MSN China Hits 60 Million Readers, Wants to Expand Into E-Commerce

Microsoft’s local portal, MSN China, has revealed that it has grown to 50 to 60 million active monthly users in the country, as it continues its battles against home-grown news and entertainment offerings from the likes of Sina, Netease, and Tencent. In addition, MSN China’s GM, Liu Zhenyu, said that the company is planning a move into the Chinese e-commerce market, and that such a shift would coincide with its search engine, Bing, coming out of its beta testing period in the country.

If we cast our minds back to last November, we’ll recall how Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) first e-tailing effort in China was sent to the deadpool as the ‘MSN Mall’ Yobrand women’s fashion site failed to compete against local e-commerce giants such as Tmall. It’s not clear if it’ll again be a fashion-oriented site, and no time-frame was specified.

Mr. Liu also outlined, as reported by Sina Tech a three-point plan of attack for his eight-year old cn.msn.com portal: pushing business growth through more effective advertising; some paid services; and, the afore-mentioned new e-commerce initiative. The initial two areas are already covered by the Microsoft local subsidiary, leaving the latter to be conjured up.

A representative of MSN China in Beijing explained to us this afternoon how the portal generates its revenue:

The first one is from display advertisements based on the MSN portal and Windows Live products. The second one comes from Bing search engine advertising revenue. This includes providing e-business services to Chinese enterprises […] such as Bing adCenter [and the] MSN M+ program [for SME] internet marketing and branding. The third source is from assisting Microsoft to manage mobile internet products, such as the Windows Phone Marketplace, manage apps, and provide display advertisements for apps.

And so MSN China also runs the local version of the Windows Phone Marketplace, which went live in March right after Nokia launched its WP7 smartphones in Beijing.

In the past, MSN China has not been able to turn its tens of millions of readers into online shoppers, so it’s going to be an even greater challenge the second time around. There are already plenty of big-name and smaller niche e-commerce sites in the country, covering pretty much every product area.

As for Bing China, the localized version of its search engine, Mr. Liu pointed out that, despite its tie-up with Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) to provide English-language search results and some other mutual working areas, Baidu ads will not be a part of Bing China.

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Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure launched in India

Microsoft has announced the launch of the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure in India. Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure (India) will host 10 select early-stage startups onsite for four months and take them through a deep immersion program, focused on helping build businesses that take advantage of the Cloud.

Starting today till July 1, 2012, Microsoft will receive online applications from startups. Any application that can be built using the Cloud platform and can operate in any business or market segment is eligible to apply. Ten applicants, selected through screening process will be invited to join the program in Microsoft’s office in downtown Bangalore, starting September 3, 2012. For the next four months, they will have access to the workspace, infrastructure, mentors and all the tools needed for their startup.

The selected startups will also have access to all the resources of Microsoft’s BizSpark program and $60,000 in Azure credit through the Microsoft BizSpark Plus program. They will be able to leverage the unlimited  possibilities enabled by an open and flexible cloud platform, the Metro user interface on Windows 8 and Windows Phone, and much more (details here).

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A Look at Founders Institute in Indian context

In less than 3 years, Founder Institute (FI) has launched around 415 startups through its chapters present in 26 cities throughout the globe, thereby claiming itself to be the largest idea stage startup incubator in the world. If external VC funding is considered as one of the success criteria, 40% of these startups have been able to secure the same.

The incubator is different from its peers in many ways:

- Participants pay tuition fee and give away a stake of 3.5% to be divided among FI, peer graduates and mentors. No funding whatsoever is provided.

- Sessions are held at weekend, so participants don’t have to quit their jobs.

- FI boasts of a massive global network of 750+ mentors.

- Startups which don’t show progress are made to leave the program and invited to join future programs. Success rate is less than 50%.

- If a startup receives financing of $50,000 or more from third parties, it pays a one-time tuition of $4,500 to FI and many more….

In short, FI provides a fast paced course for budding/ideating entrepreneurs to assist them create startups in just 4 months while significantly reducing their risks!! This makes one wonder, how relevant can be FI’s franchise based model in India.

Almost virtual nature of the program would mean participants won’t have to quit their 9-5 jobs to attend the course. This would enable the program to reach out huge and untouched segment of budding entrepreneurs with low risk propensity (Quad 3).

