The Samurai-Juan: rising sun meets pearl of the orient

Up-and-coming technopreneurs from Japan and the Philippines met up for a cultural and idea exchange over dinner and socialization at an informal Friday evening gathering.

Last August 31, 2012, several aspiring and rising Filipino technopreneurs were invited to a simple dinner and get-together with their Japanese counterparts by Balooka Co-Founders Marc Medina and Winston Quesang at Hanaichi Japanese Restaurant over at Bonifacio Global City. Expecting to meet veteran and experienced foreign entrepreneurs, the Pinoy “Juans” were amazed and flabbergasted to meet young Japanese executives in the early to mid-20′s who moved and talked like seasoned industry titans.

The Japanese delegation was lead by Kiyotaka Sakakibara of Adways Philippines. Taka and his Japanese friends actually chipped in to sponsor the dinner. The sumptuous feast consisted of a variety of Japanese fare like tempura, sushi, sashimi, shirumono, agemono, mushimono, and itamemono.  Cha Han (fried rice) and soba (noodles) were the clincher to make sure everyone went home full, fulfilled and bellies bulging with a few extra inches.

Event host Taka Sakakibara explaining the objectives and vision of the Samurai-Juan meet-up (Credit: Marc Medina)

Marc, Winston, Taka and Takuya Oka of Research Panel Asia played the dual role of event hosts and facilitators given they were the bridge between Samurais and the Juans whom they meet during e27’s Echelon 2012 in Singapore in June this year.

After much merrymaking, networking and chitchat, the organizers had all the participants speak about their endeavors and respective startups. Winston and Marc got the ball rolling with Taka presenting Adways soon after. The participants then alternated between nationalities. In spite of the short time allotted, each presenter successfully explained their business. The participants were also able to expound on what they need and what they can do to help.

(L-R) Balooka Co-Founders Marc Media and Winston Quesang, Rafael Oca of FamilyKo, Glenn Santos of Memokitchen and Radson Baldonado of Adways Philippines (Credit: Marc Medina)

Some of the other Pinoy startups who attended include Israel Brizuela of Paybilis, Michael Ngo Dee of Tripid, Glenn Santos of Memokitchen, Ragde Falcis of GoRated, sweethearts Kenneth Reyes Lao and Shiels Jocona of My Wedding Lab, Katherine Sy Yap of MIH Creatives, Rafael Oca of FamilyKo, IT Consultant Alan Landa and Norris Jay Perez of Webspark.net.

The other young Japanese “tycoons” included Hirokazu Noda and Tsubasa Kitada of Footsteps, Shuhei Nishimoto of iforce, Jun Ishikawa of GaiaX, and Masato Toda of WEGLO.  Langrich CEO Tomoharu Urabe event flew in from Cebu just to join the event.  But he had to leave immediately as he had to fly back to Cebu to wrap-up a major deal later that night.

(L-R) Radson Baldonado, Taka Sakakibara, DLSU Prof. Alan Landa, Takuya Oka and JFDI Singapore veteran Rafael Oca (Credit: Marc Medina)

The group had to say sayonara at around 11 p.m. and decided to keep in touch to discuss possible synergies individually and as the “Samurai-Juan” group. More meet-ups and collaborations are in the pipeline to foster brotherhood and camaraderie between the two groups.

Domo Arigato!

About the Author

Jonathan Richie Yap is known by a multitude of names, and wears many hats as well.  He is primarily an IT consultant in the fields of product development and project management for the web and mobile. JR or “Yappie” as he is known by some of his peers, is also into events management and is also a part-time educator.  He is concurrently the vice president of Marketing & Partner Relations at Developers Connect Philippines VP, and also the Communications Head of the Alumni Association of Xavier School (AAXS).

Featured Image Credits: Glenn Santos

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The Samurai-Juan: rising sun meets pearl of the orient

Up-and-coming technopreneurs from Japan and the Philippines met up for a cultural and idea exchange over dinner and socialization at an informal Friday evening gathering.

Last August 31, 2012, several aspiring and rising Filipino technopreneurs were invited to a simple dinner and get-together with their Japanese counterparts by Balooka Co-Founders Marc Medina and Winston Quesang at Hanaichi Japanese Restaurant over at Bonifacio Global City. Expecting to meet veteran and experienced foreign entrepreneurs, the Pinoy “Juans” were amazed and flabbergasted to meet young Japanese executives in the early to mid-20′s who moved and talked like seasoned industry titans.

