Getting folks to check into apps is hard. But what would happen if we could automatically check into events – like TV shows – automatically? Today at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing, a Chinese team is trying to take the check-in business into a whole new level.
Founded in September 2011, Yuwan is an application that lets TV viewers check into their favorite TV programs or even commercials and then share them on social media platforms such as Sina Weibo.
The Beijing-based startup employs an unique SoundPrint technology to record, analyze and label TV programs. That’s how the app can recognize what you’re currently watching as it “listens” to your TV set.
The Yuwan team said that television penetration in China is over 97% while TV programs-related discussions are amongst the top-five trendy topics on Chinese social media. But for a long time was no such thing in China that allowed coach potatoes to share and comment on shows they love and watch together.
[Note, the post is also co-published on TechCrunch, the video is produced by TechCrunch TV]
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The Shanzai industry is always beyond your expectation. The idea can get copied very quick, and because you have to compete with other copies, you have to make sure you can bring something fancy in order to stand out in the market.
Recently we met iBoxPay, another Square liker from Shenzhen. Unlike Yeahka which is Shenzhen-based, iBoxPay’s product is not available in the market, yet. But, what impressed me is that the features promised on its official site are just amazing. RFID reader, Barcode Scanner, the Square-function, USBKey for secure, e-signature etc, it looks like iBoxPay is going to offer you a All-in-One solution combines with all future’s mobile payment methods. I just can not wait to check out how it will work.
Even more interesting, we also realized that the founder of iBoxPay is also the share-holder of GooApple, the Android-powered iPhone 4 clone. The founder also confirmed that iBoxPay had just closed its funding from a very famous international VC.
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Startup Weekend is in the process of establishing itself as a "brand" and regular event in Japan's web and startup world, and following Tokyo in August, it's now time hold a Startup Weekend in Kyoto.
The so-called Startup Weekend X Kyoto Research Park event (Facebook page) will take place:
November 18 (Friday), from 6.30pm - November 20 at 10pm
Kyoto Research Park
京都市下京区中堂寺粟田町93京都リサーチパーク4号館
As with all Startup Weekends around the world, the goal is to "build communities, companies and projects" over the course of a weekend.
The winning team of Startup Weekend Kyoto will fly to Singapore and join DEMO Asia 2012 to represent Kyoto (along with the winning team of Startup Weekend Tokyo).
You can register for the event in Kyoto on this site.
Register For The Next Startup Weekend In Japan: November 18, Kyoto Research Park
UCWeb, the Shenzen-based mobile software vendor announced today suing Tencent for unfair competition in the wake of the latter’s report claiming “Tencent Mobile Browser Eclipsed Its Competitors to Became No.1”. UCWeb has issued an open letter to its partners and users refuting Tencent’s report couple weeks ago.
Yu Yongfu, UCWeb CEO said that Tencent milked its monopoly position to menace partners and distort report.
The two companies both claimed to be the largest Chinese mobile browser vendor, by different metrics. UCWeb said that its browser’s monthly active users has recorded 167 million, which means UCWeb took over 77.67% of Chinese mobile browser market given China’s mobile browser users of 215 million.
Shenzhen-based Tencent hasn’t responded to the matter yet.
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Koshidaka, a company runs 317 karaoke shops all around Japan (and one oversea, in Korea), foretold that it would open a new category business "Hitori Karaoka"(one man's karaoka) at Kanda, Tokyo around the end of this month, November 2011.
One-man's Karaoke, corridor
Different from many other countries where Karaoke means singing in a bar in front of other people whom you do not know, mainstream Karaoke experience in Japan is to rent a so-called "box" and let your friends hear your singing. (I see resemblance with the difference between Facebook and Mixi there)
And the term "Hitori Karaoke" has been around there by people who are too shy to sing for others (Google search gives back 3 million results [J]), but still want to sing by herself/himself. The phrase sometimes had a masochistic tone, and visiting Karaoke box and asked to rent a room by oneself might be more humiliating than singing to audience.
So this new shop, having all 24 rooms are for single person, would be a cure for those stoic tao of Karaoke seekers.