Categorization of people based on propensity to pursue entrepreneurship can be done using a simple framework as follows,

Quad 1: Happy with their day job, may think about entrepreneurship at some point if it looks like an ‘easy’ option

Quad 3: Are enthusiastic about entrepreneurship but risk aversive due to various reasons

Quad 2: Very easy for them to pursue entrepreneurship, generally strong financial backing may pursue entrepreneurship along with a Quad 3/ Quad 4 guy

Quad 4: Born to be entrepreneurs!

1. All Pervasive Growth: Being a franchise based model, it can be scaled up to many cities in India, with each franchise invariably focusing on developing entrepreneurial ecosystem in specific region, as majority of the participation would be local. Also the nominal initial and running investment would ensure a low entry barrier and easy scalability.

2. Being an academics driven program, it would provide necessary hand-holding and motivation to participants, which may prove to be panaceas. Founders will be liable to do necessary homework and start a company by the end of the course or they would be chucked out.

3. Indian mindset is driven by ‘exclusiveness’. Current entrepreneurship programs are not huge successes as they tend to be percept as something for the “losers”. Low selection and success rate would not only create a buzz about the program among people (especially the youth) but also a perception of being something one would feel proud to be associated with. This would also excite parents and family members (who happen to be the decision makers in many cases).

4. Peer/Mentor networking: Peer to peer networking, especially, among budding entrepreneurs/entrepreneurs is missing big time in India primarily because there neither a focused platform nor a compelling incentive for them. Since all the peers and mentors would have a stake in the company, they would be more than motivated to help others.

Let us assume a hypothetical scenario wherein a FI like organization with a charter to foster entrepreneurship is constituted in India but through public-private partnership. Majority of the funds are pooled-in by the government and managed by professional fund managers and investors. As a pilot, Bangalore chapter is opened with initial intake of 10 startups (or 20 budding entrepreneurs). Subsequently, chapters in other metropolitan cities are opened. Timeline would look something like this,

The number of startups graduating by 2020 adds-up to a decent 3212. Assuming a 75-80% conversion rate, number startups churned out by 2020 would be somewhere around 2500. Further assuming a 40% success rate, 60% of startups would shut their shop by 2020 leaving 1000 functional startups. Now, the 1000 startups which are running their operations generate $1m of revenues on an average, their cumulative revenue adds to $1b. A direct impact of $1b on national GDP!! Not to mention the employment opportunities created. This would create a vicious circle in itself by creating more demand (more number of budding entrepreneurs) and in turn creating more supply (more incubators, more Angels/VCs, more investments), thereby further pushing scale of the program.

As an article on Techcrunch mentions, Founder institute is looking for expanding to many global locations including Bangalore but I don’t know when exactly would that happen. If Indian government, along with the private stakeholders can come up with a scalable plan for incubating idea stage startups, it can really accelerate the growth of Indian startup ecosystem. What are your thoughts about it, do share.

[Guest article contributed by Ashutosh Garg (@gargashu0)]

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Choosing an LLP over a Private Limited Company? Not such a no-brainer, really

Many people speak to us today asking us to start their LLPs – it’s much easier, far less compliance, easier to manage etc. etc. We’ve heard these and other reasons for choosing the LLP route over the private limited route.

However, although it does have its advantages, the compliance checklist for an LLP is by no means significantly shorter than it is for a Private Limited Company.

Remember that both are incorporated entities – and you as a member enjoy the privilege of limited liability – both are new institutions created with a life and existence of their own. This is unlike a proprietorship firm or a partnership, which are both just loose groupings of individuals.

Just to start with the facts, the compliance checklist for an LLP is as follows:

1. Filing of annual returns: Within sixty days of close of financial year

2. Filing of notice with the Registrar within thirty days in case of a new partner or removal of a partner

3. Filing of notice with the Registrar within thirty days in case of change in the name or address of a partner.

4. Decisions taken by partners are to be recorded in minutes within thirty days of taking such decisions.

5. Auditors (CA) to be appointed, for the first financial year – at any time prior to close of financial year and in all other cases 30 days prior to the close of the financial year.

6. Filing of form within thirty days with the Registrar for changes in the LLP Agreement.

The only exception, and where an LLP scores above a Private Limited Company, is that audited financial statements need not be filed in case the revenue of the LLP is less than Rs. 40 lakhs per annum.

But is this a real advantage?

