Kanbox Looks to Become the Internet File System and Storage Infrastructure

April 24, just one day after Microsoft added couple clients (for Windows, Mac, Windows Phone and iDevices) and a new pricing plan to its 5-year-old online storage service SkyDrive, the long-rumored Google’s approach to cloud storage Google Drive at long last made its debut with 5 gigabyte free space, across the board support for different environments including Windows, OS X, Android and iOS and powerful API for third parties developers to inspire creative mashups.

In the short span of only two days, two industry moguls either updated its existing offering or eventually delivered its long-awaited service to make storage accessible to smartphone holders from anywhere at anytime, doesn’t that add up to something?

These big guys’ advancing in cloud storage forefront may well speak to the fact that the demand for ubiquitous storage is on the rise, echoed by Kanbox chairman Huang Mingming’s claim that cloud storage is standing a good chance to pull off blockbuster growth in this year. Kanbox is a China-based online storage service backed by DCM and SIG China.

Huang told me in an interview in the company’s Beijing Sanlitun-located office that the proliferation of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets coupled with growing improvement of wireless Internet connection in China is creating an exploding huge demand for gadget holders to store their files to “cloud”. He saw cloud storage as the next big thing in the Internet development, be it in China or globally.

 

 

Preserving Valuable Individual Data

Huang categorizes China’s online storage services into two groups; group No. 1 is characterized by its public file-sharing inherence, through which you can download hot music and movies, bestsellers and so forth. It’s a dangerous model due largely to its pirating nature. Just like a swath of websites were sued by local police earlier this year over piracy issue, said he.

Group No.2, according to him, zero in on help users hoard personal files that of value to them in digitized form to cloud for easy access afterwards. Kanbox is the one of the post children of this group.

Founded in 2010 staffed by Internet veterans from Chinese Internet big-names like Tencent, Huawei, Kingsoft and so on, kanbox now boasts a team of north of 80 while half of them are on the R&D payroll. The Beijing-based company last year raised US$ 20 million in second round of financing led by DCM with participation of SIG China.

Kanbox attaches much value to its users’ individual data storage. To quote him directly, “Public files just aren’t of very high value to you, say, you download a breakout movie today and then even if you delete it by mistake it’s no big deal cause you can get it again anyway. But, what if you lose all your personal pictures and videos took over the past two years, your contacts book and working documents?” That’s an irretrievable and immeasurable injury.

 

Internet-based File System

So from the get-go Kanbox has been focusing on individual data storage as well as multi-terminals accessibility. It now supports almost all mainstream devices or OS including Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Symbian and of course it has a web-based service.

You can imagine what Kanbox is working on as an Internet-based file system, Huang explained. The file system has totally gloss over the significance of different terminals, no matter what phone or which tablet you’re holding, you can always gain access to your individual data with your Kanbox account through Internet connection.

 

 

Launching Pricing Plan in H2

Kanbox allocates 5 GB of free storage to every new user, and similar to Dropbox’s marketing approach, you can upgrade your space by inviting friends. One successful registration entitles you to one more gigabyte of virtual disk space.

The cloud storage service which to date claims tens of million users is still free of charge. However, Huang said they’re preparing a pricing plan to launch in the second half of this year.

Conventional wisdom is that Chinese people didn’t pay for online services, well, how did Tencent build its empire by selling virtual items? And why paid app downloads saw massive growth after Apple’s iTunes store accepts yuan?

Huang noted that anyone will be willing to pay a fee for good services, and the trend that post-80 and post-90 generation in China whose consuming behaviors are more in line with their European and the U.S. counterparts are rising to the main buying power in digital world bodes well for innovative Internet products. For example, many loyal Kanbox customers actually offered to pay the service to get more storage after using up the free space.

 

 

Even if Dropbox Comes

What if Dropbox comes to China as well? Probably wouldn’t pose a major threat anytime soon for the dirt complicated network infrastructure here, said Huang.

For those aren’t familiar with the status quo of Internet access over here, China has three major state-run operators – China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile – providing broadband Internet access. Let’s just ignore the 20 or so minor player in the market since they’re not making it any easier. Most of the time, a China Telecom user will find it very slow when s/he tries to browse a website hosted in IDC powered by China Unicom, and vice versa. The problem is in existence since like forever and never get decently addressed. So chances are, business traveller who uploads a file in Beijing which is in the north part of the country will find it hardly retrievable when he lands in the southern Guangzhou city.

