Rumah123.com, one of the largest property websites in Indonesia, has just announced an exclusive partnership with Urbanesia[1], a well known Indonesia city lifestyle directory website. In the announcement, Shaun Di Gregorio, CEO of iProperty Group, of which Rumah123.com is a subsidiary, stated:
Partnering with a dynamic company like Urbanesia.com places us in front and helps introduce our presence to a broader market. This partnership will also benefit our agents because this will help with increasing their leads.
With this partnership, Rumah123.com can provide more complete information to its customers. Customers will be able to find out what sort of points of interest are near their desired property. Regarding this feature, Selina Liman, the CEO of Urbanesia, explained:
Urbanesia’s widget will be shown in every page of Rumah123.com’s properties listing. It will provide basic information like schools, restaurants, and supermarkets around a property.
With this partnership, Urbanesia has access to 110,000 properties listed on Rumah123.com. That means Urbanesia visitors will be able to look at this properties directory on the Urbanesia site, complete with all of its information.
Disclosure: East Ventures has invested in Urbanesia, and has also invested in this blog, Tech in Asia. See our statement of ethics for more on this. ↩
The Indian middle class has always taught their children to stick to secure jobs and not take any risks. The movie, Shuttlecock Boys revolves around the lives, successes and failures of four friends who hail from lower middle class backgrounds in Delhi. The question that four friends often ask is whether they should accept what life offers to us on a platter or should we try to chase our dreams, taking the path less taken, i.d. ‘startup’?
The debut film by Hemant Gaba who moved from US to start Pennywise Films is made on a shoestring budget of INR 35 lacs, took 22 days and 18 locations in New Delhi to complete the shoot. Hemant went through rough patches during pre & post-production phase and figured out low cost solutions to finally have the movie premiere on multiplex chains such as PVR Director’s Rare.
Here is an interview with Hemant on challenges he faced and importantly, state of indie movie producers in India:
Pi: From a corporate life to producing a movie. How did this happen?
Hemant Gaba: Unfortunately, I was never content with my corporate life. But at the same time; I wasn’t sure either that what exactly I want to do. The day I figured that filmmaking is my calling; decision to quite corporate life came easy. Pankaj Johar & I produced the film together. Pankaj was also a qualified Chartered Accountant and worked for a big IT Company. And we had been friends for 15 years and now business partners for last 4 years.
Pi: How did you manage to make the movie in a low budget? Hemant Gaba: It needed planning, convincing people to work for almost no money and just by asking for favours. Pretty much, same stuff that we would do to make a start up work :-)
We were thrown out from a park on very first day of the shoot by the police even when we had permission from them. Shooting on 18 locations in just 22 days with a crew of 30 people was the major hurdle. The challenge was managing time because time was essentially money which we didn’t have. We kept our focus on performances of the lead characters instead of investing time in creating good looking visuals. We shot the film on Super 16mm camera keeping a close eye on the raw stock that was getting used. 10 minutes of raw stock cost us some 5,000/-. So we tried to show the maximum with minimum number of shots.
For the home locations; we decided to use some of our friends & relatives’ homes. For office locations; we sent more than 500 cold emails and then some 7-8 companies invited us for a meeting. Two of them ended up giving us locations against film credits.
Also, we used sync sound over dubbing in order to have organic performances. For lights, we used very few hired lights and mostly used inexpensive Chinese Lanterns!
There aren’t any post production labs in Delhi and also we didn’t find any sound technicians to handle the post production; so we moved to Mumbai for the POST. After offline edit & sound design; next step was to go to the lab again where our film negatives got screwed by the film lab editors. This was a huge blow for us. It took us 9-10 months to fight with the lab and get our film digitally restored.
After the film completion, we didn’t know how to go about showcasing it. We were naïve, so didn’t know how film festival circuit functions. Started approaching Film Distributors, we figured that the entire struggle to make the film was nothing. There is a saying in the film industry that it’s easier to make a film but very difficult to release it in theaters which is indeed true. A celebrity endorsement or deep pockets do help but we didn’t have either.
So we became like door to door salesmen, went to every film corporate and film distributor. During the meantime, we got some opportunities to showcase the film in film festivals in India & US. The response to the film gave us confidence to keep pursing for a theatrical release. And it took us 1.5 years after film completion to get this theatrical release that is scheduled on 3rd August.