The Japanese delegation was lead by Kiyotaka Sakakibara of Adways Philippines. Taka and his Japanese friends actually chipped in to sponsor the dinner. The sumptuous feast consisted of a variety of Japanese fare like tempura, sushi, sashimi, shirumono, agemono, mushimono, and itamemono.  Cha Han (fried rice) and soba (noodles) were the clincher to make sure everyone went home full, fulfilled and bellies bulging with a few extra inches.

Event host Taka Sakakibara explaining the objectives and vision of the Samurai-Juan meet-up (Credit: Marc Medina)

Marc, Winston, Taka and Takuya Oka of Research Panel Asia played the dual role of event hosts and facilitators given they were the bridge between Samurais and the Juans whom they meet during e27’s Echelon 2012 in Singapore in June this year.

After much merrymaking, networking and chitchat, the organizers had all the participants speak about their endeavors and respective startups. Winston and Marc got the ball rolling with Taka presenting Adways soon after. The participants then alternated between nationalities. In spite of the short time allotted, each presenter successfully explained their business. The participants were also able to expound on what they need and what they can do to help.

(L-R) Balooka Co-Founders Marc Media and Winston Quesang, Rafael Oca of FamilyKo, Glenn Santos of Memokitchen and Radson Baldonado of Adways Philippines (Credit: Marc Medina)

Some of the other Pinoy startups who attended include Israel Brizuela of Paybilis, Michael Ngo Dee of Tripid, Glenn Santos of Memokitchen, Ragde Falcis of GoRated, sweethearts Kenneth Reyes Lao and Shiels Jocona of My Wedding Lab, Katherine Sy Yap of MIH Creatives, Rafael Oca of FamilyKo, IT Consultant Alan Landa and Norris Jay Perez of Webspark.net.

The other young Japanese “tycoons” included Hirokazu Noda and Tsubasa Kitada of Footsteps, Shuhei Nishimoto of iforce, Jun Ishikawa of GaiaX, and Masato Toda of WEGLO.  Langrich CEO Tomoharu Urabe event flew in from Cebu just to join the event.  But he had to leave immediately as he had to fly back to Cebu to wrap-up a major deal later that night.

(L-R) Radson Baldonado, Taka Sakakibara, DLSU Prof. Alan Landa, Takuya Oka and JFDI Singapore veteran Rafael Oca (Credit: Marc Medina)

The group had to say sayonara at around 11 p.m. and decided to keep in touch to discuss possible synergies individually and as the “Samurai-Juan” group. More meet-ups and collaborations are in the pipeline to foster brotherhood and camaraderie between the two groups.

Domo Arigato!

About the Author

Jonathan Richie Yap is known by a multitude of names, and wears many hats as well.  He is primarily an IT consultant in the fields of product development and project management for the web and mobile. JR or “Yappie” as he is known by some of his peers, is also into events management and is also a part-time educator.  He is concurrently the vice president of Marketing & Partner Relations at Developers Connect Philippines VP, and also the Communications Head of the Alumni Association of Xavier School (AAXS).

Featured Image Credits: Glenn Santos

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Entrepreneurial lessons from Dr. Verghese Kurien, the milkman who didn’t enjoy drinking milk (but sold it to all of us)

“Verghese Kurien (26 November 1921 – 9 September 2012) was an Indian engineer and businessman, best known as the founder of Amul (which stands for  Anand Milk Union Ltd), a dairy-food company.” This is what the Wikipedia entry says for the man who changed the story of milk and dairy products in India.

But for entrepreneurs and startups, this man’s life has more to offer. Its a life lived for making a difference, creating something much larger than one would have thought possible and not settling for mere “meeting expectations”.

Here’s a few things that struck us.

He didn’t enjoy drinking milk, but sold it to all of us!
Against all the regular gyaan of using your product/build on personal itch, the key learning is that he was an entrepreneur willing to solve the bigger challenge of the society.

If you ask what was his core contribution was, well he engineered the system. He architected a platform that enabled people to build/sell on top of it.

Actually, Kurien was the first to produce milk powder from buffalo milk at a time the rest of the world manufactured powder solely from cow’s milk. [via]

A practicing engineer!