To solve the problem, Kanbox after the second round promised to invest more than hundreds of millions of RMB to ramp up its infrastructure.

In the face of rapid user growth – Huang used a very interesting metaphor – what Amazon S3-backed Dropbox needs to do is swipe their credit card, while Kanbox dispatches dozens of engineers who are busy buying servers and cranking up hard disks in IDCs scattered around the vast territory.

 

 

Open Platform

Earlier this year, Kanbox announced its own open platform through which developers could capitalize on Kanbox’s stable storing power by using its API. It already saw some very creative use cases.

Meitu Xiuxiu, one of the most popular Chinese photo beautifier is built upon Kanbox’s cloud servers, saving it the hassle of setting up its own online storage.

Kanbox will be holding an app contest in the second half of this year to inspire more interesting products that use its infrastructure as their premise. Just like what Amazon’s S3 means to the Valley startups, Huang is hoping Kanbox could serve as some sort of incubator for Chinese entrepreneurs.

Everyone is spouting about how small the team – like Instagram’s 13 or Dropbox’s about 10 – is in Silicon Valley, nobody looks beyond the entrepreneurial myth to brood on the significant importance of Amazon’s cloud service.

And now, Kanbox is looking to fulfill Chinese startups’ demands on that front.

Related posts:

1. ZTE Invests Thousands of Human Capital in Cloud Computing
2. Shanda Publicly Testing It’s Cloud Offerings
3. Global Mobile Game Awards at GMIC2011 – Submit Your Mobile Game!

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JFDI-Innov8 Bootcamp 2012: Mentors Gathering

5 days before the upcoming JFDI demo day for the JFDI-Innov8 bootcamp 2012, the mentors for the program were invited to hear the pitches from the 11 companies. All the companies have emerged from a tough and grueling hundred days where they had to make difficult decisions for their start-ups. They have come a long way and here are the interesting companies you should take a look at.

On a Friday afternoon, just a week before Demo Day, the mentors who have spent their time with the incubatees from JFDI were given a preview screening of the pitches made by the 11 companies (see list below). In essence, all the founders of the companies have put up a convincing show that they are ready be on prime time and take their pitch to the investors. What is interesting is that the team of JFDI have also given investment “chips” of the denominations $10K, $25K, $50K, $100K and $250K for the mentors to cast on the teams. Credit to the management team led by Hugh Mason and Meng Weng Wong, the teams have prepared well for their pitches. If you have not read, one of the JFDI companies, Kark has already received investment from a VC firm in Jarkata called IdeoSource. 

Of course, you can see how the mentors have assessed the companies based on the amount of “investment” they have put into the teams. While it is not an accurate indicator as to how the investors will think, the teams still have a final chance to practise and perfect their current pitches for the Demo Day. 

After the pitching session, it was all wine and cheese between the mentors and incubatees in Blk 71, and it was a time where the mentors can provide feedback to the teams and advice for the coming Demo Day. 

List of Companies for JFDI-Innov8 Bootcamp 2012
(Source: JFDI)

Shopspot is a mobile phone app that makes buying & selling items as easy as sending a tweet.

Qryo is a document sharing service for the masses that connects your printer to the cloud. Anything you can print, you can publish online!

Remember is the family time capsule in your pocket that makes it simple to capture & relive memories on your smartphone.

TradeGecko is a web-based supply chain portal for independent brands & their retailers. 

Familyko is a tele-parenting app for overseas Filipino workers to bond with their young children.

Trafflers: By taking the pain out of planning & booking group holiday travel experiences, we give the travel industry access to a new segment of social leisure travellers.

Fetch Plus is a Facebook & Twitter page builder that helps large brands with local businesses control brand identity and monitoring & maximizing the impact of their social media marketing. 

Kark Mobile Education has made a hybrid game platform using trading cards & Android cards tablets to make 4-12 years old children masters of a simulated world.

Flocations is a travel visualizer which shows nearby destinations on an interactive map, so leisure travelers can browse by budget and book their next getaway in minutes, not hours. 

Wildby is a fun talking encyclopedia on your iPhone that 4 to 8 years olds can enjoy without needing any literacy skills.

TribeHired is the social recruitment platform that put friends to work. 

