Karri Saarinen, co-founder of the ArcticStartup and Rails Girls is in town for the inaugural Rails Girls Singapore. Join in at HackerspaceSG this Thursday, 6th October to meet the local entrepreneurs and discuss about the Nordic/Scandinavian/Baltic startup scene.
When: Thursday 6th October
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: HackerspaceSG, 70A Bussorah Street
Here are some interesting startup news from China, not only in its capital, Beijing, but also other startup hubs such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and many more.
(1) Renren, one of the largest real-name social networking services in China that was listed in NYSE (RENN) a couple of months ago, announced their purchase of video site 56.com for US$80 million. After the acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the Q4 2011, 56.com will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Renren.
(2) VIPStore.com, a Chinese online retailer of luxury goods announced a funding round in the tens of millions of dollars led by Intel Capital. Other participants include GSR Ventures, Taishan Invest AG, Litian Investment and HGI Capital. The funding will go towards boosting the global supply chain system and improving user experience, said Yang Peifeng, CEO of the Beijing-based company.
(3) HiChina, a domain name and hosting service subsidiary of Alibaba, plans to raise as much as US$200 million in an initial public offering ahead of listing on the US stock exchange.
(4) As suspected, Groupon.cn (unrelated to the original Groupon) has been hurt by the unsustainable group-buying business model, which has a very thin profit margin of 4% and fierce competition in China. Beijing Daily reported that they downsized from 4,000 employees to around 700.
(5) A start-up called Dingshi has created Oladao.com, which aims to deliver quality online education to young children in China by combining learning with gaming.
(6) Chinese online-only apparel site VANCL is reportedly filing its IPO prospectus next month with the aim of raising between US$750 million and US$1 billion in a US IPO. The deal, which is targeted for Q4 2011, could be the largest US IPO from a Chinese company this year.
(7) Yeahka is a mobile payment solution that works exactly like Square. The card reader, priced at rmb 9.8 (US$1.5), is now on sale. The app is available for both Android and iOS.
(8) DoNews reported that, following an update of Tencent’s Weixin mobile app, Xiaomi Miliao has also released a new version of its free instant messaging client Miliao, which has LBS capability to help locate nearby friends.
(9) FTuan, a Chinese group buying service is on track to raise US$ 60M in Series C funding with previous investor Tencent participating, said founder and CEO Lin Nin.
(10) Shortly after climbing to the throne, Xu Maodong, CEO of 55Tuan.com, said that the site is swerving from daily deals to become an online platform for lifestyle service providers.
(11) Qianpin.com, a newly-founded online-to-offline (O2O) service raised hundreds of millions in RMB (US$ 15 million) from Sinobo Group. Founded by former Baidu-er Yuan Peng, the Beijing-based company is positioned as an ecommerce platform for local lifestyle services.
(12) Baidu has invested a new round of over RMB 100 million (more than US$15 million) into its wholly-owned online recruiting service Baijob.com. The site will splash around RMB 20 to 30 million (US$3.1 to 4.6 million) on an ad campaign.
We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.
We have re-launched Asia’s Top 50 Apps voting, with the help and feedback from the community. Instead of using an earlier WordPress plugin, we are now using Facebook and Google connect as our voting system. This will allow for more transparency in the votes. Unfortunately, voting via Twitter and LinkedIn will not be implemented as we realized that it allows for repeated voting.
Voting will commence from the time this blog is posted until 2359 hours, October 10. This gives about a week for the community to gather and cast their votes to find the region’s best 50 apps.
For all the earlier votes gathered, we know we said that we’ll carry forward the legitimate votes but we are facing some complications in clearly identifying these votes from the plugin’s stored data. For now, we will use only the new votes gathered from Facebook and Google connect while we work on accessing the old votes. We will get back to you if we have managed to successfully clean out the old data, with the help of some community members, and update the voting standings accordingly.
As a token of appreciation to the community for providing feedback and support for the awards, SingTel Innovation Exchange (SiX) is giving out tickets to Accelerate@Techventure. Here’s what you have to do to snag a pair of these tickets. Tweet your favorite app and why you love them or why they rock. Remember to mention @e27sg and the #top50apps hashtag and you stand a chance to receive a pair of tickets for the event and the awards ceremony. SiX has prepared 100 tickets for this giveaway.
