Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank have announced a partnership enabling customers to open no-frills savings account on Airtel Money platform.
With the partnership, no-frills savings account of Axis Bank will be opened for customers on the Airtel Money platform called ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’ offering customers banking transactions including cash deposit, money transfer and withdrawal. These accounts will provide convenient, safe and secure savings avenue to Financial Inclusion customers’ paying them savings account interest and also enabling them to make remittances.
To begin with, savings and remittance solutions will be provided in the top four remittance corridors involving Delhi and Mumbai on the sending side and Bihar and East UP on the receiving side. Thereafter these services may be extended to other remittance corridors in the country. Gradually other banking products and services like micro Recurring Deposits, micro Fixed Deposits, small loans and micro-insurance products will also be provided through this platform.
The ‘airtel money Super Account poweredby Axis Bank’ offers the following key features:
A no-frills account of Axis Bank on the Airtel Money platform
Remittance of funds to other ‘airtel money Super Accounts’
Remittance to other bank accounts through NEFT (to be enabled soon)
Savings bank interest on balances
The focused target segment of the ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’ will be remittance corridors and unbanked areas, where there is greater need of easy money transfers and savings, which will be possible with this account and the need for other financial products like deposits, insurance, loans etc. that will get enabled soon. Going forward, the mobile platform can also facilitate other micro-payments. Such collaboration between India’s leading mobile and banking services providers represents a model partnership meant for making the idea of inclusive banking a reality for customers in India.
Airtel Money went live PAN-India early this year and at the same time, Nokia shutdown Nokia Money, as as part of company’s drive to focus on the core key areas.
Airtel is also in talks with banks to expand the Airtel Money to an open-wallet service, enabling consumers to withdraw the money (right now, you can only use the money for electronic transactions).
The internet has been around for 2 decades now. And so have online classifieds! We in India have had our fair share too – Baazee was the snazziest of them all (do you remember those ads on TV*?) till their original inspiration – eBay – bought them out. Then there have been others – Olx, Quickr, Sulekha, Click.in, Locanto, Vivastreet and at least a dozen more rear their upgly seo heads the moment you look for used anything.
Despite the huge investments, years of being around, various business models, and even TV ads, trust in these has never quite gone up enough for any of these to become a reliable, de-facto choice for folks looking at selling/buying used furniture, or appliances, or books. The fact that both as a buyer and a seller, you keep running into dealers trying to either sell you new stuff, or rip you off on used goods, makes for a terrible experience. From an end user’s point of view, classifieds have pretty much never worked. The various sites and numerous attempts in the end have little to differentiate them from each other. They all have stale listings, seo links that take you nowhere – a lot of noise you must cut through to try and find or sell something.
For a while, at least in the big metros, print classifieds grew. Ad-Mags and Free Ads were priced at 5/- and actually served a purpose – and became very popular.
More recently, Apartment community/management portals like CommonFloor and similar tried closed groups too – with limited traction. They have had trouble getting their own users onto their sites rather than be used via email alone, and obviously the classifieds play is not at the top of their priorities.
What really worked through all this was the Infosys Bulletin Board! Folks used to get friends to post stuff for sale, seek matrimonial alliances for family members, and the success rate was quite something! A few, niche Yahoo groups (later Google) also played this role, though in a much much smaller way.
And then came Facebook Groups!
In a day – here’s what got posted on Second To None – a camera, beds, cupboards, assorted bits of furniture, almost unused clothes, an LCD TV, an iPhone car stand, wine, old clocks, assorted pieces of decor, a recliner, boots, a jigsaw puzzle. Other days see ear-rings, upcycled junk around home, bags, cellphones, lots of books (great collections, usually), microwaves, crockery and a whole lot of surprises put up for sale. And more often than not, someone grabs these within a day or two at most. That’s way better than what happens on classifieds sites.
This is a pretty successful community with nearly 3000 folks on it – and some very active! Its focused on the messaging around re/up-cycling – and that message has resonated with a wide audience across Bangalore.
“A flea market (for used goods) is simply one of the most-wanted features of any city, and Bangalore had only Avenue Road on dusty Sundays, with a limited range of products available. From personal experience, we have so many things about the house which may not sell at places like Avenue Road and it is practically impossible to find buyers easily. Am talking about CDs, decor, mixers and grinders, kids bicycles, so many such things. And it is a shame, and appalling, that they get junked, adding to landfill. Hence 220,” says Anu Gummaraju – who started this with 2 others.
