Mobileapps founders kills service, aims to sell domain for US$1M

Malaysian based startup Mobileapps shuts down, calls out to prospective buyers to take over the domain.

MobileApps, a cross-platform mobile app marketplace cofounded by Malaysia based Alvin Koay, has just announced that they are shutting down. We first wrote about the app discovery platform back in 2011, which was built to help apps avoid the clutter of app stores and use the web as the discovery and distributions channel. Techcrunch also called them the adsense for mobile apps.

While the platform as a huge vision, it did not work out as Alvin would like. In his own words, “MobileApps.com, is shutting down, after failing to find traction”. Currently, Alvin is working on RichMediaAds, an ad creation tool for rich media ads which is slated to launch in a couple of weeks. RichMediaAds was also one of our Echelon 2012 exhibiting startup.

Mobileapps to sell for US$1M

So what happens to MobileApps.com? According to Alvin, he is currently looking for prospective buyers to take over the domain for US1Million. Why the figure? ReadWriteWeb published an article saying that the market for mobile application development services, which includes things like app creation, management, distribution and extension services, will grow to $100 billion by 2015. If you take into consideration for a category-defining name in a $100billion global industry, the US$1Million dollar suddenly seems to make sense. Alvin also shared with us that the figure is conservative if we compare to other reported domain sales such as feedback.com which sold at over $1.2M or marketingtoday.com which sold at $1.5M. With hundreds of domain name changing everyday, there might be unreported sales which are also sold in millions.

For the MobileApps domain, it enjoys about 150-200 natural type ins per day. That is without proper search engine optimization. Naturally, with proper SEO, the numbers would skyrocket. With a high organic traffic for the domain, the domain owner will get to enjoy free leads without doing much marketing.

Alvin certainly knows his stuff, and certainly an expert in high value domain name brokerage. If you are wondering how much he bought the mobileapps domain for, it was $10,000 back when the Apple app store was just released. Alvin hunted and negotiated for the domain name for a year, and eventually landed himself with a premium domain name.

Read on for the full press release of the shutdown.

****

 

Singapore, August 23, 2012 - MobileApps.com has decided to cease operations to focus on a much larger global online advertising industry. Initially launched as a mobile app discovery platform & marketplace in early 2011, it targeted the highly niched mobile app industry. Due to the overcrowding of app stores, app developers find it hard to get their apps discovered and that was the gap that MobileApps.com was trying to fill.

After a year building out the solutions, the company realised that the market for developers is just too small for it to grow into a sizeable company. According to Alvin Koay, the CEO & founder, “We have a great technology and it does not do justice to it by just focusing on a small market. Instead, if we were to re-purpose our solutions for a much bigger industry, it makes more sense. The app discovery niche is only a small subset of the online advertising market. Therefore it is a much bigger opportunity to deploy our technologies in somewhere larger.”

As reported by ZenithOptimedia this year, online advertising is the fastest growing medium, averaging 16% per year between 2011 and 2014 and forecasted to reach about USD100 million in 2013.

The company stopped all development work on MobileApps.com 3 months ago and had started building out a new DIY interactive rich media ad creation tool. It is currently in testing mode and will launch in a few weeks as RichMediaAds.com.

About MobilleApps.com Pte Ltd. 
MobileApps.com Pte Ltd is a company incorporated in Singapore and received seed funding from a publicly-listed company in Japan. It was featured in various technology websites including TechCrunch and ZDNet Asia.

****

Link to full article

Read More

GeekcampSG draws 400 geeks and younglings this year

It was 9am in the morning and already a hundred geeks are queuing at the lobby of the Microsoft office, anxiously waiting for the doors to open. Yup, it’s GeekcampSG, a technology focused conference run by the local geek community in Singapore on 18 August.

The first wave of geeks entering the Microsoft lobby at 915am.

GeekCampSG talks are crowdsourced and speakers are selected based on the number of votes the topic gets via Facebook Likes or Google +1s. The talks  with the most number of up-votes will then get to present on the day itself.