To further showcase the nominated apps, we are doing a call for all nominated apps to submit their high resolution logos. The logos should be 300 dpi or more, in ai or jpeg format. All submission should be emailed to Muthu [at] e27 [dot] sg by Friday, October 7.
Ever come across situations where you need to securely access your entire hard drive? Or situations where you want to share large files with one another, only to find that email doesn’t support the large file or that you are frustrated with the long time it takes to upload it? Does the thought of storing your sensitive files in the cloud bothers you? Or do you want to edit your files remotely with no additional copies created? iTwin might just have that solution for you.
iTwin, as Penn-Olson puts it, is a “reinvented form of thumbdrive allows file secure, wireless local file-sharing between two computers without any cables”. iTwin consists of a pair of identical USB dongles. How it works?
What distinguished iTwin from other Cloud storage tools such as Dropbox is that with iTwin, there is no storage limit (other than your own storage space on your local computer), and that the file is restricted to you only, because all data is encrypted by a cypto-key that resides only on the paired halves. To me, the selling point of iTwin is its security as well as ease of usage. Files are more secure because it is, essentially, stored on your own computer and not on the cloud, and your remote data can only be accessed if you have the physical iTwin with you. Other than that, to add more security, you can also set a password for your iTwin, and if that doesn’t convince you, you can also remotely disable your iTwin should you lose it. iTwin also provides you access to your computer’s entire hard drive and any attached storage, which makes it better than conventional USB Flash Drive that has limited storage capacity.
The good thing: When I first tested out iTwin, it turned out to be a good experience and I actually loved it. It was amazingly simple to just drag and drop your files from your local computer and it would show up in the remote computer. Besides that, iTwin also allows editing directly into the files without the need to create a second copy or to transfer it again to the local computer, unlike the conventional USB.
The bad thing: The limitation with iTwin is that the local computer must be online to enable access towards the files on the iTwin. In other words, it must also be switched on. iTwin took a step further by ensuring that your sleep or hibernate functions are disabled when the iTwin is plugged in. Another downside is that sharing files with multiple parties is not possible. Only the user of the remote computer can access files from the local computer.
Perhaps one point worth mentioning is that, how many users would actually buy iTwin. The iTwin is available to the public at USD99 on iTwin’s website, and works with Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Mac OS X. With the various cloud storage tools out there which many are familiar with, such as Dropbox, and with simple file sharing tools such as Google Docs, the group of users who really need that extra layer of security which cloud storage tools don’t offer is actually quite small a target group. How many of the rest would actually get their hands on the iTwin. Would just focusing on enterprise users be a better target for the company?
Chinese group buying service Lashou has selected CCIG (China Capital Investment Group) and Nomura Securities as main underwriter of its IPO instead of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, with Barclays Capitals also listed as additional underwriter. The Beijing-based company plans to raise between US$ 100 million and $ 200 million in the imminent initial public offering in the fourth quarter of this year.
Founded by Chinese internet veteran Wu Bo in March of 2010, Lashou has raised US$ 166 million in three rounds of funding with valuation of over $ 1.1 billion.
Related posts:
Here are some interesting startup news from around Philippines, not only in its capital, Manila, but also other startup hubs such as Cebu, General Santos City, Pasay, Quezon City, and many more.
(1) Next month, Globe Telecom, in partnership with local web engineering firm Proudcloud, will launch Startup Weekend Manila, patterned after one of the most successful start-up accelerator programs from the United States.
(2) Beer Below Zero was born — naturally — out of a drinking spree. Beer Below Zero utilizes “the technology of processing any kind of beer and serving it just below freezing point… of course below zero degrees Celsius,” explains Nunez.
(3) Old Manila Walks is an educational tour company that specializes in cultural, historical, and culinary themed tours in and around Manila.
(4) Early this year, BPI Family launched www.bpiloans.com, which provides solutions and tools for Filipino entrepreneurs.
(5) Kalinga Coffee Cookies, the newest locally processed food product of the province was a nominee in the recent 2011 One Town One Product (OTOP) National Expo Philippines at SM Mega Mall.
We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.
Here are some interesting startup news from Japan, not only from its capital, Tokyo, but also other startup hubs like Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, and many more.
