges have enough number of computers to simultaneously deliver exams to a large number of candidates. Hence companies rely on paper pencil tests to screen candidates.
Though OMR/OCR scoring software has been in existence for a very long time, the flexibility to customize/configure options (like negative marking, section wise cut-off and importance and multiple exam sets) was lacking. Also they mandate an identifier (like a registration number or hall ticket number) for a candidate to take the exam.
But in reality in an off campus drive or walk in it is time consuming to issue the above said identifier to each candidate and communicate to the candidates. As a result many companies and leading assessment providers resort to manual stencil based scoring.
So we decided to bridge the gap by creating a software which will provide the flexibility and enable paper pencil scoring to involve less manual effort but at the same time score quick.
QN: Please share a few key stats – customer adoption/use cases?
[Answer] Few months ago one of the leading assessment providers in India evaluated around 5000 candidates using manual stencil based correction (as they had to apply negative marking and section wise cutoff). 20 members scored these 5000 candidates in 2 days. With SRACK-QUICK SCORE we can accomplish it in 3 hours using 2 scanning units. The probability of error is reduced as in manual correction the scoring person can induce errors due to fatigue.
SRACK-QUICK SCORE is operational from Jan 2011, and till now our clients include companies and consultancies conducting job fairs like Mu Sigma, ACC, VINJEY Software Systems, Campus Select, Coherence Consulting.
Hiring companies find their time saved in On campus hiring. Normally the pre-placement talk starts at 9AM and the exams get completed by 11 AM. Assuming around 500 candidates took the exam the scoring and ranking would take till 3 PM (assuming negative marking and multiple exam sets are involved). Both candidates and the interviewers are exhausted by the time the interview process gets completed at night say around 9 PM. But with SRACK-QUICK SCORE the results are declared by 11:45 AM and the whole process is expedited by reducing the waiting time which makes all the stake holders happy.
The importance of our automated paper pencil scoring system increases further in an off campus hiring drive or a job fair where a large number of candidates turn out and scoring has to be really quick.
QN. Future plans?
[Answer] We have rolled out SRACK-PRACTICE PERFECT as a Beta version in two colleges where company specific custom question papers can be created and delivered to college students to help them practice for screening exams conducted by hiring companies.
The delivery mode can be paper pencil based or via online (if the college has sufficient number of computers). As the scoring in both modes is automated, candidates can practice taking more number of exams. A detailed strength and weakness analysis is provided so that candidates or placement officer can identify the low performing candidates and train them further.
———-
Apart from Quickscore, Skillrack offers various other services related to campus hiring – right from cloud based testing services to delivering trainings online.
What’s your take on Skillrack and the pain point its targeting.
You may hear a lot about a company called Second Life and its counterparts in China, HiPiHi, UWorld etc back in 2009 when the concept of 3D Virtual World was super hot. In those virtual worlds, every user is expected to be able to use the virtual tools to build his/her own virtual world containing houses, shops, cars, trees etc. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a hype in the end. There are some technical issues to be resolved but more important, especially in China, people feel lost when they are in the empty virtual world because they are required build almost everything from scratches. Most users in virtual world are looking for fun to play with, are not creative people who are willing to create more fun. In other words, the old virtual world lacks of incentive to keep the users.
Last week in Shanda’s Got Talent party, Tan Qundao, CEO of Shanda gave a keynote and disclosed some information about a new game which as he described could be the best game in the world. It is named World Zero, which actually looks like more than a game. It’s a gamified Second Life.
Shanda has been working on World Zero for more than one year. World Zero is officially described as a 3D MMORPG, but unlike other MMORPG, it will come with a handy tools and rich development resource to allow users to not only create new 3D virtual world (games), but also manage them and share them with other players. World Zero will be like an open 3D game development platform/environment, or you can say an Unified virtual world designed for hundreds of user-generated (small) virtual worlds.
I am not sure how fast gamers can get the idea of creating their own virtual worlds in a game, but gaming elements will definitely give people more interests to explore the virtual world. Tan said more details will be disclosed in October this year. Below is the CG video of World Zero which looks impressive.
This month, iAxil will organize a workshop entitled Customer Acquisition. Jim Cook of ASU SkySong will talk more about it and focus more on understanding the cost of customer acquisition and monetization, and developing trusted relationships with the customers. SGE readers will get 15% off for 1 person who register and 20% off for registration in a group of 4 by quoting “SGE2408“.
Workshop Objectives
The objective of the workshop is to provide business managers, senior sales and marketing executives, key account managers, customer relationship managers and entrepreneurs with the tools, framework and know-how to effectively acquire, develop, grow and sustain their relationships with key customers and partners. The interactive nature of the workshop allows participants to seek inputs and ideas from the trainer as well as from other participants.
About the Speaker and Mentor
Jim Cook, Director – Global Business Development of ASU SkySong
Jim is a seasoned professional with over twenty five years of successful sales and business development expertise in both domestic and international arenas. He leads the development and execution of global business strategies, soft landing and go-to-market activities, at SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center. He offers a unique, solid background with excellent operational acumen for global environments. Previous experience includes: Microsoft Alliance for NetApp, Sunnyvale, CA; Wipro Technologies, Bangalore, India; Microsoft Corporation Redmond, WA; Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, CA; Nihon Sun Microsystems KK, Tokyo, Japan; Convergent Technologies, San Jose, CA; and Be Inc. Menlo Park, CA. He is especially skilled in establishing successful mutually beneficial executive business relationships with companies from India, ASEAN, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Australia, and the US.
Event Details
When: Wed, 24th Aug
Time: 930am-5pm
Where: No. 87 Science Park Drive, Science Hub, Singapore Science Park 1
Fee: S$350/pax
Interested participants can send an email to events@iaxil.net for registration form request and make payment by 12th Aug.
