Philippines Digest: tourism business in Makati, lower SSS rates, and more

Here you can find some interesting startup news around Philippines, not only in its capital, Manila, but also other their startup hubs such as Cebu, General Santos City, Pasay, Quezon City, and many more.

(1) A new tourism facility was approved by the Board of Investments in Makati that will help boost the city’s facilities for local and foreign tourists. Valero Prime Land Realty Development Corporation will build the P336.7 million (US$ 7.9M) project called Citadines Salcedo Makati in Valero Street, Salcedo Village.

(2) The Social Security System (SSS) has announced that it will be cutting interest rates by as much as three percent for commercial and personal loans. The new rates, about 11.5 percent for commercial loans and 7.5 percent for personal loans depending on the payment terms, will be the lowest rate for the agency in the last 11 years. Previously, rates were pegged at a maximum of 13.5 percent and 10.5 percent respectively.

(3) A report from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that loans from commercial banks have steadily grown at double-digit growth rates since January this year. “Loans for production activities-which comprised more than four-fifths of commercial banks’ total loan portfolio-expanded by 20.6 percent in June from 19.0 percent (revised) a month earlier. Meanwhile, the growth in consumer loans decelerated to 14.1 percent from 14.9 percent due to the slowdown recorded in the growth of credit card receivables and auto loans by 6.2 percent and 25.8 percent, compared to 9.1 percent and 29.0 percent in May, respectively,” the report said.

(4) The latest survey results from Jobstreet.com.ph showed that the biggest employer in the country is still the call center and business process outsourcing industry, accounting for 54 percent of the local job openings in the country.

(4) Drugstore chain and franchise brand, Generika, is eyeing a total of 17 locations around the country as expansion sites. The franchise brand, which has about 210 store locations nationwide, is looking at opening more branches in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, and Ilocos Norte for their Luzon expansion.

(5) Petron Corporation, one the largest franchise brands in the petroleum industry, has posted sales revenue of P 134.9 billion (US$ 3.17B) in the first half of the year compared to P115.4 billion (US$ 2.71B) of the same period last year.

(6) Water refilling company, Aquabest, has reached 700 stores nationwide as of the end of July 2011. “Aquabest’s strong growth validates our decision to invest heavily in building our brand, thanks to these efforts Aquabest is now the brand of choice among households,” GQWEST chief executive officer Carson Tan said. GQWEST is the mother company of Aquabest.

(7) Some Php2.0 billion have been allocated for the Reintegration Loan Program (RLP) of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) entrepreneurs. “The RLP was created pursuant to President Benigno S. Aquino III’s policy and development strategy of establishing concrete steps towards more sustainable alternatives for returning OFW’s in the country,” Regional Director Petrona M. Bergado of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA), region 10, said.

(8) Freelancer.com, the world’s number one website for outsourcing, today officially launched a dedicated regional website at www.freelancer.ph supporting small business owners, freelancers and entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

(9) Entrepreneur magazine recently acknowledged Kumon Philippines as Best Foreign Franchise in its July 2011 Franchising special edition, a press release from the school said.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.

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Japan Digest: DOCOMO acquired VMG Media, GREE exceeded 130M users, and more

Here you can find interesting startup news from Japan, not only from its capital, Tokyo, but also other startup hubs like Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, and many more.

(1) NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced that it has acquired an approximately 25% stake in Vietnam’s largest mobile content provider, VMG Media Joint Stock Company (VMG), which owns a market share of roughly 25% in the country. The stock purchase, worth approximately 370 billion Vietnam Dong or about 1.4 billion Japanese yen, represents NTT DOCOMO’s first investment in Vietnam.

(2) GREE has announced that their mobile device social platform in August has exceeded 130 million users worldwide, achieving 107 million users outside of Japan.

(3) Yumemi has announced that they are joining forces with Booyah, maker of the American location information social game “MyTown” which has over 4 million users. From now on, “MyTown” will be developed in Japan.