She believes Facebook works because of its quasi-personal nature. “Members start conversations with each other over ideas, products, experiments, recycling news. They do this through conversations via Comments, private messages, and soon many become Friends. It is this personal note, and the feeling members get about being with like minded folk that has made the group attractive to folk.”
We agree. Used goods have a major issue – the perception of their reliability. Then there is the complexity of picking it up. Getting to know about something being available itself is a big factor. Personal (extended) networks solve a lot of these problems to various degrees. And Facebook has become a major extended network in most of our lives.
Second To None is also about being able to sell the small stuff. It offers just about the widest range for trade, compared to other platforms. There’s little noise/clutter – and the Facebook timeline for the group ensures old stuff doesn’t hang around – recency is critical for classifieds.
Someone in Delhi was recently inspired and created a similar list there as well.
Then there’s the self explanatory Flats Without Brokers! We’re not sure if folks will join a group for what is essentially a transient need, but the trust in “people like us” and the ease of conversation, feedback and transactions with the same might prove much stronger forces than we can imagine.
Similarly, for a lot many, Burrp! may no longer be needed – there’s a Bangalore Foodies group that not just shares their views on restaurants and takeaways across the city, but also share recipes, advice on smart food choices, sources for great ingredients and the like.
Why does Facebook work so much better – after all Yahoo/Google Groups for suchlike did exist in the past as well? The answer may lie in the network effect – read visibility – that Facebook brings to every update, every share. A much wider sharing, and the chance discovery of something that might catch a user’s attention is more “life-like” than the act of pursuing a clear, identified intent on a search engine or a website dedicated for buying/selling used goods, or sharing restaurant advice. You might come across something a friend shares on or from such a group even without being aware of the group in the first place – mailing lists did allow for that. On Facebook, you know, or get to know, folks better and their opinion and statements are automatically trusted more than they would be as a stranger’s claims on a random website.
These groups are often hyperlocal – and that’s the best place for a classified or review/ratings service to exist. Picking stuff up from the neighborhood is far easier than from halfway across the country. Because of the familiarity amongst members, there’s also an implicit sharing of tastes amongst members, and the reliability of goods or opinions is perceived to be higher. These groups are also non-commercial an community controlled. For instance, Second To None is focused on used goods alone. No posts about new goods are permitted which help keep spam out unlike on some of the so called classifieds sites which have essentially become a storefront for vendors peddling wares of uncertain quality.
There is also the ease of posting. We’re forever on Facebook, and used to posting updates into that box. This has its limitations as well – information is unstructured, comments bump up an old post and search is non-existent. But it does make it easy to share anything you may have to share with an audience you’re comfortable with quickly.
Of course, each such group specific to a city, and a niche. It may not exist for every city, or have the same level of activity, or set or rules or quality of interaction across places and interests. That is the nature of the beast, and we’re not sure its a big problem for the users who’re interested in this. Each user cares about their interest, their location and will probably just appreciate the lowered levels of noise that come from it.
Are traditional classifieds, listings and reviews guys – some of them VC or angel funded – worried about this growing trend? What can or should they do? Are there gaps and unfulfilled functionality that p2p networks cannot solve?
Over the next few weeks, we’ll try talking to those involved in the formal classifieds, listings and reviews spaces, and share with you what they think of the emergence of true, unfettered growth of p2p networks.
Facebook, of course, only has reason to celebrate this.
Over the last few days, we have been facing severe issues with the site and while some of it is attributed to WordPress version (and few plugin incompatibility), the major reason is that the site’s backend hasn’t been able to cope up with the strong uptick in traffic.
1 week snapshot
Since April 18th,our traffic has increased by 2X (UVs have gone up by 2X!), exposing the un-optimized backend.
Lesson learnt? As one grows, one needs to let go of the ‘random’ processes one was following since the early days (involves playing with live production system, which I am guilty of). Similarly, one needs to figure out a defined process in the chaos of growth, involving the right measure of security/access control.
At the end of the day, businesses are all about predictability and the backend that drives the awesomeness has to be driven by processes, no matter how much we all hate to admit the ‘P’ word!.
So apologies for the goofup.
Next steps? Very soon, we will be updating the site design – making it much more leaner and simpler. We want our readers to have a great experience, at the same time bulid a scalable backend (if you have been tinkering with WordPress, do connect with us).