The event, which featured more than fifteen topics ranging from the controversial Bitcoin economy to practical tips for iOS developers was sponsored by Windows Azure, Infocomm Development Authority, Paypal and SoftLayer.

This year's geekcamp is sponsored by Windows Azure, Infocomm Development Authority, Paypal and SoftLayer.

This year’s GeekCampSG kicked off with U-Zyn Chua’s talk on the Bitcoin economy and how it is safer than putting your money in the bank. In his 30-minute keynote, he explained how bitcoins work, all the underlying technical implementations that resulted in the Bitcoin system, and answered burning questions from attendees.

Other sessions featured were Justin Lee’s talk on HTML5 architecture, Bhagaban Behera’s talk on node.js, Hacking and Securing iOS Apps by Subhransu Behera, Continuous Integration for PHP with Jenkins & Sonar by Michael Cheng and many more.

Hacking and Securing iOS Apps by Subhransu Behera from iOS Dev Scout

What is special about this year’s GeekcampSG is the theme “bring a youngling”. While the conference is typically attended by industry professionals,  this year’s event drew the highest number of attendees ever and saw participants aged from 7 years old onwards. Students from the School of Science and Technology, Raffles Junior College, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and the National University of Singapore made up about 20% of attendees.

A 'youngling' from Raffles Junior College presenting his experience developing on the Android platform.

GeekCampSG is a sure sign that the tech scene in Singapore is alive, kicking and growing. It definitely spells good things for innovation.

The GeekCampSG organizers having a beer together at the afterparty at Nueva Cuba.

If you missed out on GeekcampSG, you can still view the slides and talks that were covered.

Link to full article

Read More

Tech in Asia: Our Picks for News of the Week [August 25, 2012]

This week was crazy. Seriously. A lot of stuff happened. Picking one news story this week was hard. Do you go with the departure of a tech industry giant? The online war between several e-commerce giants? The blatant instances of copying? Let’s see where everyone came down this week:

Steven’s pick: CEO Gary Wang announces retirement as Tudou officially delists

The massive merger between China’s top two video sites is now complete. $TUDO is dead; long like $YOKU. Yes, Tudou is now delisted from NASDAQ as it is absorbed into its larger rival, Youku. But there was a shocker on Friday morning as Tudou’s CEO “retired” from the company, apparently to pursue other ventures. Next stop for the new Youku Tudou Inc. is, I reckon, for the two separate sites it runs to tidy up its various conflicts of interest, especially in terms of licensed TV shows and movies.

Charlie’s pick: Chinese copycats, copycats everywhere

This week I looked at two examples of Chinese ‘developers’ blatantly stealing intellectual property and then being tacitly supported by major companies (Tencent and Softlayer). While there were bigger hard news items this week (see Steven’s pick above), I choose these because of something one of the victims told me in an email interview: “stuff like that makes it hard for me to see China as a viable country to do business in.” That attitude is pretty widespread because of how common copying incidents like these are, and that should concern China’s tech industry.

Rick’s pick: Chinese copycats

Did I just copy Charlie’s choice? I think I did. As much as I’d like to choose another story in the interests of adding some variety, I think these are both important stories. While a lot of Chinese game developers have stepped up with original and interesting games, its a shame to see punks like these soil the progress that others in the industry have made.

Okay, okay, I can do another pick…I confess I was a little taken aback to find that about 60 percent of South Koreans have smartphones. Considering that Japan only has 25 percent smartphone adoption, it makes for an interesting contrast of mobile powerhouses.

Willis’ pick: China’s Search War, Again

Qihoo’s entry into search is fun and has caused quite a stir in the market. I’m quite a fan of Baidu because like Google, it helps me get things done in China. Qihoo’s search has about 10 percent market share but I’m not certain if that will stick because these users are “forced” users. For example, search results have been automatically switched from Google’s to Qihoo on its hao.360.cn site which may or may not be the best experience for users. Anyway, it’s still early in the search war, so we shall see. Elsewhere, Momo app’s $40 million funding has caused a lot of discussion among local entrepreneurs I met. Alibaba, who declined to comment, could be one of the investors. I’m also hearing that Matrix Partners could also be one of the folks backing the Chinese startup.