I must state here that the advantage which an LLP gives you is not so significant, and is in fact more than countered by some of the disadvantages – for instance, issuing ESOPS to your employees is logically impossible, getting investors into your Company is relatively more difficult and diluting or liquidating your stake on the secondary markets is not possible either.

So am I suggesting that you should not form an LLP at all? Not really. There are cases in which an LLP may in fact make sense. When the vision of the entrepreneur is to build a business which will be funded by accruals and internally driven, an LLP makes sense.

But the moment the goal is to build a scalable start-up which can draw in investors from the outside, and you forsee bringing in external capital, an LLP begins to make lesser sense. The Company mode of doing business has been around for 60 odd years now, as opposed to the 3 years that LLPs have been around. So the law around bringing in capital, diluting and liquidating stake and secondary market transactions is very evolved for Companies.

Also, while an LLP gives you a single option – bringing in a person as a Partner, a Company gives you multiple options. You can even have a person in your Company as just a shareholder, with no position on the board of the Company.

It’s no wonder then that practically every large enterprise, or every enterprise with large aspirations, chooses the company mode of doing business.

[About the author: Contributed by Hrishikesh Datar, founder of vakilsearch.com, online legal services provider (Legal Advice, Legal Documents & more.]

- More resources on company incorporation in India.

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Photo-sharing app Snapdish focuses on home cooked dishes and recipe social network service

Mobile has changed the way we communicate and interact with one another. Whether its locally or regionally, when we are at a restaurant eating, the sight of someone snapping the photo of their food and share it, is not uncommon. SnapDish, a Japan based startup, is one such mobile app, allowing you to snap your dish and share it with your friend. We at e27 caught up with the team to find out what they are up to.

Why did SnapDish go into social food sharing?

People have always loved sharing photos of their food on the internet and the blogosphere, and now that social networks and smartphones are around there are even more people doing so. These people love to share their food experiences with other people such as friends and family. Being ‘foodies’ ourselves, we knew that if we gathered these people, they would also enjoy sharing each others photos and additional information about the food. There weren’t any apps around that did the job, not even the food photo apps that were already around so we came up with SnapDish and launched the service.

Social Food Sharing has become more and more competitive. What are the key competitive advantage which SnapDish has to stand out from competitors?

Most of the food photo apps out there are centered around food eaten at restaurants. Our app has always been for any food, whether it be food cooked at home or eaten out. However, one thing that has made our app different from others is that we have mainly focused on the photo-sharing of home cooked food. We knew that there would be lots of beautiful dishes in the household and a big motivation for people to show them off. We have also added a recipe function on our app which makes our app even more for the home cook. We’ve always centered our UI/UX for these people.

Photo: SnapDish

Has any startups or SMEs leverage on SnapDish for commercial usage?

No, not specifically startups or SME’s. We do see many restaurant owners from around the world who are happy users. However we are not sure whether they’ve leveraged SnapDish on a commercial basis. They do seem to enjoy using SnapDish though.

Could you share with us a bit more about your user base as well as user traction?

We have about 200,000 downloads. 70 percent of our users are in Japan and 30 percent are from overseas. Our users from overseas are mainly from Asian countries. About 35 to 40 percent of our users are active. We’re getting about 3,000 to 3,500 posts and 20,000 to 25,000 ‘Yummies’(likes) per day. One big milestone we are looking at is the 1,000,000 download mark.

Since we’re based in Japan, we’ve mainly worked on gaining our user base in Japan but we’ve recently been trying to expand in Asia. Although we haven’t done any promotion overseas, we’ve been popular in Asia since our launch and we think now is the best timing to focus on doing more promotion in Asia. As a start, we partnered with Renren.com last month and we’re also working on a partnership in Korea.

Photo: SnapDish Team

What is SnapDish working on right now? Are there any interesting news or updates that the community can expect soon?

We just released the recipe function. This is one giant step for us because we are now also a recipe Social Network Service (SNS). We have always been very careful about making this app truly useful for the user. For example we don’t add promotional hashtags in people’s tweets when multi-posting to Twitter which some users may dislike. You can also choose Photobucket the destination of photos for sharing in your tweets which also makes the ‘snapdi.sh’ url not shown in your tweets. We don’t want to push our egos into people’s tweets. We’ve also been very ambitious about expanding our capabilities for multi-posting to various SNS’s and Consumer Generated Media (CGM)’s (such as blogs). This is a natural demand among users and we are adding more capability for posting photos to blogs. We are also working on opening up an API.