(4) Fuji Television with GREE and Synphonie have announced that they will offer the GREE feature phone version of the popular TV show “Ryouri no Tetsujin (Iron Chef)” as a social game, “Iron Chef for GREE New Challengers.”

(5) Colopl is planning to link sports game “Pro Baseball! Colopl Series” with their cell phone geo-location game “Koroni-na Seikatsu” (Colony Life).

(6) CyberAgent, which manages “Ameba,” has begun to offer the second installation of their English conversation study application series for iPhone, “Moshi Kareshi Ga Gaikokujin Dattara Eikaiwa” (If Your Boyfriend was a Foreigner English Conversation) and “Moshi Kanojo Ga Gaikokujin Dattara Eikaiwa”(If your girlfriend was a foreigner English Conversation).

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Gary Faye Locke shocked Chinese on his way to China as Ambassador

I don’t know much about Gary Faye Locke, the new USA Ambassador to China (knew this a day ago), other than that he is a Chinese American and a politician of high position in USA government. I think most Chinese are in the same situation as me in this case. Mr Locke just arrived in Beijing yesterday for his new mission, so it’s too early to predict what kind of influence he would bring to China and USA, but the influence has began, just on his journey to Beijing.

It’s all caused by this seemingly ordinary photo of him, taken by Adsage Tang who’s on a business trip from China. Mr Tang published this photo on China’s biggest twitter alike service website weibo.com with these words, “Came across USA’s new Ambassador to China Gary Faye Locke at Seattle Airport coffee shop, who’s with his wife and three kids.Guessed he’s on his way for his new mission to Beijing. Good luck to him”. Twenty minutes after some comments about how astonishing for seeing this photo he added: ” The funny thing is that Ambassador Locke showed a piece of paper which looks like a coupon to the waiter. The waiter has a close look and gave it back to Ambassador and said it’s not acceptable. Ambassador Locke was not angry at all and took back the coupon with smile and gave the waiter this credit car instead. Sign, American waiter even don’t treated the Ambassador a little special. This remind a line from a Chinese movie, the translation official said: “I never pay for dining in restaurants in the city”

In just two days, this post got forwarded 30,105 times and have received 7,275 comments, and data is still rising.

You people out of China might think this photo is too ordinary and can’t see much out of it. but for Chinese it’s shocking, below are some comments selected from that post showing why they’re shocked.

” no police cars leaded the way? unbelievable!”

“no guards? unbelievable!”

“An Ambassador that uses coupon (for coffee)!”
“USA is really a poor country…no way to be measurable with China. In China, officials act like gods.”

“Capitalist countries are so shabby. Guess it’s relevant to USA’s debt crisis”.

“An Ambassador with such equipments? shame. The chief of our small village is more impressive. so stop the comparing, socialist system is much more advanced.”

“sign, this is a country of equality, and now he’s come to an unequal one, and just 2 kilometers away from me.”

“When our public servants could behave this way when they go for new mission, and no those huge welcome banquets that waste countless money again? ”

” no one to hold a umbrella for him? People in the coffee shop are not asked to leave for Ambassador’s security? Roads not blocked for his special car? No police cars following to protect him? No Primary students in red scarf there standing in two lines to welcome him? He has to carry his bag by himself? Isn’t Brother Gary Faye’s level higher than a Chinese County head? so it’s important to choose a right boss.”

“Haha, interesting, a sarcasm to all China government officials.”

” Does he pay for his food with public funs? he even has to carry his bag, and no guards and secretaries by side? how could he be an Ambassador like this, can he get his work done?”

” Just carry a shoulder bag for new position, even don’t have a donkey….really fresh to see…”

” we are all human living on the Earth, why the difference between China and USA’s government officials is so huge?”

………………….

too many comments to translate, and they are more funny and more ironic in Chinese.

[Source:adsagetang@weibo]

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Startup Weekend Taipei Produces 12 Innovative Internet Services

Taipei, Taiwan – August 13, 2011, Last night over 120 participants gathered for the opening night of the inaugural Startup Weekend Taipei, the first such event to be held in Taiwan.