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Review: WIWOS Device, India’s First Android Phone With Indic Language Support

Launched by Mangalore based Robosoft (in partnership with Bangalore based United Telecoms), WIWOS is India’s first Android device with Indic language support. The phone, priced at Rs. 5,499/ comes with Android 2.2 version.

First, the tech specs:

• DUAL SIM
• 2.8 inch QVGA Capacitive LCD screen
• 3 megapixel camera.
• Expandable memory of up to 32GB
• 3.5mm headset jack
• Bluetooth v2.1, microUSB, GPRS and EDGE
• 1500mAh battery (claims 3 days battery backup).
• No WiFi support
• Supports 5 local languages (Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada)
• FM Radio sans the headset.

Review: WIWOS Device

WIWOS: Homescreen

The (main) home screen is beautifully laid out. Given the audience this device is trying to attract, the size of icons are well thought-through.

Toggling between Malayalam and Kannada Keyboard

Talking about the local language support (the phone supports 5 local languages), the interface is divided in two parts – one is menu interface of the device and then, the keyboard support. You can select multiple keyboard languages and can change the input language on a runtime basis (the feature didn’t really work as-expected and had to use long press to change the language, which isn’t intuitive enough).

WIWOS KEYBOARD

As far as character sequence is concerned, there needs to be some more work that should go into the next version. Apart from being unpredictable, the sequence isn’t clear which makes using the typing interface as-one-thinks-in-native-language more difficult. And it’s not just about the Wiwos device, but it’s all about the missing standard for local language keyboard which shows up in the fact that there are different keyboard layout across different devices of the same manufacturers (hence, better to stick to InScript layout).

Android : Local Language Keyboard

As far as fonts are concerned, though the rendering worked as-expected (given the price range of the device), we noticed a few text rendering issues (with the font engine/layout) and even text alignment needs a bit more iteration. With few iterations, one will get used to the keyboard though.

Localized terminology : Input karen vs. Type karen? What’s the right messaging to use? We strongly recommend any local language player to bookmark BBC’s Hindi site, which uses the most optimized messaging for local language support – for example : home = pahla panna (and not ‘ghar’, as many of us would like to translate to! ).

Since Robosoft has implemented local language support at OS level, we would expect to not do any custom implementation at app level (in the future version of the device) : for example, you should be able to type in your preferred language of choice on GTalk app, so while all the default menus and core functions (like contact book/calendar/search etc) render according to your choice of language, the third party apps still won’t work (even for local language keyboard support), but then this is just the beginning.

Overall, we were quite impressed with the device, especially the attempt that has been made to localize Android OS and we certainly look forward to the next iteration of the product.

The phone has a good battery life (I was able to stretch it for 3 days) and importantly, the touch works a lot better than some of the Android devices we have seen in this price range.

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APMF 2012 to Hold ‘Big Break Session’ For Startups

The Association of Asia Pacific Advertising Media (AAPAM) will hold what it has dubbed its “Big Break Session” for startups for during the Asia Pacific Media Forum (APMF) 2012 event. The session will be a chance for startups across Asia Pacific to present their work in front of leaders in the marketing and communication industry. Five startups will be chosen by a selection committee, which consists of the following notable individuals:

• Shinta Dhanuwardoyo (managing partner, Nusantara Ventures)
• Kevin Mintaraga (CEO, XM Gravity)
• Ricky Pesik (managing director, SatuCitra)
• Jerry Justianto (new media director, Masima Corp.)
• Andi Sadha (CEO/partner, Activate Media).

They will scout and invite five start-ups to present at APMF 2012. When asked about why this session was added to the forum, Kevin Mintaraga, the head of selection committee, answered:

It is because more of advertisers spend more and more dollars in the digital space. The annual growth of ad-spend in digital is growing significantly compared to other media. Moreover, clients/advertisers see an added value on pushing their digital creativity by using new channels. We are very excited to host this session and to give the stage to these new startups for five minutes each to present their capabilities and to spark brand engagement ideas.

The requirement for the startup to be accepted by the committee is that it has to be a company that has already launched, has a good advertising platform, and can reach certain a target market. The startup will be given a free entry to the event and they are going to receive regional exposure among CMOs, marketing directors and managers, agencies (digital, media, advertising) and a lot of key decision makers for digital ad spending.