He invested in technology, and found solutions that were applicable locally
Kurien built insular systems around co-operatives that were difficult to penetrate and break. He ensured that co-operatives always had the technical edge. Setting up Kaira Can Company in the early days to manage the critical supply chain; using locally developed technologies for producing milk powder and cheese and condensed milk from buffalo milk; tying up with Tetra Pak for setting up a packaging company for selling long-shelf life milk. “ [via}

Kurien and his team were pioneers in inventing the process of making milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo's milk instead of cow's milk. This was the reason Amul became so successful and competed well against Nestle who only used cow milk to make powder and condensed milk. In India, buffalo milk is the main raw material unlike Europe where cow milk is abundant [Wikipedia].

They did not get stuck in definitions of fundamental vs incremental innovation – those are mere semantics when you spot a problem worth solving.

Amul Ad on Dr. Kurien's 90th Birthday

He had bigger motive – i.e. beyond money, beyond valuation.

Amul was a co-operative and not about personal wealth or 10x valuations. Yet, scale was inherent to its success. Entrepreneurs have motives beyond money, and that is what passion is born of.

He knew what he was selling was a commodity product. He created a brand out of it.

“Milk is not a white good or a brown good. It is not something people save their entire lives in order to buy – like a car, or a house. Milk is not a status symbol; rather it is the symbol of nutrition. Milk is a nearly complete food, providing protein, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients so essential to maintaining good health.” [via]

Even though Amul was a cooperative, their ad spend and creativity could beat any corporate.

A lot of technology startups tend to not market and are misguided by WoM, without seeding the conversation. Amul took a lateral approach to branding, BUT the brand equity was tightly coupled with the back-end:

“If Amul has become a successful brand – if, in the trade lingo, it enjoys brand equity – then it is because we have honoured our contract with consumers for close to fifty years. If we had failed to do so, then Amul would have been consigned to the dustbin of history, along with thousands of other brands.

What goes into the ‘contract’ that is a brand name? First is quality. No brand survives long if its quality does not equal or exceed what the buyer expects. There simply can be no compromise. That’s the essence of the contract. In the case of a food product, this means that the brand must always represent the highest hygienic, bacteriological and organoleptic standards. It must taste good, and it must be good. [Dr. Kurien]

And finally, a tribute to the man (via) by the Amul girl

R.I.P Dr. Kurien :(

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B2C eCommerce Site Yaodian100: Not A Happy Ending

Since this April, rumor has been whirling that the B2C site Yaodian100 (site currently unavailable) would stop its business soon. Unfortunately, four months later, the company closed the door of its Shanghai office, with tens million unpaid loans left behind. This B2C platform was first founded in 2009, once had millions registered users and selling many Taiwan imported goods.

“To directly copy the Taiwanese B2C mode obviously doesn’t work. What’s more, it even has led to the collapse of the company.” said an insider. Actually it is reported that over 50 former suppliers of Yaodian have allied to safeguard their legal rights and claim back the debts. Things don’t look so nice.

Some clues showed that problems and difficulties of this e-tailer have appeared long ago. According to a personal letter from a Yaodian staff in April, “Senior executives haven’t got paid for more than 3 months, common staff also haven’t seen salaries for 2 months. The 2 founding members left for Taiwan and the whole company is in a mess now. ”

Someone told the media that, “The unpaid loans of Yaodian is over tens millions, involving thousands suppliers. It has not declared bankruptcy yet, but the money shortage has started since September 2011.”

A former supplier of Yaodian revealed, “I tried to contact some staff, and they promised to pay the loans immediately on the phone. I didn’t take notice at all until none of the staff is available. It came to me that earlier this year, Yaodian was dealing with some stock offline, and I realized now that it posiibly wanted to cash out at that time.”

How could a 2-year -old young company be in a dilemma like this? A B2C insider told us that,’It was due to the fault of a wrong mode. Mainland China and Taiwan are two different markets and Yaodian innocently expected a same model go smoothly on either side. Thid is impossible.”

In Taiwan, B2C sites don’t keep stock, companies deliver goods directly through suppliers and manufacturers. While in Mainland China, a B2C platform will first purchase its stock, and suppliers do not share any of it. “In the early stage, Yaodian did it in a Taiwanese way, and found it not suitable afaterwards. Then they tried to transform into a local mode, but failed for lacking purchasing experiences.”

Currently the site is not available any more and the official announcement on its weibo said it was due to the relocation of the machine room. And the only contact available now is an email address.