According to SankeiBiz [J], those single rooms are so small then they may cause acoustic howling. The shop will rent a head-phone for free for the case.
via Nico Nico News
release [J]
One Man’s Karaoke Box “Hitori Karaoke” Appears In Tokyo
Pluggd.in’s Hackathon starts today and we thought we will introduce some of the hackers to all. So here goes details of few hackers and what they plan to hack at the event.
Who am I?
I’m Rohan 19yr. old entrepreneur and php/node dev. My Hobbies are traveling,music,sports,exploring NBT ideas and coding late at night!
What I would like to do/solve at Pluggd.in’s Hackathon?
I would like to build a social utility which would allow people to discover like minded peers having common interests and chat with them.
Skills set/expertise/person i am looking for the idea?
I am looking for a designer who is passionate about creating magical user experience.
Who Am I?
A techie, having earned my stripes at Microsoft and VMware and Akimbi (a startup that was acquired by VMware). Now working on a startup idea of my own, doing some android dev these days and wearing non-techie hats too.
What I would like to do/solve at Pluggd.in’s Hackathon.
I have a simple idea around capturing personal medical records using a smartphone. Often, when the doctor asks me for a previous prescription/diagnosis, i don’t have it handy. But I’m not tied to this idea only – Looking to build something cool, and meet good folks.
Skills looking for:
- Designer – would really like to get a good designer to collaborate with here.
- Web developer – can use any of the frameworks (ruby / django-python / php / java)
- I can do the android stuff, but can also use help from other devs if they’re interested. And we could try doing it on other platforms.
Who am I?
I’m a Serial Social Innovator by the day – initiator of SocialSync.org, Ads4Good.org and OpenCivic.in; and a Code Warrior by night – Ruby on Rails, NoSQL and Node.js is part of my current artillery. In essence I am a ‘Startup Jockey‘. Apart from writing code, I enjoy running, hiking and meeting interesting people.
What I would like to do/solve at Pluggd.in’s Hackathon.
I would be _cooking_ *delicious* Publisher Widgets for Zomato using the Zomato API.
Rationale:
Who are the other hackers? Take a look at some of them:
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Wanna Hack @Hackathon?
We have closed the online registration, but you can come over to the venue and grab your seat.
Venue: Jaaga, No 68, KH Double Road Opp. Coporation Bank, Next to the K H Road Bus Stand, Bangalore.
Contact Number: +91 9241 00 9423 [Kunal].
Agenda/Mentor details here.
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/unpluggd/
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Event solutions provider, Ayojak has launched CoD (Cash-on-Delivery) solution to sell event tickets across India. The company has partnered with FedEx(AFL), GharPay, and Santa Claus Couriers to enable Event Organisers to sell their event tickets by cash-on-delivery across all India in more than 3000 cities (UnPluggd tickets can now be bought using CoD option)
Given that Ayojak is in a B2B business, it’s very important for them to create a trust factor around CoD option (i.e. create FAQs etc) as event organizers really need to be confident of using this service (and the charges associated with it) and the service around it.
As far COD charges are concerned, it is Rs. 100 for amount less than Rs. 1700 and 6% for tickets more than Rs. 1700. In due course of time, this will come down though (recommended read: An operational guide to CoD for eCommerce companies in India).
Earlier, we did a comparison of event solutions (read: Compared: DoAttend Vs. Ayojak) and a parameter where Ayojak scored a big plus over DoAtttend was customer support.
In fact, based on our experience, almost 50% registrations happen at the venue, and rest online. Of all the online registrations, failed transactions stand at around 20-30%.
What do you do with them? A potential attendee wants to attend the event, but he/she isn’t able to complete the registration, owing to several reasons. In such cases, what matters is the support provided by the event platform during the online transaction, especially when the transaction fails.
The Ayojak team actually score a big plus over DoAttend – they send out mailers (and failure reasons) for each and every failed transaction and as an event organization, you actually are seen providing a better support during the purchase.
In fact, it leads to better conversion and eventually a happy customer. With DoAttend, the team relies on the product capability and there are ways to send reminder emails when there are incomplete orders.
The Ayojak CoD option has been enabled for UnPluggd tickets – so do give the service a spin and share your experience.
Guest article contributed by Ayojak founder, Santosh Panda:
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Banyan Tree executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping talks about the 'New Normal'. Photo: EMLYON Business School
At a plenary session of the World Entrepreneurship Forum held in Singapore on 3rd November, entrepreneurs, thinkers, and a French mayor gave their takes on how to encourage entrepreneurship globally.