Aside, since last Saturday, we were facing issues with our RSS feed and it has been fixed now. In general, if you come across any specific site-level issue, simply share with us [team@pluggd.in].
In the West, online travel has long since eclipsed the brick-and-mortar industry, but in China, real-world travel agencies are very much alive. Travel patterns are also very different here; Chinese tourists often prefer to travel in groups as part of meticulously crafted travel packages, not just hop a flight to a vacation destination and figure the rest out later. That means operating a travel site in China presents some unique challenges, and recently, we got an opportunity to talk via email with Donald Yu, the CEO of Tuniu, about some of them.
Tuniu’s development has been surprisingly rapid. How was this accomplished? Can you tell us a little about the founding and development of Tuniu?
We started Tuniu as a community tourism website in October of 2006 and sped its pace of development as an online travel package and group tour booking around six months later. Our vision was to make tourism simple for the still-nascent Chinese travel market. To make this goal a reality, we targeted customer service and experience as our key differentiators from other market players.
Back then, there were three major trends in China’s online tourism industry: do it yourself tours and outdoor activities; air tickets and hotel booking; and tourism package products with cooperation from tourism agencies. Tuniu targeted the third category because we felt it was an underexploited market with great potential.
In order to ensure that customers had a wide range of choices for the types of travel packages and group tours that they really wanted, we built out a business operation supporting system, which we call “BOSS,” built upon sophisticated technology. We use this system to identify trends in the market quickly and leverage our trained travel experts to tailor tours that Chinese consumers will appreciate.
We were fortunate that we got into the Chinese travel market just as it was beginning to take off. The last five to six years have seen remarkable growth in the Chinese tourism industry, and we’ve been excellently positioned to capitalize on that trend.
In the West, traditional brick-and-mortar travel agencies have been almost completely eliminated by online travel sites, but China’s market is different. Do you think online travel sites in China will be able to eliminate traditional brick-and-mortar establishments?
From its start, Tuniu has been focused on leveraging our excellent technology to meet trends and needs in the market in a way that traditional travel companies cannot. Our goal has always been making tourism simple for our customers, which we believe will ensure our leading position in the market.
I don’t think that traditional travel agencies are leaving the market anytime soon, but I also don’t think that they are incompatible with online travel companies. Many traditional travel agencies have expanded into the online realm. However, fundamentally, we provide a different offering than they do. We can arrange one stop travel solutions that are easy to book. And our BOSS system lets us give travelers the kind of package travel and group tour options that they want without requiring them to spend months planning.
So what is so different about Tuniu, as compared to traditional travel agencies or other online services (like Qunar)?
We are focused on tourism solutions and are dedicated to providing a broad range of travel options, while continuing to improve service quality. Our focus on packaged tourism means we don’t sell separate air tickets or hotel bookings. Simply put we don’t focus on travel, but rather tourism. We provide our customers with full package solutions. Everything needs to be simple and intuitive.
Our BOSS system also allows us to track the progress and satisfaction of our customers very well in the pre-sale and post-trip timeframe, as well as during travel. If there is a problem, we’ll know almost immediately.
BOSS further provides us database analysis, which gives us insights into the ever changing tourism market and enables us to react quickly and effectively. We understand what Chinese customers are buying and adjust our offerings quickly to meet the demands. As a result, our products are richer than peers who are less focused on staying ahead of Chinese tourism trends.
E-commerce in China has had trouble dealing with customer complaints, and travel is an industry in which the customer demands are high because normal service can be disrupted by all kinds of things (for example, weather delaying flights or regional instability making travel to a particular place suddenly unwise). How does Tuniu deal with this problem, and how are you handling customer service as your site and the number of trips offered continues to grow?
Since its founding, Tuniu has continuously worked to improve customer experience and control risks. We have dedicated teams dedicated to working on these issues, and we continue to build them out as the volume of our business increases.
In the beginning, we relied on customer surveys to get a sense of how well we were performing, but have made significant upgrades in our sophistication since then. Initially, we worked to set up an after-sale team to handle complaints, refund inquires and help retrieve lost items.
Later, when our business grew further, we set up a dedicated in-sales team to respond and follow up on customer inquiries as quickly as possible. We appreciate that when there’s a problem during travel, you want the situation resolved immediately. That’s why we’ve invested in putting local quality supervisors on the ground in some of the most popular Chinese tourist destinations like Xiamen and Sanya. We want to make sure that if our customers have a problem there’s someone on the ground who knows the market and can help resolve the situation immediately.