Related posts:

1. China Ecommerce Roundup: Yaodian100, Net-a-Porter, Funding
2. Tencent Might Shop Social Ecommerce Site Meilishuo?
3. Page Rank Site, Alexa Closes Chinese Site

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Open Sesame for China's E-commerce Brand Alibaba. Baidu, Tencent next?

Going global for Chinese Internet brands isn't as much of a stretch as you might think. Consider Alibaba for one.
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Is Rocket Internet losing its grip in Southeast Asia?

Rocket Internet has been setting up shop aggressively, especially in Southeast Asia. But is their strategy working for them?

Much have been written about the notorious Samwer Brothers and their online startup incubator, Rocket Internet. For those that are unfamiliar with the term, Rocket Internet is a German online startup incubator founded in Berlin in 2007 by the Samwer Brothers. The company’s business model is to clone successful internet sites, usually from the US, and then replicate them in other countries. We have also covered extensively about their footprint. Back in June, Rocket Internet launches HungryPanda in Vietnam to expand their online food delivery services. We also caught up with Opal Wu, 26-year-old cofounder and Managing Director of Rocket Internet Hong Kong, who gave us an insider look to the startup scene in Hong Kong. Last week, it was also reported that JP Morgan is investing heavily in Indonesia’s based Lazada, a Rocket Internet’s e-commerce startup.

Rocket Internet shuts down Home24. The story behind the closure

While things might look rosy, Rocket Internet definitely had its fair share of hard times in Southeast Asia. Few weeks back, it was reported that Rocket Internet is shutting down Home24, an online furniture shop based in Singapore. While the website is still up and running, we managed to confirm with a source close to the company that Home24 is indeed shutting down, with the company laying off its employees. Home24 was launched in Malaysia and Singapore after the success of its parent company Home24.com back in Germany. However, due to the high inventory cost, investors might not have sufficient funds to keep the Singapore chapter up and running. There were plans to move the Singapore chapter and merged it with the Malaysia chapter. However, nothing is confirmed at this point of time.

Rocket Internet’s strategy: Only a few clones need to work

The closing of four months old Home24.sg reveals one thing, Rocket Internet will not hesitate to pull the plug when it comes to evaluating a likely failure. As time passes, it became apparent that the strategy for Rocket Internet is somewhat similar to betting. For Rocket Internet, they clone proven business models and replicate them in other countries. For each clone, Rocket Internet puts in a huge amount of money into hiring as well as marketing. They only need a handful of their businesses to work. For clones that have low margins or those that are not doing very well, it will be shut down, alongside with all the employees. Our source also told us that because of this, Rocket Internet is notorious for having capricious hiring and firing operations.

Fresh graduates and job seekers beware

For fresh graduates and job seekers, joining any Rocket Internet company might seem attractive as they offer a very competitive salary package. It is also very attractive to be able to join companies which are at its growth stage. However, there is one thing which fresh graduates and job seekers have to be wary about. Rocket Internet do not need all their companies to be successful. If you end up in the wrong company, the career might actually do more harm than good, because some of the companies are shut down and employees laid off without proper notice. Sudden unanticipated unemployment is always a risk. Our source also warned fresh graduates to have a sense of what they want to achieve before joining any companies.

Terence Lee from SgEntrepreneurs also paid Zalora Singapore a visit and described the experience as “it felt a little like a sweatshop”. To further illustrate that, we manage to get hold of an internal email sent out by a disgruntled ex-employee of Zalora Vietnam to all the Zalora companies regionally. The ex-employee was fired from Zalora Vietnam and expressed that he was not treated with respect by the company. There was also another instance where an employee based in Phillipines was laid off and she publicly described her experience in a blogpost.

From Rocket Internet’s end, it seems like they are focusing on proving the high growth in terms of huge customer orders and rapid hiring, rather than focusing on proving revenue to their investors. Our source seems to agree on this as well. Whether the company is actually fulfilling orders and keeping up with its customer service is entirely a different story. Bernand Leong did an excellent piece on Rocket Internet’s madness, noting that companies are not built on spreadsheets and exit strategies.

Zalora Singapore doing well?