APMF itself is a biennial event that is always held in Bali. This year will be the fifth series of the event. The fifth APMF this May 23 to 26 is estimated to host approximately 750 participants, including marketers, media owners and agencies, with 75 percent from Indonesia and 25 percent from the surrounding APAC region. The forum is focused on discussing the dynamics of the media industry, and will have thought provoking presentations from the following speakers, as well as others:

• Agung Adiprasetyo (CEO, Kompas Gramedia)
• Rory Sutherland (vice chairman, Ogilvy Group UK)
• Peter F. Gontha (media visionary, Group Publishers BeritaSatu Media Holdings)
• Bhaskar Das (president, The Times of India Group, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.)
• Akimasa Baba (general manager at Dentsu Media HQ, Dentsu Inc. Japan)

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Game Ventures’ Howzat Hits 1 Million Active Gamers, Shares Some Secret Sauce

Today Zaki Mahomed, founder of Game Ventures, shared a graph on his Facebook showing that Howzat, a Facebook Cricket sport game, had crossed the one million active users mark. The screenshot graph shows a linear increment in monthly active users. It’s good growth to have as an entrepreneur, so I asked Zaki what’s the secret behind it. He didn’t hesitate to reply, saying,

We take user actions seriously. Understanding the levers of your product and then building for retention. It’s not easy so most people don’t like it.

But that didn’t explain too much. I was curious to understand how exactly he did it. I believe most entrepreneurs would want to know, so I pressed for examples.

Zaki says that the multiplayer mode for Howzat is very popular. It is a game mode where four gamers can play together and compare scores in real-time. But for obvious reasons, it sucks to be a loser. So usually, half way through the game, the bottom two guys who are getting whipped badly have little chance to recover which makes quitting common. And that isn’t too good for the game. To cater to the user behavior, Zaki and co designed a new multiplayer mode which automatically knocks out the lowest player every three minutes or so. It makes the game more competitive which he says leads to gamer retention.

And just last week, Howzat saw a four percent drop in new user growth. The team pinpointed the problem to a new video ad campaign which they ran on Howzat. Every Howzat gamer, new or regular, would see that video ad. The new players who aren’t impressed usually opted to quit the game. So currently, advertisements are only shown to regular gamers who are already hooked in. New gamers won’t be able to see the ad until they become regulars. Zaki shared more info about his own operation at Game Ventures:

Retention is everything. Identify 10, 20, 30 levers for your app and
track them obsessively. Track them when you ship product, track them daily, and make someone own each of them. Internally, we have maybe 15 metrics we track and they are divided between three or four people.

We also briefly chatted about Game Ventures’ future plan. Zaki told me that Howzat will be available on mobile and tablet soon and is shifting its focus from Facebook to a more multi-platform approach. While the game commands over a million active users, monetizing it is still a challenge, especially for a live action game like Howzat.

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Eedoo iSec is Now Called the CT510, To Be Released Next Week

Well, no one can say that the folks over at Eedoo don’t like a good surprise. Last we heard, the eedoo iSec — eedoo’s motion-sensing video game console — was being delayed again and wasn’t likely to see release before late 2012. But now, China Daily reports that the console has been renamed the CT510, and that it’s coming out on April 29. As in, this upcoming Sunday.

The overpriced console has also apparently gotten even more expensive. Last time we checked, it was slated to cost 3,000 RMB ($475), but now that price has been hiked to 3,799 RMB ($603). The specs don’t seem to have changed at all, although the console will apparently come bundled with eight games.

In the past, I have been extremely critical of the iSec CT510, and the price hike and extremely awkward name change haven’t done anything to change my opinion. Setting aside that most of the games for it look dreadful, even if they didn’t, who would buy it? Remember that western consoles are widely available in China. For the same price as one CT510, Chinese gamers could purchase a full two XBox 360 systems with two Kinect motion-sensor attachments and still have enough money left over to buy any eight pirated games the choose from the Xbox’s library of hundreds, if not thousands, of games.

I expect the absurdly high price is a desperate attempt to recoup some of the money that went into R&D, but honestly, who is in charge of this company? Making the device more expensive is not going to help it sell, and neither is giving it an even stupider name than the iSec. Granted, the company had done such an awful job marketing the iSec that they haven’t lost much brand recognition by changing the name — you can’t lose what you don’t have — but the new name is totally forgettable and most people won’t even have heard it before the device is released since we’re hearing about this launch just a few days before it happens.