At present you only operate and send tours from within China; are there any plans to expand your market and begin operations elsewhere (for example, Southeast Asia)?
We are highly focused on the Chinese market and we believe that we are only just beginning to reach our full potential audience. The exciting part about China is that travel is still relatively new for so many people. We believe that we have a key role and responsibility in broadening what Chinese travelers do and what experiences they are able to enjoy. So far, we have over 20 departing cities for tourism products, which positions us at the forefront of the market.
If I’m a person who wants to travel, why should I choose Tuniu?
Tuniu is the best option for our target customers: those looking for simple solutions to great tour experiences. This means we cater to the needs of all types of customers, including those who have limited travel experience – a rapidly growing demographic among Chinese travellers. For each of these kinds of trips our team works to develop the richest possible travel experience.
For the group tour and package travel segment of the market, we are confident that we are leaders in the breadth and depth of our offering. Our teams of experts design packages to meet all sectors of the Chinese—from outdoor domestic adventures in areas like Yunnan, to trips to Europe, Japan and Korean. Each of the packages that we offer is carefully tailored to offer a different experience so that our customers have a wide range of off-the-shelf options. And even with all of the time and energy we put into getting these packages to meet our customers’ varied needs, we are still extremely competitive in our pricing.
The entire customer experience, from purchasing to after sales is designed to be easy, and customers can count on us to be there and help out when problem occurs. Based on the positive feedback and repeat customers we have from among the more than one million travel experiences we’ve serviced, we believe that we are succeeding in creating simple but rich tour solutions.
What are the biggest problems facing Tuniu right now? What challenges will you face in the future?
Companies that experience the kind of explosive growth we’ve seen inevitably have a learning curve, and we’re no different. What I’m most proud of is that throughout the company we’ve shown a commitment to continuously investing our resources in technology and our people with the consistent goal of making tourism simple. Tuniu has made tremendous improvements over the last several years, but I think our strength is that we always keep the big picture focus on the customer, and will continue to invest in product development and internal team management.
Moving forward, we will continue to focus on providing tourism solutions, increasing efficiency while improving quality of service.
Last week, we wrote about Throw it Out the Window, the food-safety platform built by a Chinese college student that’s been garnering a lot of attention and momentum of late. In the week since then, China has seen more food safety scandals (in other news, the sky remains blue), but the potentially-sensitive Throw it Out the Window also got some support in the form of an attaboy from Shanghai food safety officials.
According to the Dongfang Daily, Shanghai Food Safety Committee deputy director Yan Zuqiang and others from his office traveled to Fudan University yesterday to meet with Wu Heng, the founder of Throw it Out the Window. Although the site’s content is presumably pretty embarassing to them — it turns up 102 reports of food safety scandals in Shanghai over the last eight years — the officials told Wu that the government supported his website and hoped he would continue to operate it. The office even made a post on its official weibo account saying that deputy director Yan affirms the good work that Wu is doing and that the government supports Throw it Out the Window.
It’s worth noting that this “support” appears to be just moral support; a confirmation that what Wu is doing is good and that he can keep doing it. If the government offered any financial support to Wu — which I highly doubt — that information has not been disclosed.
Apparently, government support of the site was not assured. Last year, Wu says, he received several calls from government officials about it but the matter was ultimately left unsettled. It’s unclear whether the site was in any real peril then, but we’re definitely glad to see representatives of Shanghai’s government come down on the side of transparency and openness by allowing the site to continue to operate, even though it makes them look somewhat incompetent (or perhaps they’re just underfunded).
If you’re a woman entrepreneur or professional and want to pick up skills to help your business succeed in the online world, Google and Athena Network Singapore has something for you.
Women Entrepreneurs on the Web (WeOW), an initiative by both organizations, will kick-off in June, with the launch party on 31st May. The event was first started by Google in India and saw over 300 female executives and entrepreneurs participate.
The event will consist of webinars, in-person seminars, networking events, and Google hangouts, all held within a five month period. A Student-Partnership track will also be launched where interested students will be trained in Google products to help businesses with their digital marketing campaigns.
The training program will consist of five circles, and these are:
Builk Asia is a Thai startup that targets the construction industry with an interesting business model for their product.