Among all its companies in Singapore, Zalora Singapore seemed to be doing the best, according to our source. We dug further on how true this is. A quick dive into their Facebook page, one can find that the page administrator has disabled the “post by others”. It makes one wonder, could there be too many complaints from its customer? Another quick dive into popular shopping forum Flowerpot also reveals that there are a lot of customers who are dissatisfied with their service. Back in June, we also saw Zalora’s senior product manager Danny Tan leaving Zalora to join Viki. Is Zalora Singapore truly a Rocket Internet success?

Final thoughts 

All the signs seems to consistently point out that Rocket Internet is pouring a lot of money into growing their companies. However, the explosive growth is outgrowing the customer service department. To solve that, Rocket Internet goes into a rapid hiring mode. Rapid hiring leads to overcrowding in the company, and slowly, the company infrastructures seem to not be able to keep up. Employees satisfaction and productivity drops. Disgruntled employees leave. Customer service is badly affected. The whole cycle repeats, and slowly snowballs into disaster. Look at Home24 which shuts down. Look at Zalora Singapore where there are a lot of dissatisfied customers.

Will Rocket Internet soon lose its foothold in Singapore, just as it did in Turkey? Judging from how they are performing, I would say it is highly likely.

Image Credits: eureferendum, home24, flowerpot

The post Is Rocket Internet losing its grip in Southeast Asia? appeared first on e27.

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Is Rocket Internet losing its grip in Southeast Asia?

Rocket Internet has been setting up shop aggressively, especially in Southeast Asia. But is their strategy working for them?

Much have been written about the notorious Samwer Brothers and their online startup incubator, Rocket Internet. For those that are unfamiliar with the term, Rocket Internet is a German online startup incubator founded in Berlin in 2007 by the Samwer Brothers. The company’s business model is to clone successful internet sites, usually from the US, and then replicate them in other countries. We have also covered extensively about their footprint. Back in June, Rocket Internet launches HungryPanda in Vietnam to expand their online food delivery services. We also caught up with Opal Wu, 26-year-old cofounder and Managing Director of Rocket Internet Hong Kong, who gave us an insider look to the startup scene in Hong Kong. Last week, it was also reported that JP Morgan is investing heavily in Indonesia’s based Lazada, a Rocket Internet’s e-commerce startup.

Rocket Internet shuts down Home24. The story behind the closure

While things might look rosy, Rocket Internet definitely had its fair share of hard times in Southeast Asia. Few weeks back, it was reported that Rocket Internet is shutting down Home24, an online furniture shop based in Singapore. While the website is still up and running, we managed to confirm with a source close to the company that Home24 is indeed shutting down, with the company laying off its employees. Home24 was launched in Malaysia and Singapore after the success of its parent company Home24.com back in Germany. However, due to the high inventory cost, investors might not have sufficient funds to keep the Singapore chapter up and running. There were plans to move the Singapore chapter and merged it with the Malaysia chapter. However, nothing is confirmed at this point of time.

Rocket Internet’s strategy: Only a few clones need to work

The closing of four months old Home24.sg reveals one thing, Rocket Internet will not hesitate to pull the plug when it comes to evaluating a likely failure. As time passes, it became apparent that the strategy for Rocket Internet is somewhat similar to betting. For Rocket Internet, they clone proven business models and replicate them in other countries. For each clone, Rocket Internet puts in a huge amount of money into hiring as well as marketing. They only need a handful of their businesses to work. For clones that have low margins or those that are not doing very well, it will be shut down, alongside with all the employees. Our source also told us that because of this, Rocket Internet is notorious for having capricious hiring and firing operations.

Fresh graduates and job seekers beware

For fresh graduates and job seekers, joining any Rocket Internet company might seem attractive as they offer a very competitive salary package. It is also very attractive to be able to join companies which are at its growth stage. However, there is one thing which fresh graduates and job seekers have to be wary about. Rocket Internet do not need all their companies to be successful. If you end up in the wrong company, the career might actually do more harm than good, because some of the companies are shut down and employees laid off without proper notice. Sudden unanticipated unemployment is always a risk. Our source also warned fresh graduates to have a sense of what they want to achieve before joining any companies.

Terence Lee from SgEntrepreneurs also paid Zalora Singapore a visit and described the experience as “it felt a little like a sweatshop”. To further illustrate that, we manage to get hold of an internal email sent out by a disgruntled ex-employee of Zalora Vietnam to all the Zalora companies regionally. The ex-employee was fired from Zalora Vietnam and expressed that he was not treated with respect by the company. There was also another instance where an employee based in Phillipines was laid off and she publicly described her experience in a blogpost.