Joshua’s pick: It’s War in China

The title simply explains it all. Although I’m not in China and I have never been in China, being involved with Tech in Asia helps me with some knowledge of its tech scene. The post by Willis really summarizes what has been happening there, not even a competition, it sounds more like a war, which is good from the consumers’ point of view. Ranging from e-commerce war to search engine war – this can, one way or another, prove how developed the market is there and I’m definitely hoping that startups in Indonesia will compete more and challenge one another to be even better for the whole ecosystem.

The post Tech in Asia: Our Picks for News of the Week [August 25, 2012] appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

MobileApps Dies, But Gives Birth to Rich Media Ads

Startups come and go. But not too many folks have the balls to point out their own mistakes and immediately use the experience to move on to the next venture.

So kudos to Alvin Koay for being the type of entrepreneur who moves on quickly, not dampened much by failures. His Facebook “announcement” quoted below:

Our website, MobileApps.com, is shutting down, after failing to find traction. And, as a chapter closes, another opens. In the startup world, it is called a “pivot” and we are pivoting to RichMediaAds.com.

It is time to rebuild and regain the trust some people have in us. I have disappointed many people and that is the most painful part. Words simply can’t express how sorry I am.

No point talking. Action speaks louder than words now. Just watch me go.

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” ~ Marshal Ferdinand Foch.

Alvin’s next venture, Rich Media Ads, is described as a “DIY interactive rich media ad creation tool” and will launch in a couple of weeks. You can read the full release here. But most importantly, watch out for Rich Media Ads as this comes from an entrepreneur with some experience under his belt.

The post MobileApps Dies, But Gives Birth to Rich Media Ads appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

Share your idea, it’s an open mic night with Mobile Monday Singapore!

Mobile Monday Singapore will be holding their next session in September. Unlike the previous sessions, the format is a little different this time round. This will be its first ever open mic session at the Hub and this will be a good platform for any app developers who want to share their ideas with the attendees.

How does it work? Each participant will have a total of 3 minutes on stage and will have access to the projector, and the mic of course. So if you need to share your new idea, or look for mobile marketing manager, or want to share any ideas for future Mobile Monday events, or just want to say “Hi” because you are new in town, this event might just be right for you. If you have slides to share, please email Chris Chandler in advance.

Event Details:

Date: 3rd September 2012

Time: 7:00pm

Venue: The Hub Singapore

Address: 113 Somerset Road

You can register for the event at the Mobile Monday Facebook Event page.

 

Link to full article

Read More

Share your idea, it’s an open mic night with Mobile Monday Singapore!

Mobile Monday Singapore will be holding their next session in September. Unlike the previous sessions, the format is a little different this time round. This will be its first ever open mic session at the Hub and this will be a good platform for any app developers who want to share their ideas with the attendees.

How does it work? Each participant will have a total of 3 minutes on stage and will have access to the projector, and the mic of course. So if you need to share your new idea, or look for mobile marketing manager, or want to share any ideas for future Mobile Monday events, or just want to say “Hi” because you are new in town, this event might just be right for you. If you have slides to share, please email Chris Chandler in advance.

Event Details:

Date: 3rd September 2012

Time: 7:00pm

Venue: The Hub Singapore

Address: 113 Somerset Road

You can register for the event at the Mobile Monday Facebook Event page.

 

Link to full article

Read More

Fed up with the official Facebook iOS app? Try Cake the Reader

Looking for an alternative to the Facebook app? Japan based Wondershake might just have the app you need. Boasted as the best Facebook client, Cake the Reader is “the simple and easy-to-use” Facebook news feeder for the iPhone. 