What is SnapDish mainly looking for in Echelon?

We want to meet interested and potential partners who would like to collaborate with us.

SnapDish will be exhibiting at Echelon 2012 Startup Marketplace. The team pitched their product at the Japan Satellite in April.

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Photo-sharing app Snapdish focuses on home cooked dishes and recipe social network service

Mobile has changed the way we communicate and interact with one another. Whether its locally or regionally, when we are at a restaurant eating, the sight of someone snapping the photo of their food and share it, is not uncommon. SnapDish, a Japan based startup, is one such mobile app, allowing you to snap your dish and share it with your friend. We at e27 caught up with the team to find out what they are up to.

Why did SnapDish go into social food sharing?

People have always loved sharing photos of their food on the internet and the blogosphere, and now that social networks and smartphones are around there are even more people doing so. These people love to share their food experiences with other people such as friends and family. Being ‘foodies’ ourselves, we knew that if we gathered these people, they would also enjoy sharing each others photos and additional information about the food. There weren’t any apps around that did the job, not even the food photo apps that were already around so we came up with SnapDish and launched the service.

Social Food Sharing has become more and more competitive. What are the key competitive advantage which SnapDish has to stand out from competitors?

Most of the food photo apps out there are centered around food eaten at restaurants. Our app has always been for any food, whether it be food cooked at home or eaten out. However, one thing that has made our app different from others is that we have mainly focused on the photo-sharing of home cooked food. We knew that there would be lots of beautiful dishes in the household and a big motivation for people to show them off. We have also added a recipe function on our app which makes our app even more for the home cook. We’ve always centered our UI/UX for these people.

Photo: SnapDish

Has any startups or SMEs leverage on SnapDish for commercial usage?

No, not specifically startups or SME’s. We do see many restaurant owners from around the world who are happy users. However we are not sure whether they’ve leveraged SnapDish on a commercial basis. They do seem to enjoy using SnapDish though.

Could you share with us a bit more about your user base as well as user traction?

We have about 200,000 downloads. 70 percent of our users are in Japan and 30 percent are from overseas. Our users from overseas are mainly from Asian countries. About 35 to 40 percent of our users are active. We’re getting about 3,000 to 3,500 posts and 20,000 to 25,000 ‘Yummies’(likes) per day. One big milestone we are looking at is the 1,000,000 download mark.

Since we’re based in Japan, we’ve mainly worked on gaining our user base in Japan but we’ve recently been trying to expand in Asia. Although we haven’t done any promotion overseas, we’ve been popular in Asia since our launch and we think now is the best timing to focus on doing more promotion in Asia. As a start, we partnered with Renren.com last month and we’re also working on a partnership in Korea.

Photo: SnapDish Team

What is SnapDish working on right now? Are there any interesting news or updates that the community can expect soon?

We just released the recipe function. This is one giant step for us because we are now also a recipe Social Network Service (SNS). We have always been very careful about making this app truly useful for the user. For example we don’t add promotional hashtags in people’s tweets when multi-posting to Twitter which some users may dislike. You can also choose Photobucket the destination of photos for sharing in your tweets which also makes the ‘snapdi.sh’ url not shown in your tweets. We don’t want to push our egos into people’s tweets. We’ve also been very ambitious about expanding our capabilities for multi-posting to various SNS’s and Consumer Generated Media (CGM)’s (such as blogs). This is a natural demand among users and we are adding more capability for posting photos to blogs. We are also working on opening up an API.

What is SnapDish mainly looking for in Echelon?

We want to meet interested and potential partners who would like to collaborate with us.

SnapDish will be exhibiting at Echelon 2012 Startup Marketplace. The team pitched their product at the Japan Satellite in April.

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Video: Entrepreneurs need to have empathy with their customers

Empathy is an underrated trait that entrepreneurs need to have. It helps not only in understanding your customers and building a better product, but also in managing your employees and making them feel satisfied at work.

A good way to understand people around you is to talk less and listen more. In product testing, for example, interfering too much in the process might lead users to try the product to please you, rather than display their true feelings. Jesse Pickard is the CEO of MindSnacks, a company that makes mobile learning games.

Video selected from Business.me

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Cheatsheet of technology startup acquisitions in Southeast Asia

With the recent US9.4M acquisition of food portal HungryGoWhere by SingTel, now’s a good time for us to take a look back at past acquisitions of technology startups in Southeast Asia. Here’s a cheatsheet of exits in the past few years, covering Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. Let us know if we missed out on any company, or if you have any feedback on how to improve the list.