But the remark that encapsulated the discussion turned out not to be from the panelists, but a member of the audience during the Q&A session.
We don’t just need STEM education — science, technology, engineering, and mathamatics; we need STEM LA, said the American who has lived in Singapore for many years.
‘LA’ stands for liberal arts education, which refers to a curriculum that imparts general knowledge, so as to develop the student’s intellectual abilities and critical thinking skills.
‘La’ also sounds like ‘lah’, a common Singlish word often appended to the end of sentences which can mean many things.
The nexus between creativity, freedom of expression, and entrepreneurship was a major theme during the session.
Dr Ray O Johnson, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation, talked about howAlbert Einstein had difficulty understanding time and the concepts of past, present, and future.
But instead of letting his deficiency become an obstacle, he sought to understand time from a different perspective, and this led to the discovery of the theory of relativity, which states that the passing of time can be hastened or slowed by velocity and gravitational pull.
“People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion,” he once said.
Creative minds like Einstein can only flourish in environments that allow for it.
According to Ray, a society that tries to manage innovation instead of supporting it would ultimately fail. This very critique was leveled towards the Singapore government by INSEAD professor Patrick Turner in a recent article.
Gérard Collomb, Senator-Mayor of Lyon, France, spoke of things cities can do to create the right environment for innovation. One of the ways is to let culture and the arts flourish. Artists must not feel like they are left on the fringes of society, he noted.
While the link between culture and entrepreneur may sound distant at first, Collomb believes that cities with a flourishing cultural life would attract the best minds, since culture is related to a high quality of life.
Singapore, in an effort to promote itself as a “renaissance city”, seemed to have gotten the memo.
There has been a concerted effort by the government to promote arts and culture. The iconic Marina Bay Sands, besides housing a casino, is also home to the ArtScience Museum, which recently featured exhibitions by great artists Salvador Dalí and Vincent Van Gogh.
Events like the Singapore Biennale and Singapore Arts Festival are designed to position the country as a city for the arts. Local artists can also seek funding from the National Arts Council to support their works.
Besides arts and culture, the political space has also opened up. During the recent General Election in May 2011, the government has, for the first time, legalized the use of new media for political purposes.
This opening up of Singapore society is what Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping described as the ‘New Normal’ — a term used to describe the changes to the country’s socio-political landscape leading up to and after the recent General Election in May 2011.
His missive was a response to what he describes as a “politically correct” answer given by Prof Su Guaning, President Emeritus of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), in response to a question about what Singapore has done to generate entrepreneurial buzz in the city.
Prof Su simply rattled on about how Singapore’s pioneer leadership was the key reason driving the country forward even today.
Kwon Ping, in an attempt to provide a more “honest” answer, highlighted how the younger generation’s aspirations and demands for more autonomy and independence has caused the government to loosen up political control.
He added that Singaporeans have more freedom to express themselves today than they did decades ago, a trend that has encouraged Singaporeans to become bolder and more independent in their thinking.
Kwon Ping himself is a vocal Singaporean who’s not afraid to challenge boundaries. After all, as a journalist, he was jailed by the Singapore government for two months after writing allegedly ”pro-communist” articles for the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Currently, Banyan Tree manages over 20 resorts and hotels, 60 spas, 70 retail galleries, and 3 golf courses.
As Singapore continues its climb towards becoming a world class entrepreneurial city, it is inevitable that the government wants the country to be seen as a society that welcomes diversity in all its forms.
Visionaries like Steve Jobs, after all, are known for their unconventional thinking. He once told a New York Times journalist that “doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.” He even suggested that Bill Gates would “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once.”
Not something you’d say in Singapore, which has a tough policy against drugs.
Going forward, the government finds itself with the unenviable task of nurturing the next Zuckerburg on one hand, and maintaining the country’s stable business environment on the other; a challenge indeed.
This explains why the government and its agencies have been schizophrenic in many respects.
While our political leaders welcome international artists, the Singapore Art Museum won’t hesitate to censor exhibits that are deemed ‘inappropriate‘. While the ruling party wants to foster critical thinking, the mainstream media is still skittish about criticizing government policy. And while the government wants to promote entrepreneurship, our education system doesn’t reward failure.