From Rocket Internet’s end, it seems like they are focusing on proving the high growth in terms of huge customer orders and rapid hiring, rather than focusing on proving revenue to their investors. Our source seems to agree on this as well. Whether the company is actually fulfilling orders and keeping up with its customer service is entirely a different story. Bernand Leong did an excellent piece on Rocket Internet’s madness, noting that companies are not built on spreadsheets and exit strategies.

Zalora Singapore doing well?

Among all its companies in Singapore, Zalora Singapore seemed to be doing the best, according to our source. We dug further on how true this is. A quick dive into their Facebook page, one can find that the page administrator has disabled the “post by others”. It makes one wonder, could there be too many complaints from its customer? Another quick dive into popular shopping forum Flowerpot also reveals that there are a lot of customers who are dissatisfied with their service. Back in June, we also saw Zalora’s senior product manager Danny Tan leaving Zalora to join Viki. Is Zalora Singapore truly a Rocket Internet success?

Final thoughts 

All the signs seems to consistently point out that Rocket Internet is pouring a lot of money into growing their companies. However, the explosive growth is outgrowing the customer service department. To solve that, Rocket Internet goes into a rapid hiring mode. Rapid hiring leads to overcrowding in the company, and slowly, the company infrastructures seem to not be able to keep up. Employees satisfaction and productivity drops. Disgruntled employees leave. Customer service is badly affected. The whole cycle repeats, and slowly snowballs into disaster. Look at Home24 which shuts down. Look at Zalora Singapore where there are a lot of dissatisfied customers.

Will Rocket Internet soon lose its foothold in Singapore, just as it did in Turkey? Judging from how they are performing, I would say it is highly likely.

Image Credits: eureferendum, home24, flowerpot

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The Sharing Engine extends contest deadline to Sep 15

(Credit: The Sharing Engine)

The Sharing Engine has been running a free startup contest and, so far, they have received great entries from participants. Some of them however, do require extra time to refine their concept. As a result, The Sharing Engine has decided to extend the duration of this contest.

Well, to aspiring entrepreneurs out there, what are you waiting for? Get your thinking cap back on and work on that startup concept as there are a couple more days left before the closing date for the contest.

As simple as ABC, just fill out the form and state what market you’re targeting. The Sharing Engine will rate the entries based on originality, potential and match to their software marketplace models. They even support rentals, service and sales marketplaces. All these for free!

The Sharing Engine is a quick and easy e-commerce setup solution created by Singapore based HeyPal Pte Ltd.

So what are you waiting for? Enter now!

Important reminder:

1. Entries close on September 15 at 11:59PM Singapore time

2. Setup and monthly hosting waived for one year

3. Revenue share still applies

4. Only applicable for plug-and-play usage of The Sharing Engine software

5. Winning startup / site agrees to serve as a reference customer and to publish a case study.

6. Winning startup agrees to allow The Sharing Engine branding on its site.

7. The Sharing Engine (HeyPal Pte Ltd) reserves the right to award to any entrant that it chooses, at its sole discretion. Similarly, The Sharing Engine (HeyPal Pte Ltd) may choose not to award this prize if no suitable entries are received.

Featured Image Credits : The Sharing Engine

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The Sharing Engine extends contest deadline to Sep 15

(Credit: The Sharing Engine)

The Sharing Engine has been running a free startup contest and, so far, they have received great entries from participants. Some of them however, do require extra time to refine their concept. As a result, The Sharing Engine has decided to extend the duration of this contest.

Well, to aspiring entrepreneurs out there, what are you waiting for? Get your thinking cap back on and work on that startup concept as there are a couple more days left before the closing date for the contest.

As simple as ABC, just fill out the form and state what market you’re targeting. The Sharing Engine will rate the entries based on originality, potential and match to their software marketplace models. They even support rentals, service and sales marketplaces. All these for free!

The Sharing Engine is a quick and easy e-commerce setup solution created by Singapore based HeyPal Pte Ltd.

So what are you waiting for? Enter now!