Opening with a keynote from Charles Kuai of Ubee Interactive, the participants were given several important insights into his 20-odd year experience in the telecoms and Internet industries. Charles’ speech was themed on disruption, noting that several traditional industries (telecoms, electronics) have experienced disruption at ever increasing speeds, from AT&T to Skype, and from Sony’s Walkman to the iPod.

The evening continued with a panel discussion moderated by Jeremy Brand Yuan of TechOrange Global, and included input from Rai Ma of Raine Venture Capital, Roger Chen of FarEasTone, Alvin Woon of Plurk and Charles Kuai, again of Ubee Interactive. The theme of the panel was “Launching a Startup in Taiwan: Think Global. Start Smart.” The panelists surmised that while Taiwan has proved its expertise in hardware, it still has potential for growing its Internet economy. In particular, the panelists were impressed that such an event could and did attract over 100 businesspeople, web developers, designers and mobile application developers. Taiwan has the resources, the funding and the strategic position between mainland China and the rest of the world in offering products and services to all. Charles Kuai also stated that Taiwan is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the Chinese diaspora, as it is universally regarded as the center of the Chinese pop industry.

After the panel, participants were invited to get up on stage and pitch their ideas. At first there was a line of 20 or so, but by the end of the pitching period 40 ideas had been presented to the audience. Once the ideas had been written down, participants were invited to cast their vote – which idea did they think was the best. Everyone had three votes, and once the tickets had been counted, there were 12 ideas selected to begin forming teams.

The teams will be working on a range of products including;

1. A food search application
2. A platform for coupons of socially responsible products
3. An aggregator of local restaurant menus
4. A ‘gamification’ of location based services
5. A real time chat service called ‘Talk to me’
6. A mobile, interactive RPG
7. A courtship introduction service
8. A social TV/e-commerce platform
9. An affordable idea-management system
10. A psychology-oriented music DJ service

There will be more details to follow as the teams validate their ideas and build minimal viable products before presenting to the audience and judges on Sunday evening.

Startup Weekend is a global startup event that began in the United States in 2007. Over 300 events have been held throughout the world, and several well known companies including Zaarly, Foodspotting and GetSmartGrid were formed initially at one of these events.

If you would like to attend Sunday’s presentation in your capacity as a media outlet, please contact James Hill on 0933 941723 or james@startupweekend.tw

 

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3. StartupWeekend Shanghai

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Tudou Goes Public, Again

The Tudou going public drama is all coming over again. After countless rumors of being rejected by investment banks or being flattered with Baidu acquisition offer or resuming IPO process, Wang Wei, founder and CEO of the battered online video service, comes up with an new package concept of marketing Tudou in an aim to touting the company to the Wall Street again. According to him, Tudou is like the Chinese “Youtube+Hulu+HBO”, withe each one of them representing one of the core businesses of Tudou, including UGC contents, copyrighted quality contents and in-house productions.

 

Still remembered that Renren compared itself to the Chinese “Facebook+Groupon+Zynga”, which stands for the three fundamental businesses of Renren?

 

Actually, in-house production is just a workaround due to the skyrocketing  costs of buying copyrighted contents that we mentioned before. And even some online video practitioners didn’t all agree with that. Luo Chunjiang, CEO of online video initiative Funshion, said that “Internet has never been a powerhouse for contents. ” And one of his arguments is: “If it’s that easy to make TV programs, what are the TV productions for?”

 

However, Qiyi (like Hulu) apparently didn’t think so. Some of the Beijing-based company’s in-house productions has been on air through cooperation with local TV stations including Hunan TV and Zhejiang TV.

 

And according to people familiar with the matter, Tudou’s IPO wins full subscription of its 6 million ADS priced between US$ 28 and 30.

 

 

 

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1. Youku acquiring Tudou rumor signals cost and copyright problems in online video market
2. Rumor: Now It’s Baidu’s Turn to Acquire Tudou
3. Youku Extends Financial Lead Over Tudou

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