Thai startup, Builk Asia was one of the companies that made great effort to participate in Echelon 2012. Last month, the company’s Principal and Evangelist, Patai Padungtin flew over to Vietnam to pitch at the Vietnam Satellite. Unlike most startups that are trying to create another SoLoMo lifestyle social network, Builk Asia is creating a professional networking site for a very niche market in Thailand – the construction industry.
I caught up with Patai to find out more about the company and their plans ahead for Builk Asia.
Can you share with us you and your team’s background?
Builk Asia Co., Ltd. started in 2009 with a team of founders made up of civil engineers with 10 years experiences in construction and running our own construction business. The main team is joined with two computer engineers who have developed construction-specific ERP for large construction businesses for more than five years. Then, it’s the combination of construction and programming
How did the idea for Builk came about?
The Thailand construction industry is quite big, with over US$30 billion spent per year. This figure is continuously growing.There are more than 80,000 registered companies in the construction business category.
We have been in the construction IT business since 2005, and implemented our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to more than 200 leading construction firms in Thailand. Thousands of SMEs contractors want the management tools for their business but cannot afford the cost that comes with it.
Initially, we want to develop Software as a Service (SaaS) for small contractors using a Freemium model. But, we had change our mind while developing our business plan. We found out that there is a huge marketing budget for construction materials and related services, mostly spending offline. We believe that just like what had happened for the other industries over the past few years, a shift from offline to online can also be applied to the construction industry.
We want to create a professional networking site that gathers construction information, much like how social networking works on our daily lives. But, it is business-to-business (B2B) and industry-specific. We can see construction projects/ products, people using the social network and become the effective online media for the advertisers.
So, we decided to offer an all-free SaaS with an ad-support model. Our passion is to drive construction industry forward, from the bottom of the pyramid. This is done through offering free SaaS and creating a community of construction business, sharing of knowledge and developing SMEs in the construction industry.
Builk's office. Photo: Builk Asia
What is Builk’s user acquisition strategy and how does the service aim to generate revenue from users?
Up till now, we target on innovative SMEs contractors in Thailand. We have also partnered with construction-related organizations, university and sponsors to hold events, seminars and trainings to acquire a new group of innovators to become our frequent users.
There is no pricing plan for our users, the service is available for free. Most of our revenue are generated from sponsorships, premium sponsors and side banner placement. Some of our revenue portion comes from research, marketing research and survey targeted on construction industry, as we are one of the reliable and active sources of construction information.
Tell us more about the construction sector in Thailand that Builk is targeting ?
Our model is a multi-side platform, traffic and construction-related information from users, that will lead to generating revenue through advertisements. We target 80,000 construction businesses in Thailand from medium segment down to the bottom of the pyramid as our users.
Launched in the middle of 2010, we now have 4,300 users from 1,300 companies that are working on 2,000+ construction projects (we consider them as the innovators). They are working on their projects worth more than US$150 million with purchasing power more nearly US$10 million a month.
Advertising expenditure for construction industry in Thailand is worth around US$50 million per year. The online portion is increasing at more than 10 percent a year. And the choice of online media in construction industry is limited to the industry’s news websites and online construction directories. The potential for Builk lies in our growing repeated traffic and longer usage times, because our users are working online, ordering, invoicing, controlling cost and quality of their construction projects on Builk everyday from 9-5. Our construction information is live from our users.
For revenue target, we will have total number of 10 premium sponsors by the end of this year. With the research programs we have been funded with, our revenue will be around USD100,000 this year.
Now, we are developing the next version of Builk.com that expands our target to construction project owners and non-construction professions who are looking for construction services and products and relationship functions to facilitate their business activities. This is expected to launch in Q4 of 2012.
The Builk team. Photo: Builk Asia
What would you mainly be looking for at Echelon 2012 Startup Marketplace?
Builk is a small company, but we have proven its potential in the Thailand market. I want to expand this model to other ASEAN countries for the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015. Construction services and materials can freely flow over to other ASEAN countries. Construction information will become more valuable.
Industry-specific B2B applications, like Builk.com, are different from the booming social or lifestyle applications. I need partnerships for these target markets: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines to help in localizing the product and create a construction community in their territories and get connected.
For investments, we have a plan to develop the whole construction information chain from pre-construction to post-construction. If we can have an interested investor on board, we can gear up our plan and get ready for regional market faster.
Builk Asia is a Thai startup that targets the construction industry with an interesting business model for their product.