I sincerely hope these are part of our society’s growing up phase.
Google DevFest is coming to Singapore next Saturday. Google DevFests are a great opportunity to learn more about Google technologies and developer products. The events also give participants a chance to meet developer advocates and engineers who work on those products and ask them any questions they might have. To view full schedule, click here.
Event Details
When: Saturday, 12th November 2011
Time: 9am-5pm
Where: Grand Hyatt, 10 Scotts Road, Singapore 22821 (Map)
Register here.
In dentistry, “furcation” means the division of the roots, primarily in teeth with more than one root. In the upper jaw we speak of trifurcation (since the rear teeth of the upper jaw have three roots). In the lower jaw we speak of bifurcation (since the lower jaw rear teeth have two roots).
Here you see a tooth. You can recognise the crown. This then goes on into the root stem. In the picture you can clearly recognise the transitional zone. We call this the enamel-cement border. Unlike the tooth crown, the tooth roots don’t have a surface of enamel but rather of a material which is similar to bone, namely root cement.
The root stem divides into its particular roots and each area of division is described as furcation. In this case we have a three root tooth and we thus speak of trifurcation.
For 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.
Saturday 5th November:
(1) Lion City Startup Brekkie
Tuesday 8th November:
(1) Entrepreneurs Unplugged 2011
(2) Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011 Opening Ceremony
Wednesday 9th November:
(1) WMware: Inaugural Women in IT Forum
Thursday 10th November:
(1) Business of Design Forum: Design for Business Growth
(2) Networking with Japanese Start-Ups
Saturday 12th November:
(1) Google DevFest Singapore
(2) Rainmakers 2011: To Product/Market Fit and Beyond
Image courtesy of joyosity.
Next Thursday morning, Singapore-based start-ups that are keen to establish partnerships, strengthen connections, and expand their reach into the Japanese market, should attend this event. There will be managers of the Technology Seed Incubator and 6 start-ups from Aizuwakamatsu City who are here to seek partners. Each of them will spend 15 mins to pitch their product/service, followed by demonstrations. This event is part of IDA’s iSTART Programme.
Event Details
When: Thursday, 10th November 2011
Time: 10am-2pm
Where: Blk 71, 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #02-18, Singapore (Map)
RSVP by sending an email with details of Company Name, Contact, Email, Business Activity (product/service) – summarized in a paragraph, Remarks/Specify interest in meeting with any company (if applicable), to harville_tan@ida.gov.sg.
Next Thursday, Design for Enterprises will organize a Business of Design Forum entitled “Design for Business Growth.” It brings together internationally acclaimed design thought leaders to share their experiences on helping enterprises use design strategically for business growth. Christopher Bangle of Chris Bangle Associates, Toshiyuki Kita of Studio Toshiyuki KITA, Hael Kobayashi from University of Technology Sydney, Simona Maschi from Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID), and Dick Powell of Seymourpowell are the panelists for this forum. Panelists details, programme details, and the registration form can be viewed here.
Event Details
When: Thursday, 10th November 2011
Time: 10am-1pm (Registration starts at 9.30am)
Where: Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Level 3, Heliconia Room 3401 (Map)
RSVP by sending your completed registration form to designforenterprises@mica.gov.sg by 7th Nov.
CyberAgent’s [J] American corporate body CyberAgent America,Inc has released a new iOS game application “Animal Bakery.” Download is free.
“Animal Bakery” is a restaurant management social game where you make your own bakery and treat the animals of the forest to food prepared with natural ingredients. With over 40 animals appearing, over 60 recipes, and over 200 virtual items to decorate the bakery, you can make the bakery according to your own taste. It’s also linked with the game community “GAMEWAVE,’ so it’s possible to share your friends, results and activity from there. Both English and Japanese are supported.
Translation authorized by VSMedia
CyberAgent America Releases New iPhone App “Animal Bakery”
Shenzhen-based LiuDuRenHe(六度人和) Technology Co., Ltd, a business-oriented SaaS provider announced new round of funding from Tencent, signaling Tencent’s desire in stepping into corporate market.
Founded in April 2007, LiuDuRenHe’s online CRM platform EC offers customers with features including online customer services, 400 Hotline, text messaging, fax and instant messaging. What’s more, EC can help companies to track how many customers are coming from which ad source so they can measure the effectiveness of advertising, a feature usually lacking in many online CRM solutions.