Singapore

HungryGoWhere
A food portal with reviews and ratings contributed by users.
- Acquired for S$12M (US$9.4M) by SingTel
- Announced on 22nd May, 2012
- Founded in 2007
More info: SGE

Peekspy
The company’s site, Fanvenues, allows users to peek into concert and sports venues in 3D so as to make better purchase decisions about tickets.
- Acquired by eBay-owned Stubhub, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 8th March, 2012
- Founded in May 2008
More info: SGE, Wesley Oxenham’s blog

AdMax Network
Digital media network
- Acquired by Komli Media from Mumbai, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 29th February 2012
- Founded in 2006
More info: StartupCentral.in

OrSiSo
Social media dashboard
- Intellectual property rights acquired by SingTel, Terms undisclosed
- Announced on 21st September, 2011
- Founded in 2008
More info: SGE

BigDeal.sg
A daily deals site
- Acquired by NTUC Link, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 1st September, 2011
- Founded in May 2010
More info: SGE

Aktiv Digital
Ad network platform
- Acquired by Komli Media (Mumbai), terms undisclosed
- Announced on 4th June, 2011
- Founded in 2007
More info: SGE

JobsCentral Group
Jobs search portal
- Acquiredby US jobs site Career Builder,terms undisclosed
- Announced on 3rd May 2011
- Founded in 2000
More info: SGE

Brandtology
Online brand monitoring and business intelligence
- Acquired by Australia’s Media Monitors, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 17th February, 2011
- Founded in 2008
More info: SGE, Brandtology

Beeconomic
Daily deals site
- Acquired by Groupon, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 1st December, 2010
- Founded in May 2010
More info: SGE

TenCube
Mobile security startup
- Acquisition by McAfee estimated at S$6.8M (US$5M) or S$15M (US$11M)
- Announced on 29th July, 2010
- Founded in June 2005
More info: Digital Life

ShowNearby
Top mobile directory app in Singapore
- Majority stake of 53.13 percent at US$3.5M by Global Yellow Pages
- Announced on 9th July, 2010
- Started in November 2007
More info: The Edge Singapore

HardwareZone
IT Media company
- Acquired by Singapore Press Holdings for S$7.1M (US$4.5M)
- Announced on 29th September, 2006
- Founded in 1998
More info: SPH, Wikipedia

Indonesia

Gamesaku
iOS games review site
- Acquired by Indonesian company Apps Foundry, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 9th May, 2012
More info: TechinAsia

MakeMac
Biggest community website for Mac and iOS fans in Indonesia
- Acquired by Indonesian company Apps Foundry, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 16th February 2012
More info: TechinAsia

Detik.com
Online news portal
- Acquired by Para Group for US$60M
- Announced on 4th August, 2011
- Launched in 1997
More info: SGE, DailySocial.net

Rumah123.com
Claims to be Indonesia’s largest property portal
- Acquired by IPGA, which owns iProperty, for US$ 1.6M in cash and seven million shares
- Announced on 28th May, 2011
More info: iProperty, DailySocial.net

Rumahdanproperti.com
Indonesia’s third largest property portal
- Acquired by IPGA, which owns iProperty, for US$300k in cash and another US$200k subject to conditions
- Announced on 28th May, 2011
More info: iProperty, DailySocial.net

Disdus
Daily deals site
- Acquired by Groupon, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 6th April, 2011
- Launched in August 2010
More info: DailySocial.net

Rumah.com
Claims to be Indonesia’s top property website
- Acquired by PropertyGuru, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 7th February, 2011
- Founded in 2007
More info: PropertyGuru

Koprol
Location-based social service
- Acquired by Yahoo!, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 25th May, 2010
- Started in 2008
More info: eweek, e27

Philippines

FlowersExpress
Online flower delivery site
- Acquired by IslandRose.net, terms undisclosed
- Announced 30th October 2011
- Started in 2005
More info: YugaTech

Chikka
Wireless application service provider, known for its instant messenger
- Acquired bySmart Communications  for PHP750M (US$16M)
- Announced 10th November, 2009
Source: YugaTech

Sulit.com.ph
Leading classified ads site in Philippines
- 51 percent stake acquired by MIH at estimated US$1M
- Announced 3rd July, 2009
- Founded in 2006
More info: YugaTech