(1) Internet company DeNA has announced that they will acquire all shares of the Vietnamese game development company Punch Entertainment. Buyout was supposed to have completed in September.
(2) Grenge has released a free-to-download communication app called “Group Talk” for mixi and Android. “Group Talk” is a group chat application which allows you to choose your close friends from “My miku” (friends on mixi) and have a chat just with them.
(3) Google released a new version of Google+ app for iPhone on iTunes store. The revision 1.0.4.2326 version seems to block users who convert phonetics to Japanese (both Chinese-kanji and kana) letters.
(4) eBook Initiative, which runs Japanese online e-book mall eBookJapan, announced that their IPO at Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers section has been approved.
(5) Taito is coming out with “Space Invaders Infinity Gene LITE”, an Android game app on DeNA’s Mobage platform. The free app allows users to get a taste of “Space Invaders Infinity Gene”, which is distributed in the Japanese Android Market.
(6) Konami has launched an arcade game called Baseball Heroes 2011 Shine Star, which is linked to one of its social games, Professional Baseball Dream Nine,which have about 1 million users on the GREE platform.
We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.
Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization, today announced plans to invest approximately US$20million, in six Indian companies. The investments are part of Intel Capital’s ongoing efforts to support Indian technology innovation and entrepreneurship.
The six companies that Intel Capital plans to invest in are:
Three investments – Saankhya Labs, Testing Czars, and FINO – have been completed. Intel Capital has signed investment agreements with What’s on India, enStage and DURON Energy. Details of these six investments, including the amount to be invested in each company were not disclosed.
TestingCzars provides a new generation software test products that automate testing of Web, mobile and client/server applications, which are up to five times faster and 10 times more cost productive compared to typical approaches. The company also provides a range of independent testing services for customers in different industries. TestingCzars’ services and products help companies increase quality and test coverage, while speeding up software release cycles. Intel Capital’s investment in TestingCzars will fund further development of its test automation technology.
Saankhya Labs is a supplier of software-defined demodulation solutions (semiconductor and firmware) for universal digital TV, analog TV, radio, and other broadcast media. Saankhya’s innovative approach allows for global standards coverage and convergence of multiple components into a single demodulation device. The funding will be used to develop additional product offerings and fund expansion of worldwide marketing and sales operations.
FINO is a business and banking technology platform combined with an extensive services delivery channel. The company enables micro-transaction sourcing and acquisition through 15,000 transaction points in 300 districts across 24 states and has a customer base of over 39 million.
Signed Investment Agreements:
What’s On India Pvt. Ltd. is India’s premier TV guidance company working with all major TV networks and operators. The company’s vision is to enable TV content search, discovery and guidance across varied platforms and technologies. What’s-On-India’s technology vertical runs India’s largest multi-platform, multi-lingual, multi-device electronic program guide (EPG) system that covers more than 550 TV channels on the source side and powers EPGs into more than 20 million set-top-boxes and devices on the destination end. The media vertical of the company runs the “What’s-On-India” channel that is currently available in more than 30 million households across DTH and Cable besides other media assets such as portals, widgets and apps on tablets, mobile and smart-TVs. The investment is aimed at expanding the technology vertical into new and emerging technologies as well as strengthening the company’s owned media portfolio (What’s OnIndia has earlier raised funding from Sequoia Capital).
enStage is an innovative payment solutions and processing provider for the global marketplace. The company’s technology enables customers to offer secure payments at the point of sale, on the Internet, or via mobile device or via interactive voice recognition. The funds will be used for expansion of the company (enStage earlier raised funding from Accel Partners)
DURON Energy is a manufacturer and distributor of affordable consumer solar power products designed for off-grid use in emerging markets. Current products from DuronTM include Duron Pro, Duron Breeze and Duron Mega, all-in one portable solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems designed for use in rural India. Headquartered in Bangalore, the company operates on a market-driven approach to help address the challenge of inadequate access to electricity around the world.
Some of the worst horror stories in digital campaigns(be in Adwords, Facebook ads or mobile campaigns) I’ve known have happened because of simple oversights.
This is the way these typically happen – you set up campaigns, go away for a couple of hours, come back to see unmentionable things having happened – usually it’s that you’ve blown a couple of thousand dollars through your account and got nothing for it – or that you wait forever and get no results whatsoever.
