The unofficial informal drinks session after day one of DEMO Asia 2012. Only open to attendees of DEMO Asia. We will be meeting at Krish: 9 Rochester Park. It’s a 10-minute walk from Matrix@Biopolis. Directions here. We are happy to have Krish extend their Happy Hour till 10pm for us. Beers only! Please help us by registering here so we can cater for logistics!
Picture taken from cebit.com.au
I made a trip down to Sydney last week and met up briefly with Kim Heras, the co-founder Of PushStart and former editor of The Next Web Australia, to understand a little about what is going on in the Australian startup scene.
Kim shared that areas in marketplaces, enterprises, and mobile space are looking sunny bright in Australia. A few examples he quoted were:
Australian entrepreneurs understand the true meaning of being bootstrapped and know how to run their businesses cheap. Kim describes this phenomenon as a by-product of the absence of capital in the Australian startup scene. Australian VCs are generally risk adverse, so entrepreneurs value every single cent that is given to them.
Australian entrepreneurs aim for the world market and possess a more global outlook. Let’s take some factors into consideration: Australia is relatively close to Asia, used to be a British Colony, and looks to the United States for expansion of their companies. They are well-positioned for a true global understanding of markets.
Kim also shared that the real market outreach in Australia is about four to five million users, which makes it difficult for startups to scale. For that reason consumer web startups have trouble gaining popularity. It is essential for Australian entrepreneurs to think globally and integrate with other markets.
But having said all that, it seems that there is not much of an entrepreneurship culture in Australia. In fact, most students choose to seek comfortable high paying jobs instead of venturing out on their own upon graduation. It takes time to build an eco-system, and Kim actually sees the potential in Australia to produce the next big thing:
Companies that come out of smaller countries must have a global focus, and those are the type of businesses that Australia is producing.
I thought this was applicable to our Singaporean entrepreneurs too, given our small market. And something motivational for all entrepreneurs:
It is the difference between small business owners and growth-minded entrepreneurs – The latter thinks bigger.
[Australia image from Shutterstock]
Citrix and Dell have partnered to launch a VDI (Virtual desktop infrastructure) appliance for the mass market. The Dell DVS Simplified solution with Citrix VDI-in-a-Box™ is an easy, repeatable solution that will be sold through Dell’s global sales team and channels.
Desktop Virtualization
Leveraging the all-in-one Citrix VDI-in-a-Box software, Dell and Citrix have created a simple integrated hardware VDI appliance that is pre-certified to support defined numbers of desktops. Based on the VDI-in-a-Box grid architecture running on Dell servers, the Dell DVS Simplified VDI appliance can be easily installed to create and rapidly scale a virtual desktop deployment in response to business needs, making VDI easily consumable by light IT organizations/SMEs that may have previously lacked the resources and datacenter infrastructure needed for desktop virtualization.
The VDI appliance is backed by a full Citrix Ready® verified ecosystem, providing customers with tested and validated workforce mobility solutions – claims to be supporting over one billion devices, including PCs, Macs, thin clients, tablets, smartphones, along with peripherals such as web cams, printers, mice and keyboards.
This is an interesting development and is a step in making desktop PCs redundant (especially in enterprise space). The infrastructure to deploy virtual desktops amounts to only $260–$425 per virtual desktop. Workers can access their virtual desktops using repurposed existing PCs or Macs, or new thin clients and tablets and importantly, there is no need to determine how much disk, CPU and RAM to use. Simply unpack the box, power it on and go. Built on the VDI-in-a-Box grid architecture, adding virtual desktops is as simple as adding appliances like building blocks, and high-availability is built-in.
Watch this introductory video:
Related forum Discussion: Thin Clients for startup or not ?
Komli Media has been on an acquisition spree (acquired Zestadz, Aktiv Digital, Indoor Media, PostClick) and its been reported that that Komli has acquired AdMax, an Asian ad network that offers it’s services in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Very recently, Komli launched ATOM, a RTB (real time bidding) platform that provides access to over 10 billion ad impressions per month, over 90 percent reach into India’s online audience (estimated 80 million + users) and coverage across hundreds of thousands of publishers including over 50% of the top 200 publishers in India.
- more details as we get them.
Just after Yahoo India announced that it is not a social network, Facebook has told Delhi trial court that the company is not responsible for user-generated content hosted on its website. Earlier, Indian government gave nod to prosecute Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and 18 other sites for allegedly promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration. The government had earlier asked ‘social networking’ companies to screen content manually.
“Facebook pleaded before the court to remove its name as one of the parties in the petition saying it is not responsible for hosting the content that may appear on Facebook.com or any website. It said that it is being wrongly prosecuted under the incorrect description of ‘Facebook’ and stated that its correct addressal is ‘Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd’.
The plaintiff has filed the present suit with ulterior motives to harass Facebook. The present suit is a gross abuse of the process of law and filed with ulterior motive of publicity and causing harassment to it,” [ET]
But then, India is setting up National Cyber Coordination Centre to Scan Tweets, Facebook Status Updates and Emails and don’t be surprised that government asks all these companies to host data in India located servers (Google has already started the implementation of Country Specific Censorship : Blogspot Redirected to Blogspot.in in India).
Also see: IAMAI Seeks Income Tax Exemption for Internet Companies in India
Komli Media has acquired Admax Network, a leading digital media network in Southeast Asia for an undisclosed fee. Komli Media claims to have 120 million unique monthly users while Admax has 90 million.