Pi: Tell us about rejections/challenges you faced while making the movie. Hemant Gaba: More than external challenges, it was a test of (3 Ps) persistence, patience and passion which is a challenge with ourselves. An average independent film takes approx takes a minimum of 2 years from being on Paper (i.e. Ready Script) to come alive on screen (if its lucky enough). We took 4 years to see the light of the day……so the 2 years in between was a challenge :-)
Pi: In general, Indie film producers do not get accepted so easily. How did you manage to get the release @PVR? Hemant Gaba: It’s true, in fact a lot of indie films never get to reach theaters for a commercial release. I myself know at least 10 indie film that are ready but still trying to get a release for more than a year.
Shuttlecock Boys was screened in Siri Fort Auditorium last year as a part of a film festival, where we had invited Mr. Shiladitya Bora from PVR Director’s Rare. He liked the film and then we were in queue for a long time to get a release date… So our turn came only now.
Pi: Growth of social media usage. How has social media helped you in promotion of the movie? Hemant Gaba: We of course don’t have budgets for TV Promos… in fact not even for Print Ads. Social Media, so far has been our prime tool to reach out to people. Even news articles online and in print are re-circulated on social media to enhance the eyeballs. We have mainly relied on organic growth than Facebook Ads.
Pi: Why not release the movie on Youtube? Hemant Gaba: Releasing the film on Youtube sounds fancy but it doesn’t really pay a dime. Imagine getting some $100 for 1 Lac views plus. We will be more than glad to do a Youtube release if any advertiser can pay us even INR 5 per view.
Pi: Last but not the least : Do indie-film makers lack ambition and patience to make it big? Hemant Gaba: Actually sometimes indie filmmakers become a part of the studio system when they become big. And there has been a tremendous change in the Independent Filmmaking since last 3 years because of the inexpensive and accessible digital technology. Give this space another 4-5 years; you will be hearing some of the small indie-filmmakers making it big.
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The movie is releasing on August 3rd by PVR Director’s Rare across 5 cities including Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.
According to a report by Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Neowiz Games (KOSDAQ:095660) is keen to move into China’s mobile gaming space. The company’s Chinese subsidiary has been operating since 2008, with a focus on PC games.
It’s estimated that the Chinese mobile gaming market will be comprised of about 192 million games by the end of 2012, and of course Neowiz is not unique in wanting a piece of that action.
Some of you may recognize Neowiz as the same game developer who published the official mobile game of the Olympics, which you can check out here. I tried playing their Facebook game a few weeks back, but I found it a little bit boring to be honest. But those who like Facebook’s many farming-style or city-building games may enjoy playing around with this one too as it lets you create your own Olympic village.
The company is one of the largest online gaming companies in Korea, and is the creator of the popular first-person shooter Crossfire, which is reportedly at the center of a recent trademark dispute. In China, Tencent has a contract to distribute the title, and the game has been hugely popular there.
A typical Kathmandu alleyway - or "galli" - which you're really going to need help navigating! (Image source: maximumadventure.net)
A Nepalese brother and sister team is hoping to put the nation’s capital Kathmandu on the map. Literally, and digitally. The aim – in their “GalliGalli” project which is now seeking crowdfunding – is to create a resource for locals and tourists alike that will cover the city’s venues, public transport, and streets and alleyways (called “galli”).
To get this started, the duo – Sakar Pudasaini (pictured below) and his sister, Surabhi – have launched a fund-raiser on the Kickstarter-esque site StartSomeGood. The GalliGalli project page is here. It’s aiming to get $16,423 to get started up and running, and has raised just over $4,000 so far this month with 21 days left in the campaign. A team member tells us via email that Surabhi’s background is in social science and journalism, while Sakar has experience at tech companies in Washington DC; both have travelled extensively before returning home. It was when Sakar got back to Kathmandu after some time away and couldn’t remember his way through the city’s labyrinthine alleys that the idea formed for a very lean and socially-minded startup that would bring the ancient city into the 21st century.
Currently, Google Maps has climbed to the heights of Nepal’s capital and does show bus stops and some basic directions, but it’s far from enough to help a tourist or local in getting around. Speaking for GalliGalli, Eileen Guo tells me that the project will be “using OpenStreetMap, an open source version of Google Maps, to do the main city-mapping, and the transportation layer will display much like it does in Google Maps.” The open source element will help save money too. They’re being frugal in other ways as well, and the team’s expenditure on office space is zero. With the $16,000 in seed funding that they’re seeking via StartSomeGood, GalliGalli will be able to run for four whole months.
As for financing and monetization going forward, Eileen explains:
GalliGalli is non-profit and [the two founders] are looking at funding in two primary ways. Once they have their beta version, they’ll be looking for grant money from major foundations, as well as corporate and government partnerships. I believe they may also be looking at the possibility of eventually charging for-profit organizations for some of their data.