Thai startup, Builk Asia was one of the companies that made great effort to participate in Echelon 2012. Last month, the company’s Principal and Evangelist, Patai Padungtin flew over to Vietnam to pitch at the Vietnam Satellite. Unlike most startups that are trying to create another SoLoMo lifestyle social network, Builk Asia is creating a professional networking site for a very niche market in Thailand – the construction industry.
I caught up with Patai to find out more about the company and their plans ahead for Builk Asia.
Can you share with us you and your team’s background?
Builk Asia Co., Ltd. started in 2009 with a team of founders made up of civil engineers with 10 years experiences in construction and running our own construction business. The main team is joined with two computer engineers who have developed construction-specific ERP for large construction businesses for more than five years. Then, it’s the combination of construction and programming
How did the idea for Builk came about?
The Thailand construction industry is quite big, with over US$30 billion spent per year. This figure is continuously growing.There are more than 80,000 registered companies in the construction business category.
We have been in the construction IT business since 2005, and implemented our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to more than 200 leading construction firms in Thailand. Thousands of SMEs contractors want the management tools for their business but cannot afford the cost that comes with it.
Initially, we want to develop Software as a Service (SaaS) for small contractors using a Freemium model. But, we had change our mind while developing our business plan. We found out that there is a huge marketing budget for construction materials and related services, mostly spending offline. We believe that just like what had happened for the other industries over the past few years, a shift from offline to online can also be applied to the construction industry.
We want to create a professional networking site that gathers construction information, much like how social networking works on our daily lives. But, it is business-to-business (B2B) and industry-specific. We can see construction projects/ products, people using the social network and become the effective online media for the advertisers.
So, we decided to offer an all-free SaaS with an ad-support model. Our passion is to drive construction industry forward, from the bottom of the pyramid. This is done through offering free SaaS and creating a community of construction business, sharing of knowledge and developing SMEs in the construction industry.
Builk's office. Photo: Builk Asia
What is Builk’s user acquisition strategy and how does the service aim to generate revenue from users?
Up till now, we target on innovative SMEs contractors in Thailand. We have also partnered with construction-related organizations, university and sponsors to hold events, seminars and trainings to acquire a new group of innovators to become our frequent users.
There is no pricing plan for our users, the service is available for free. Most of our revenue are generated from sponsorships, premium sponsors and side banner placement. Some of our revenue portion comes from research, marketing research and survey targeted on construction industry, as we are one of the reliable and active sources of construction information.
Tell us more about the construction sector in Thailand that Builk is targeting ?
Our model is a multi-side platform, traffic and construction-related information from users, that will lead to generating revenue through advertisements. We target 80,000 construction businesses in Thailand from medium segment down to the bottom of the pyramid as our users.
Launched in the middle of 2010, we now have 4,300 users from 1,300 companies that are working on 2,000+ construction projects (we consider them as the innovators). They are working on their projects worth more than US$150 million with purchasing power more nearly US$10 million a month.
Advertising expenditure for construction industry in Thailand is worth around US$50 million per year. The online portion is increasing at more than 10 percent a year. And the choice of online media in construction industry is limited to the industry’s news websites and online construction directories. The potential for Builk lies in our growing repeated traffic and longer usage times, because our users are working online, ordering, invoicing, controlling cost and quality of their construction projects on Builk everyday from 9-5. Our construction information is live from our users.
For revenue target, we will have total number of 10 premium sponsors by the end of this year. With the research programs we have been funded with, our revenue will be around USD100,000 this year.
Now, we are developing the next version of Builk.com that expands our target to construction project owners and non-construction professions who are looking for construction services and products and relationship functions to facilitate their business activities. This is expected to launch in Q4 of 2012.
The Builk team. Photo: Builk Asia
What would you mainly be looking for at Echelon 2012 Startup Marketplace?
Builk is a small company, but we have proven its potential in the Thailand market. I want to expand this model to other ASEAN countries for the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015. Construction services and materials can freely flow over to other ASEAN countries. Construction information will become more valuable.
Industry-specific B2B applications, like Builk.com, are different from the booming social or lifestyle applications. I need partnerships for these target markets: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines to help in localizing the product and create a construction community in their territories and get connected.
For investments, we have a plan to develop the whole construction information chain from pre-construction to post-construction. If we can have an interested investor on board, we can gear up our plan and get ready for regional market faster.
At present you only operate and send tours from within China; are there any plans to expand your market and begin operations elsewhere (for example, Southeast Asia)?