According to Zhang Xinliang, CEO of LiuDuRenHe, the two parties would implement comprehensive co-operation strategies in technology and marketing. For starters, EC client will be interconnected with QQ, the most popular IM client in China. That means you can just start an EC client to talk to your customers who might not have EC installed but are very likely to have a QQ account given the sheer amount of QQ users in China. “Tencent’s investment gives us an opportunity to stand on the giant’s shoulder. Next up we will have more communication with our agents with more support in both marketing and product.”
As of now EC has more than 20,000 customers in China.
Tencent already has similar solutions, including enterprise-oriented Instant Messaging service RTX and Corporate QQ.
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Vivek Wadhwa is a Visiting Scholar, School of Information, UC-Berkeley; Director of Research, Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization, and Exec in Residence, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; Senior Research Associate, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School; Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University; and faculty member and advisor at Singularity University.
Behind the academia lies the story of Vivek Wadhwa, the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur who has 2 successful startups under the belt and importantly, a Bollywood movie too!
And with this interview, we announce a new channel on Pluggd.in called “MyWay (or Highway)”, which will bring interviews/journeys of inspiring entrepreneurs to Pluggd.in readers.
Pluggd.in: Vivek, Let’s start with your life as a programmer-turned-entrepreneur.
Vivek Wadhwa: I did my MBA from New York University and B.A. in Computing Studies from the University of Canberra, in Australia. When I was going to school, someone showed me video punch card. I was so fascinated about it that I decided to make a career out of it. I started learning new language/techniques.I decided to make a career and was surprised to know that people actually pay you money for the computer code. First half of my career, I was a computer programmer learning new languages.
When I went to Boston, I joined a company and they needed to move to a client-server architecture (80s). I ended up developing the system – and was quite a success (the company decided to spin off that business unit into its own company, Seer Technologies). And then I started Relativity Technologies, which helps companies modernize their legacy computer systems. That was doing very well until the dot-com crush bubble hit us hard.
Pluggd.in: You also had great exits.
..
Vivek Wadhwa: I took the first company (Seer Technologies) public and later started Relativity Technologies
I worked too hard and I burned myself out. One day, I woke up in the hospital (heart attack) and it felt like a twilight zone. But eventually I snapped out of it (my both companies did extremely well, I fixed the company). My second company was taking off like a rocket ship until it got into a trouble. But then I fixed it and it was valuable again. And here I am dying in the hospital and my VCs said that this is an extremely valuable company and they wanted to take it over (and all this when I was in critical care in the hospital).
I then fought the battle, got into ugly battles and won them.
There are different kind of corruptions – human being worldwide are the same. In India you have one type of corruption, in America you have different types of corruption. But it’s the same. Human beings worldwide are same. They often lack ethics. There are good people and some very bad people also – I was tired of tech world /ethics of such people and exited from tech world after that. And then I had to decide what to do next.
Pluggd.in: And then?
Vivek Wadhwa: You’ll be surprised! I took a year off after the heart attack and went to Bollywood!
My son, Vineet didn’t pick up Hindi for a very long time, but he started watching Hindi movies/ and then one fine day he said “Dad, I want to be a movie star”.
I said” OMG! What’s going on here”.
I knew investment banker, Brad Listermann who knew Kashmira Shah…and eventually I produced the movie “MY Bollywood Bride” in 2007.
But later I completely checked out of Bollywood world. I wanted to be a part of the world where I could apply my mind, my energy and give back to the world. And something which was ethical – and I tell you that academia is ethical. It really is an honor for me to be academic and working with great people.
And I feel I am making great impact to the world with my research.
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Vivek Wadhwa has been researching on globalization for the last 7 years and is often seen debating on startup visa and related topics, Follow him on his twitter (@wadhwa) and his articles on his website: wadhwa.com.
Do read Vivek’s articles on Pluggd.in:
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Follow Pluggd.in’s MyWay channel on RSS & Twitter.
- For those who are keen on meeting such Inspiring entrepreneurs, do attend the next edition of UnPluggd, scheduled for November 19th, Pune. UnPluggd is India’s largest startup event focused on bringing amazing content and showcasing emerging startups from India.
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