Here are 4 simple things that many startups and businesses miss, and burn their fingers with. Thankfully, they are easy to fix – and it takes only a moment to make sure you have them all covered.
Make sure you set your budget parameters prudently. This is by and large the biggest cause of disasters, be it on Facebook ads, Adwords or a mobile platform.
Double check your campaign budget and daily budget. Make sure your campaign end-date is set correctly.
Often, ads end up getting targeted to the wrong regions. You might want to target one city, and you end up targeting an entire country. You might want to target only search, or only one category, or one handset – and you might pick the setting to target all categories.
Before you know it, you have a big fat addition to your campaign bills. Double-check that you have picked only the targeting parameters that you want.
You have to be especially careful on Google Adwords, where the system politely suggests ‘all available sites’ as ‘recommended for new advertisers’, but which can typically eat up entire budgets quickly.
Now, if overspending is a cause for headaches, so is under spending. Often you might start a campaign, and see hardly any traffic.
This is typically because your bids aren’t high enough compared to competition. If you’re on Google, use the Google Keyword Tool to get an idea of bid ranges(do note: use this only for ballpark numbers – the exact bid numbers on the keyword tool are wildly inaccurate).
If you’re on Facebook or any other platform, increase your bids gradually until you start getting traffic. The key, as always, is to wait, watch, experiment, and see what works.
Often you might find your ads not running because they’re awaiting approval, or because they’ve been disapproved. Check that your creatives fit ad specs – number of characters, file size, file format – the works.
These simple, easy-to-fix tips should make sure you don’t make those annoying minor oversights that end up becoming quite nasty.
[Shamanth Rao is the head of campaign management for APAC at InMobi (http://InMobi.com ). His writings are at http://BywayStar.com ]
Info Edge has informed BSE that the Company propose to invest an additional amount of Rs. 180 million (~USD 3.6 mn) through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares in Kinobeo Software Private Limited (i.e. www.mydala.com). The Company had committed Rs. 90 million ($2mn) in the first round of funding in April 2011.
NCR based MyDala earlier raised seed money ($250K) from PE veterans Ajay Relan and Jayant Basu. The group buying site boasts of more than 3 million subscribers (and more than 250, 000 visitors every day).
Recommended List: List of group buying sites in India.
Recent investments by Info Edge
India has become an important market for Android ecosystem (read: Bravo! India Among The Top 3 Countries For Android App Ideas) and while Microsoft still makes money from each Android device sold, the company has launched a special promotional campaign for students to get to start building windows phone 7 apps.
Called ‘i unlock joy’, the campaign is aimed at students who are part of Microsoft’s DreamSpark Program. All you need to do is that once you register, you can start developing apps (using dev tools) and submit your apps at the AppHub store. Normally, Microsoft charges $99/year for AppHub program, but is free for DreamSpark student.
Goodies
From Our AppnomyExperience
Students will drive a lot of innovation in the app ecosystem – especially the serendipity part, i.e. build-and-OMG-it’s-a-success, i.e. apps which are really vague by nature (think iFart), but will drive a lot of consumer interest. In fact, the last Appnomy Conference had a very healthy mix of students and professions, with a lot of technology students attending the event to understand the nuances of app business.
As far as Microsoft is concerned, they have create a huge network of students over the last few years and expect more of ‘Android Vs. WP7’ debate in the coming days.
Cyber Agent has announced that it will establish an “Overseas Smartphone Marketing Division,” a specialized station for assistance in the undertaking of overseas marketing for smartphone, aimed particularly at America.
"Overseas Smartphone Marketing Division" is geared towards offering smartphone promotion of their Japanese business into the overseas market.
Cyber Agent’s operations include starting the overseas application “Free App King” which has recorded 2 million downloads from the AppStore, developing the smartphone media and service Smartphone Ad Network using Reward Network partner media, and is heading in the direction of implementing overseas smartphone promotion.
In addition to overseas business, smartphone promotion within Japan includes their group Smartphone Ad Network’s “AMoAd,” smartphone application “FreeAppNow,” and smartphone reward advertisement “CA Reward.”
Translation authorized by VSMedia
Cyber Agent Establishes Overseas Smartphone Marketing Division