Created out of the frustration

Cake the Reader was released back in July at one of Wondershake’s hackathon event. According to the cofounders, “we were pretty fed up with using the official Facebook app since it was really slow and stressful to use, so we created a smoother version of the Facebook newsfeed and group feed.” When asked why Cake the Reader only allows you to view newsfeed only, Suzuki Satoshi told us that Facebook users viewed newsfeed the most, and there were already Facebook Messenger and Facebook Pages released as single apps. “We wanted to minimize the feature set to make the product simple and faster to use. The posts shown on the feed is basically the same as the official app.”

The team and founding story

Wondershake is working as a team of 4, consisting of 2 engineers and 2 marketers. Most of their apps are mainly built by their iPhone engineer during a hackathon event held at Open Network Lab back in February. During the hackathon, the team had a morning call app that worked between Twitter followers.

However, that did not work out. “Then back in July, we were discussing if we were going to release that app, but then we had another idea of having a product that sends you a summary of your friends post and tweets, while you are  asleep. This idea seemed pretty interesting at first. But after a day, we thought it will not work out too. And at this point, we realised that there was a bigger problem with the Facebook official app. It was just being very stressful to use. So from there onwards, we began creating “Cake the Reader”, that focused on removing the stress that a lot of users were experiencing with the official app. We then developed Cake the reader in just two weeks, and now the app is available for download from the app store.”

The newly revamped Facebook app

Cake the reader has managed to garner over 10,000 users in just 5 days of launch last July. This reflects the demand for an improved app from Facebook users. Shortly after Cake the Reader was released and and when they were just beginning to get a little traction, Facebook announced an update to the Facebook app for iOS. The new Facebook 5.0, which is twice as fast as the previous version when launching the app. The new app was rebuilt from ground up and as one scroll down his or her news feed, stories and photos load faster. We have experienced this ourselves and it is definitely a huge improvement from its previous version.

So will happen to Cake the Reader now?

With the newly revamped Facebook app, Cake’s competitive edge in terms of performance speed has quickly diminished. Yes it was true that Cake the Reader’s performance was smoother and faster than the old Facebook app, but things are not the same anymore. Majority of the users would stick with the new Facebook native apps as there are more integrated Facebook features on it. While Cake has a beautiful and slick interface, it could be tough to stand up against the social network giant, Facebook. We will just have to see if the Wondershake team has any plan to update their app to include more features.

This also reminds me of how a single change in policy or a small upgrade in APIs or even any new system updates can make or break startups. The recent policy change by Twitter which restricts third party access has caused a lot of outcry from the web community.  They are definitely becoming a social meanie.

Link to full article

Read More

Fed up with the official Facebook iOS app? Try Cake the Reader

Looking for an alternative to the Facebook app? Japan based Wondershake might just have the app you need. Boasted as the best Facebook client, Cake the Reader is “the simple and easy-to-use” Facebook news feeder for the iPhone. 

Created out of the frustration

Cake the Reader was released back in July at one of Wondershake’s hackathon event. According to the cofounders, “we were pretty fed up with using the official Facebook app since it was really slow and stressful to use, so we created a smoother version of the Facebook newsfeed and group feed.” When asked why Cake the Reader only allows you to view newsfeed only, Suzuki Satoshi told us that Facebook users viewed newsfeed the most, and there were already Facebook Messenger and Facebook Pages released as single apps. “We wanted to minimize the feature set to make the product simple and faster to use. The posts shown on the feed is basically the same as the official app.”

The team and founding story

Wondershake is working as a team of 4, consisting of 2 engineers and 2 marketers. Most of their apps are mainly built by their iPhone engineer during a hackathon event held at Open Network Lab back in February. During the hackathon, the team had a morning call app that worked between Twitter followers.

However, that did not work out. “Then back in July, we were discussing if we were going to release that app, but then we had another idea of having a product that sends you a summary of your friends post and tweets, while you are  asleep. This idea seemed pretty interesting at first. But after a day, we thought it will not work out too. And at this point, we realised that there was a bigger problem with the Facebook official app. It was just being very stressful to use. So from there onwards, we began creating “Cake the Reader”, that focused on removing the stress that a lot of users were experiencing with the official app. We then developed Cake the reader in just two weeks, and now the app is available for download from the app store.”