Entertainment Gateway Group
One of the leading mobile content providers in the Philippines, offering value-added services for mobile including music downloads, news & information, games, chat, and web to mobile messaging.
-Acquired by Globe Telecom for PHP351M (US$7.83M)
- Announced on 5th August, 2008
- Started in 2001
More info: YugaTech

Digiwave Solutions
Online gambling software developer
- Acquired by Philippines-listed entertainment group Premiere Entertainment Productions for P50 million (about US$1.24M)
- Announced on 29th Feb 2008
More info: CasinoMeister

Airborne Access Corp
Wireless fidelity firm
- 51% share acquired by ePLDT in 2005 for undisclosed amount
- Announced in 2005
More info: GMANetwork

Malaysia

Carlist.my
Car portal
- 50% stake acquired by Catcha Media estimated at around RM5M (US$1.5M)  in Dec 2011, complete acquisition on 23rd Feb, 2012
- Started in 2007
More info: Catcha Media, Entrepreneurs.my

Groupsmore
Daily deals site
- Acquired by Groupon, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 26th Jan, 2011
- Started in 2010
More info: Entrepreneurs.my articles here and here

Octazen Solutions
Contact importing from one service to another
- Talent acquisition by Facebook, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 19th Feb, 2010
More info: GigaOm, TechCrunch 

Thailand

Zest Interactive
Thailand’s leading games distributor and payment gateway company
- Acquired by Malaysia’s MOL Global, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 25th July, 2011
- Started in 2006
More info: SGE, Techielobang

Dealkeren and parent company Ensogo
Ensogo is a daily deals company headquartered in Thailand and operating in Philippines and in Indonesia as Dealkeren
- Acquired by Living Social, terms undisclosed
- Announced on 27th June, 2011
- Started in 2009
More info: DailySocial.net, Wikipedia

Original image: nanquimvirtual

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Xfire Ready for Asian Push, Partners with SEA Gaming

Xfire, a California- and Shanghai-based online community platform that offers social tools to PC gamers, is partnering up with Southeast Asian games publisher, SEA Gaming. Their agreement will bring Xfire’s online game utility to SEA Gaming’s titles, including World of Tanks.

This will allow gamers in the region to share videos and screenshots, and chat across supported games. Its livestream function also allows users to broadcast live streams of their game play.

Xfire also just announced a few days back that it had raised $3 million in funding to put towards its efforts of expanding into Asia. That investment was led by Sinapore’s IDM Venture Capital. This is on top of the $4 million the company raised from Intel Capital in 2011. The company’s CEO, Malcolm CasSelle, noted that partnering with SEA Gaming is a big step in its Asia push:

SEA Gaming has the exact reach within Southeast Asia that we’re looking for to continue our overall expansion […] They have a solid line-up of titles coming out this year, and we look forward to introducing Xfire to new players through those games."

Overall, Xfire claims that 20 million gamers have downloaded its client, with more that six million gamers using it to connect each month.

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Nominations for the SiTF Awards 2012 are now open

To promote and recognize local initiative ICT applications/ solutions developed by companies and institutions in Singapore, the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SITF) is back again for  its annual award giving – the SITF Awards 2012.

For 2012, SITF Awards opened up 12 categories for nominations.

• Cloud solution
• Digital Media
• e-Government
• Emerging technology
• General application
• Infocomm productivity
• Interactive ideas
• Mobile application
• Start-up
• Student (Primary/ secondary/ tertiary)

The SiTF Awards is the perfect opportunity for startups to showcase their product and solutions to the CIOs, Venture Capitalists and investors and receive insights into what IT leaders, VCs and Investors look at when determining the viability of a product/ solution. On top of that, it is also a platform for you to create awareness and get exposure for your innovative product.

One of the categories that startups should consider would be the Interactive Ideas category where startups will have the chance to receive funding of up to $50K in the form of i.Jam Reload Tier 1 and incubated under the SiTF during that period.

The judging panel of the SITF Awards consists of luminaries of the ICT industry, venture capitalists, investors and academia.

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony which will be held in conjunction with SiTF 30th Anniversary on 30th August 2012 at Marina Bay Sands. Over 500 attendees made up of ICT professionals and ‘C’ level executives together will be  heading to the event.  This is also a timely opportunity for startups to network with the IT Leaders, Investors and the rest of the award recipients.

More information on the award categories can be found here.

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