It’s possible that I’m wrong, and that the eedoo whatever-it’s-called will take the until-now uninterested Chinese market by storm, selling millions of units and raking in a handsome profit. But I think it’s very, very unlikely. If such an overpriced console with such awful-looking games somehow achieves mainstream success, this will be my response:

That said, I like watching a good disaster as much as anyone, so we’ll be keeping an eye on the CT150. Or the CT510, I guess. Whatever. Join us next week, as I set out in Beijing to see if I can find a working unit and maybe try my hand at a few games!

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New China 3G User Stats Suggest China Unicom Might Dominate By Next Year

New 3G subscriber stats for China’s two largest mobile carriers show that China Unicom (NYSE:CHU; HKG:0762) is still making good progress, hitting a new milestone in its pursuit of China Mobile (NYSE:CHL; HKG:0941), the world’s biggest telco by user numbers. For the first time ever, China Unicom’s number of 3G users is now well past 80 percent of China Mobile’s 3G subscriber base [1], and is closing in at a rate that suggests that the smaller rival might surpass China Mobile in terms of 3G by 2013 Q1.

New stats for the end of March (2012 Q1) show that China Unicom’s 3G (WDCMA) smartphone subs amounted to 48.86 million, out of 160.63 million total GSM mobile users. China Mobile, meanwhile, rocked up to 59.56 million on 3G (TD-SCMA) from a whopping 667.2 million on its entire network. Historically, China Mobile has been hobbled by its localized TD-SCDMA data network, which doesn’t work with most global phones or tablets. China Unicom, in contrast, can be used with any global WCDMA phone, such as the popular models like the Samsung Galaxy S and SII and is the first to get Apple’s iPhone and iPad in China (with it coming later to China Telecom (NYSE:CHA; HKG:0728) for its CDMA network).

In total, China has just over a billion mobile users by now.

Here’s an interactive graph showing the 3G user-ship of Unicom relative to China Mobile; note the fast-shrinking proportional gap between the two rivals:

[Download image version of chart]

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1. At the most recent 2012 Q1, China Unicom has 82 percent of China Mobile’s 3G user-ship (48.86 million versus 59.56 million). Back in 2011 Q1, Unicom’s total was only 69 percent of its rivals. ↩

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Report: Ultrabooks to go mainstream in 2012

Ultrabooks were introduced into the Indian PC market by some of the leading vendors last year but they did not see much light of the day owing to high price points and customer acceptance. Ultrabooks are notebook computers that are thinner, lighter and better performing device. Intel introduced Ultrabooks in the last quarter of 2011 and Apple MacBook Air has existed in the market since 2008. Acer was the first company to release an Ultrabook, followed by ASUS, Toshiba, Lenovo, LG and HP. This year as prices rationalize, it is pegged to become the mainstream device by the end of 2012, as per a report by Cybermedia Research Analyst Viewpoint 2012.

Apple may remain the leader but the market will see start change in competition with the release of Windows 8 operating system. Another online report estimates the market to grow at a CAGR of 92 percent till 2017. Globally, the Ultrathin potables market is expected to surpass 12.48 Million shipments by end of 2012.

According to the Cybermedia report the Indian PC market is projected to grow in single digit percentages from 104.7 lakh units last year to 112.8 lakh units in 2012. Where desktop PC sales are estimated to grow at 4 per cent YoY, Notebooks will see growth of roughly 13 per cent annually.

All-in-One desktop PCs are likely to witness an increase in adoption driven by the demand from the BPO-ITeS due to its form factor that brings-in savings in real-estate cost and lower overall power consumption. Beyond this, aesthetics are expected to drive adoption in front-office and consumer settings.

Since HDD prices were terribly affected due to constrained supplies because of the Thailand floods last year and are expected to rationalise in the first half of 2012, the assembled PC market is expected to remain subdued for the better part of 2012. As a result, branded desktops are likely to maintain an edge over their assembled counterparts in the current year.

The report also focuses on the fact that Dell emerged a winner in 2011, in both personal and professional PC category, on account of its new launches and aggressive promotional activities. On the other hand, HP seems to be smarting away under the impact of the rapid changes in distribution strategy that did not allow the vendor or their partners to settle down to a rhythm. Going forward, it is particularly important that the company effects a smooth transition with respect to the merger of the PSG and IPG divisions as this will be a critical factor for its success in 2012 and beyond.

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