[Updated] Sakar stresses that the basic service will always be free for regular folks. He elaborates:
Over time we will rely on a model that mixes grants, community-funding (we are big believers in the community-sourced idea), ad revenue, paid apps targeted at higher-end consumers, and ways to monetize the data we gather. We will have a ton of data about government services in Nepal which we think has value to people like journalists, NGO’s, etc. Think of that bit like the LinkedIn model: premier users pay to package and search data that is already free, in convenient ways.
What we will not do is charge for the basic service. We think putting this kind of data in the hands of people is altering the power dynamics between the authorities and those who respond to them. So the first few years will be external funding heavy as we move to greater self-sufficiency.
Check out the GalliGalli pledge page below to see how your backing could also net you some unique gifts from Nepal, and learn more about the project’s social ambitions in the video at bottom.
Mobile firms voice concern over new radiation norms
The norms, which will come into effect from September 1, require operators to reduce the electromagnetic radiation emanating from every tower by one-tenth of existing permissible limits.
Mobile companies have told the Government that they would have to reduce tower density in thickly populated urban areas if they have to meet the new norms. They claim that this will result in blank patches in networks where the coverage would be inadequate.[source]
Tata Communications plan to hive off its data centre
The company that had a net debt of $1.55 billion ( 8,684 crore) in March recently received government approval to separate land assets that locked it from raising funds via share sale since the Tata groupbought majority stake in 2002.
Carving it out of the Internet Data Centre business as a separate entity would enable it to raise finances independent of the parent company [source]
Adopt e-documents to help exporters, banks urged
Banks must adopt the electronic Bank Realisation Certificate as this will reduce transaction costs for exporters and make them competitive, said Mr S.R. Rao, Commerce Secretary, Ministry of Commerce.
This involves electronic transmission of documents and details on foreign exchange realisation on exports from banks to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). [source]
Telecom tribunal directs Govt to return Etisalat’s bank guarantees
Telecom tribunal TDSAT has directed the Government to return within a week the Performance Bank Guarantees submitted by Etisalat DB at the time of allocation of spectrum for 11 circles.
Etisalat had submitted performance bank guarantees of Rs 160 crore at the time of allocation of licences and airwaves. [source]
Recently we wrote about Kopi Tiam, a time-management game which features local cuisines from Singapore. I had the opportunity to follow up with the game’s creator, Afzanizam Zahari, to find out more about its development. It turns out that Afzanizam is a teaching assistant at the Sapporo City Board of Education, Japan.
While he majored in Biology, he also has a strong interest in mobile game devlopment. This interest has led him to create Kopi Tiam and a handful of other mobile games in his spare time. He was nice enough to answer a few more of my questions:
How would you describe Kopi Tiam?
Kopi Tiam is the first time management game where you have to cook, prepare and serve a variety of local asian cuisine from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. You can also learn more about the foods featured in the game. A word of caution though, the game is totally addictive!
When was the game created? And what inspired you to create it?
Kopi Tiam game was first conceptualized in December of 2011 and went into development in early January. It was completed and went to market in late March of 2012.
The idea of Kopi Tiam came about because I saw a niche that needed to be filled. I love time-management games and I have been learning and trying to make them since late 2010. I realized that most time-management games are Western-centric. I thought it would be wonderful to see games that have elements that are familiar in this part of the world we call Asia.
Are you working on this game alone?
I have been working on my games by myself and I find it very fulfilling. I’m still searching for a good game development partner that I can work with to speed up the development process.
How many downloads have you seen so far? Can you tell me a little about the paid version as well?
Kopi Tiam has been downloaded more than 80,500 times from Google Play Store, and more than 125,300 from the iTunes App Store thus far. I can’t tell you the exact figure for the paid version but suffice to say that the conversion rate from free to paid version for the Google Play Store is about 3 percent and from the iTunes App store it is about 10 percent.
Besides Kopi Tiam, what are your favorites games you have created so far?
Besides Kopi Tiam, the other game that I enjoyed developing and playing is Cataline HD which available in the Google Play store and the iTunes App store. The game is very relaxing and set in a beautiful environment where everything is made of fabric and tapestry.
Do you have any future plans you wish to share with us?
I’m currently working on my next game which I hope to release in a few months time. It is a spin off from one of the VIP characters from within Kopi Tiam game. The game is a time management type; however this time it is not based on food. The niche market for this game will be much narrower as well.