The combined total will give Komli Media a whopping total of 150 million. A representative from Komli Media Group explained to me that its 120 million figure is a combination of third party audited numbers from comScore, Nielsen, and Effective Measure. The combined figure of 150 million monthly users is derived after the acquisition of Admax and discounting “duplicate users.”
With Admax on board, Komli Media hopes to strengthen its digital media foothold in Southeast Asia, boasting a network of 4,600 publishers, 350 advertisers (including Sony and Citibank), and exclusive sales partnerships with Facebook in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It also has a partnership with MSN in Thailand.
The Admax brand will be functioning under Aktiv Digital, another digital media network company run by Komli Media and which operates primarily across Southeast Asia.
Based in Mumbai, India, Komli Media’s list of investors includes Norwest Venture Partners, Draper Nexus Ventures, Helion Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The company is in the mood to acquire other digital media network companies, as the a rep explained to me:
Komli looks at acquisitions only when they add strategic value to the company either by way of technology or distribution. Considering we have successfully acquired five companies in the last 2 years, the possibility cannot be ruled out if the right opportunity arises.
Here’s an official video made by Komli about the acquisiton (or video link for mobile readers):
In a big vote of confidence in the luxury e-commerce sector in China, the UK e-tailer Net-A-Porter has today confirmed its acquisition of a Chinese high-fashion online mall, Shouke (after hearing rumors of it yesterday). That site will soon close and then be magically transformed into the Chinese version of the company’s discount couture outlet, The Outnet. The financial terms of the deal have not been revealed.
The new Chinese site will go online on March 19th at theoutnet.cn (separate to the existing global site). The UK company has said that the Shouke startup team, led by Hong Konger Adrienne Ma, will form the core management of not just the new site, but the whole Net-A-Porter Asia-Pacific region operations as well. And so Ms. Ma becomes VP of the company’s APAC business, responsible for purchasing, marketing and content; while fellow co-founder Tian Bao-long will be Net-A-Porter’s new APAC president; Richard Chen will serve as president of its China operations.
The Chinese Outnet site will, like its international cousin, offer seasonal discounts on fashion items from over a hundreds brands such as Alexander McQueen, Burberry, and Jil Sander. But it’s not just women who’ll get something from this, as the UK firm’s menswear division, Mr. Porter, will be heading to China as well.
A Hong Kong distribution center is being planned and will be ready for 2013, serving the new Chinese site as well as its expanding operations in the region.
In today’s announcement, Net-A-Porter Group CEO, Mark Sebba, said that the “Asia-Pacific market is one of the Group’s core markets” and it could offer its new potential customers in the region unrivaled customer service. He added that the new distribution centre will mean deliveries within 24-hours.
How careful are you about the things you retweet online? A Foshan man named Shang Laicheng learned the hard way that in China the simple act of reposting something can be a serious crime after he was detained in secret for ten days over a message about a local prosecutor.
Specifically, Shang had reposted a message written by someone else that suggested a local prosecutor had visited prostitutes at a sauna. Then on February 17 after he left work, he was suddenly arrested by a team of police, according to a coworker who happened to witness it. He still hasn’t returned to work or posted online. Nor was his family informed of his whereabouts until ten days later, when they received notification that he was being held in criminal detention. Interestingly, the official detention notice — which Shang’s family didn’t receive until the 27th — says he wasn’t arrested until February 18th.
The police later told reporters from the Southern Metropolis Daily that they originally believed Shang to be the original author of the post, and had arrested him for making a false post on the internet and suspected involvement in attempted framing. The message had actually been posted to a website Shang worked for; he was simply passing it along. It read as follows:
After Spring Festival, the two prosecutors from the Foshan Chancheng District prosecutors’ office received ‘one-stop service’ from our sisters [i.e., prostitutes] at a sauna, and were caught completely naked at the scene by police from the Zumiao PSB substation. But the two were driving around and strolling the streets the next day, they didn’t get in any trouble whatsoever. Boo hoo, and yet our sisters are still suffering.
It’s unclear whether the post is true or not; it has been “confirmed” as false by the implicated prosecutors’ office, but many netizens have pointed out there’s an obvious conflict of interest there and have suggested the veracity of the post should be investigated by officials at a higher level.
In any event, after discovering that Shang Laicheng wasn’t the post’s original author, police moved him from criminal detention to administrative detention, where he remains (although police said he may be released as early as today). Police are still trying to find the post’s original author, but legal experts told Southern Metropolis Daily that because the message doesn’t contain the actual names of any prosecutors, it shouldn’t be possible to charge anyone with attempted framing.
The case is just one of many — Shang is far from the first — that lays bare a number of flaws in China’s justice system, and it also has implications for China’s millions of internet users. The free flow of information on the internet has led to the spread of unsubstantiated rumors, but it has also led to increased transparency. If net users are all registered with their real names and they know they could “be disappeared” by police if they piss off the wrong local official, how likely is anyone going to be to pass along information they can’t personally confirm and prove is accurate?
If the flow of information slows because people are afraid of the police, that will certainly cut down on the spread of rumors, but it will also cut down on the spread of accurate information whenever that information is something someone in the government might not like. It reduces transparency, and personally I’d argue that’s almost never a good thing.
[Southern Metropolis Daily via Sina Tech]