Voltage company has begun to offer “Koi ni Ochita Kaizoku Ou,” one of their popular games from the “Koibito Game” series on their official website, in an English version intended for overseas applications on iPhone and Android as “PIRATES IN LOVE.” This marks the first part of the “Romance Sims” series aimed for North America. Download is free.
Although “PIRATES IN LOVE” is a game application equivalent to “Koi ni Ochita Kaizoku Ou,” characters intended for overseas have been added, and the production is said to have a more friendly world view. The gameplay also utilizes high resolution graphics and touch screen features for smart phones. The music and sound will soak you in the feeling of the game world, and all the while the story will be thoroughly enjoyable. This application is free to download, but you can also enjoy a love story with selected paid characters.
“Pirates in Love” for the iPhone can be downloaded here:
Since you took some time to think about what makes an ideal investor I thought I’d do the same to outline what makes an ideal entrepreneur. I think we both have similar agendas – that is to see great companies get built from India.
Don Corleone Haz a Checklist
Here’s some background about me:
You may think I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but really, a decade ago, I was an entrepreneur much like you. While I can’t say I understand your position exactly, I have been in your shoes some time ago. Just so you are aware, in my business, we raise money from other investors (in our business they call them Limited Partners) to who I have to provide returns to. Since venture capital is a risky investment, they expect far better returns than real estate or the stock market. Enough about me, let’s talk about you:
Here’s what I would like in an ideal entrepreneur:
Please spend time to get to know me before you need my money. There’s more to me than just money. If all your business needs is just money to make it successful, you can get it from multiple places. VC business is very people driven, and it’s hard to write a check to people we don’t know too well. Ideally 6 months to a year before you need the money, you should get introduced via a friend or colleague to me and we should chat about your background, mine and our views on the market. There are many topics that interest me and the more we know each other, the better we appreciate our perspectives.
Please take time to do your homework. Most of us have an area of focus, a size of investment and stage of company we prefer. If you don’t fit into those criteria, it will waste your time and ours to pursue the opportunity. Our website is one source but speaking to other entrepreneurs who we have funded is another great option.
Realize I have investors who I have to answer to and who have demanding ROI requirements. Please acknowledge that not all companies are “fundable” by VC money. Most funds we raise have a 5, 7 or 10 year horizon of investment (time for us to invest the fund raised and possibly return investments). Unless your company can grow dramatically, scale fast and get an exit (preferably) in that time horizon, it will be very difficult for us to invest. In India typically we look for companies to get to $100 to $150 Million in 5-7 years. While these numbers vary dramatically by segment and are not absolute, it’s a ballpark for you to consider.
Please understand that saying no does not mean I “don’t get it” or that “I don’t have the risk appetite”. There are several factors that go into my decision making including management team, ability to execute, entry barriers for other companies, unique competitive advantage, valuations, market growth, etc. Some investments that may make sense for another firm may not make sense for us.
Please take due diligence seriously. VC’s will always know less about the market and your space than you. So, it’s in your best interest to educate us. After our initial meeting if I do introduce you to a few people to understand the space, your idea, etc. I am doing it with the intent to help you (and me) understand the space better. If you don’t follow up with them or don’t follow up with me, I get the impression that you are not really serious about working with us.
I think there’s a great growth opportunity for both of us to do business together, so let’s keep talking.
School management software systems in India are archaic (just the way our education system is) and most of these software are developed by fly-by-night operators who really do a crappy job of building such a software (and charge a bomb to schools).
At the core, schools need to really adapt latest software which can help them improve productivity (many big schools in Bangalore still store student data in Microsoft excel).
Fedena is set to change the scene with its open source school management software, developed on RoR framework. Developed by Bangalore based Foradian Technologies, Fedena can be used as:
Student Information System (SIS)
School Management software
School ERP
Campus Management software
Student records system
Student management system
School software
E-learning system
Fedena Admin Screen
Benefits to schools:
Available in chosen language.[Ex: Kannada, Tamil, Spansh]
Easy tracking of students and Employees
Easy way for TC generation and Transfer of Batch
Time table generation and Examination creation
Analyzing student’s performance and attendance
Various student and staff reports [based on different category, religion, blood group, caste, DOB and many other filters]
Easy Attendance Marking and Attendance reports
All the historical records of a student available easily
Helps in sending data to UID project
As the entire data is online and secure, any analysis can be done at any desired point of time.
As far as business model is concerned, Fedena follows the open source model of giving the software for free and charging for installations/training and support/maintenance (also dual licensing/hosting services).
The Bangalore based startup has grabbed clients like – Aditya Group of Institutions, Hope College (Australia) and importantly, contract from Kerala government (to automate 13,000 schools with more than 70 lakh students and 1.5 lakh teachers).
Overall, an interesting project that competes with bigger players like Blackboard and Moodles(s) of the world.
What’s your take on Fedena? Do we have other open source projects from India of similar impact?
There will be Apps World Asia 2011 for the first 2 days of Sept. According to ABI Research, Application downloads in Asia alone will hit 2.4 billion by 2013 – or 20 per cent of the world’s total available market. Apps World Asia 2011 will delve into this highly populated yet dynamic region and its app eco-system. With countries like China, Japan and India in the spotlight, we will also cover the unsung heroes such as Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, Indonesia and more. This event is a co-hosted event with Social Media World Forum Asia (SMWFA) 2011. 
Lion City Startup Brekkie (LCSB) brings together early morning startup folks on a bright Saturday morning. It promises to revive the kindred spirit over a hearty breakfast, a nice cuppa and healthy conversations. This is organized by 
Reported today by Washington Post, Square, the revolutionary mobile payment service is 
You may hear a lot about a company called 