The newly revamped Facebook app

Cake the reader has managed to garner over 10,000 users in just 5 days of launch last July. This reflects the demand for an improved app from Facebook users. Shortly after Cake the Reader was released and and when they were just beginning to get a little traction, Facebook announced an update to the Facebook app for iOS. The new Facebook 5.0, which is twice as fast as the previous version when launching the app. The new app was rebuilt from ground up and as one scroll down his or her news feed, stories and photos load faster. We have experienced this ourselves and it is definitely a huge improvement from its previous version.

So will happen to Cake the Reader now?

With the newly revamped Facebook app, Cake’s competitive edge in terms of performance speed has quickly diminished. Yes it was true that Cake the Reader’s performance was smoother and faster than the old Facebook app, but things are not the same anymore. Majority of the users would stick with the new Facebook native apps as there are more integrated Facebook features on it. While Cake has a beautiful and slick interface, it could be tough to stand up against the social network giant, Facebook. We will just have to see if the Wondershake team has any plan to update their app to include more features.

This also reminds me of how a single change in policy or a small upgrade in APIs or even any new system updates can make or break startups. The recent policy change by Twitter which restricts third party access has caused a lot of outcry from the web community.  They are definitely becoming a social meanie.

Link to full article

Read More

Did Tencent Just Quietly Take Down That Illegally Copied Web Game?

I’ve been following the story of Cloudstone for over a week now. If you haven’t, here’s the short version: Chinese developers Baofeng Dongman copied a Western web game called Cloudstone wholesale and made it available via Tencent’s Pengyou platform and the Tencent app store. In a follow-up post, we revealed exclusively the blame-ducking apology of Chinese devs Baofeng Dongman and noted that the game was still available on Tencent’s platforms.

But now it seems that Tencent may have finally removed the app from Pengyou. Although Tencent representatives have continued to ignore Tech in Asia’s requests for comment beyond the brief comment they gave that was published in our first post, the game appears to no longer be playable on Pengyou. While it is still listed, the screenshots have disappeared and clicking the “enter the app” button now takes users to an “Invalid URL” error message rather than the game itself. Interesting, the developer is also unlisted; instead a message reads “This is sensitive information, and will be revealed after the application is formally launched.”

Meanwhile, the game’s page on the Tencent app store is currently returning a “Server is busy, please return to the home page” error message.

With Tencent ignoring our requests for comment on this issue, it’s impossible to confirm that the game has been suspended or deleted, but if this is a bug in the system, it would require one to believe in a very unlikely coincidence. Other games on both Pengyou and the Tencent app store are operating normally, and it seems unlikely that both services would just happen to experience debilitating bugs that affect only a game that has just been revealed to be a fraudulent copy of someone else’s intellectual property.

So what can we say about Tencent? It appears the company is doing the right thing in finally taking the game down. I’d give it zero points for its transparency on the matter (ignoring emails, feigning system bugs to explain away the popular game’s disappearance) but at least the copied game is gone. Tencent, I think, deserves a little credit for that. (I’ll be checking back every now and then to make sure they don’t quietly re-enable the game once the dust settles, though).

The post Did Tencent Just Quietly Take Down That Illegally Copied Web Game? appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

Bandai Namco Hijacks Ad Space At Akihabara Station

Bandai Namco Games Inc. [J] has announced that they are developing advertising of their social game for Mobage Idol Master Cinerella Girls [J] at the JR Akihabara station and the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line Akihabara station.

This time they are posting advertisements from this title in many places at once, and they’re “Hijacking the advertising space in Akihabara station.”  Starting August 1st they are posting the advertisements in the station, and advertisements featuring characters from the game will be posted in many places between August 6th and 19th

THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA MASTER 006 Kanzaki Ranko

THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA MASTER 007 Maekawa Miku

THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA MASTER 008 Moroboshi Kirari

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Bandai Namco Hijacks Ad Space At Akihabara Station

Link to full article

Read More