Important reminder:

1. Entries close on September 15 at 11:59PM Singapore time

2. Setup and monthly hosting waived for one year

3. Revenue share still applies

4. Only applicable for plug-and-play usage of The Sharing Engine software

5. Winning startup / site agrees to serve as a reference customer and to publish a case study.

6. Winning startup agrees to allow The Sharing Engine branding on its site.

7. The Sharing Engine (HeyPal Pte Ltd) reserves the right to award to any entrant that it chooses, at its sole discretion. Similarly, The Sharing Engine (HeyPal Pte Ltd) may choose not to award this prize if no suitable entries are received.

Featured Image Credits : The Sharing Engine

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Telecom subscribers in India decline by 2%, Broadband base stands at 14.68 million

The number of telephone subscribers in India  decreased to 944.81 million at the end of July, 2012 from 965.52 million at the end of June 2012, thereby registering a  monthly growth rate of  -2.14%. The share of
urban subscribers has declined to 63.83% from 64.40% whereas share of rural  subscribers has increased to 36.17% in the month of  July 2012.

The overall Teledensity in India reached 77.79 at the end of July, 2012 from 79.58 of the previous month.

Key data:

• Total  wireless subscriber base decreased from 934.09 million in June 2012 to  913.49 million at the end of July 2012, registering a  monthly growth of -2.21% (this decline is due to large scale disconnections by Reliance Communications).
• The share of urban  wireless subscribers has decreased from  63.98 % to  63.37% where as share of  rural  wireless subscribers has increased from 36.02% to  36.63%. The overall wireless  Teledensity in India reached 75.21%.
• The  wireless subscription in  rural  areas decreased from 336.51 million to 334.58 million during the same period.

Market share:

• Private operators hold 88.60% of the wireless market  share (based on subscriber base) where as BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU operators hold only 11.40% market share.

Operator Market Share : July 2012

MNP

By the end of  July 2012, about  59.31 million subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number. In MNP Zone-I (Northern & Western India) maximum number of requests have been received in Rajasthan (5.63 million) followed by  Gujarat  (5.34 million) whereas in MNP Zone-II  (Southern & Eastern) maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (7.19 million) followed by Andhra Pradesh Service area (5.72 million).  In the month of  July 2012, total number of subscribers who have submitted their request for MNP is 4.98 million.

Wireline Subscribers

Wireline subscriber base declined from 31.43 million at the end of June 2012 to 31.33 Million at the end of July 2012. BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU operators hold 80.02% of the Wireline market share.

Broadband Subscribers

Total Broadband subscriber base has increased from  14.50 million at the end of June 2012 to 14.68 million at the end of July 2012, there by showing a monthly growth of 1.20%.

Broadband market share

Top  five ISPs in terms of market share (based on subscriber base) are:  BSNL (9.36 million), Bharti Airtel (1.37 million), MTNL (1.08 million), You Broadband (0.66 million) and Hathway (0.37 million).

Broadband market share in India (July 2012 data)

Telecom Subscription data: Summary.

Telecom Data : July_2012

Also see:

• Rural India has 31 million active Internet users, 12% access Internet via mobile phones
• Telecom Roundup: Foreigners can’t use mobile connections for more than 3 months in India

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China’s Advertising Sweet Spot: Online Video and the Rising Middle Class

China’s online consumers are predominantly young – mostly under 30. Over time, as the population ages, so will the country’s online userbase. In a recent report I wrote with the Multimedia Research Group, titled China’s Advertising Sweet Spot: Targeting Young, Upwardly Mobile Consumers with Digital Media, we answered critical questions that marketers have about tapping into one of China’s most attractive consumer segments:

• Where does the greatest opportunity lie in China’s consumer market?
• What are the most effective online channels to effectively reach them?
• How have leading companies and agencies been most successful? Where have they failed?
• How can I measure results, in turn making the case for additional investments?

Let’s take a quick look at a few facts:

• At the end of 2011, China had 500+ million internet users, 325 million online video users, 250 million microbloggers, and 244 million social media site users. Chinese internet users are relatively young (mostly under 30) and the most active online video users in particular are both young (19–24) with a middle-class income.
• Television remains the most effective medium to reach Chinese mass-market consumers. However, the explosive growth of online video and social media cannot be ignored by marketers in the Middle Kingdom. Online video targets the most attractive consumer segment – young, upwardly mobile middle-class consumers.
• Branded online video is becoming a useful tool to engage and communicate with the Chinese audience especially when the marketing goal is to establish a unique brand image or proposition to customers.

I argue that online video ads often serve as a complement to substitute for TV ads given the unique audience and cost-effective delivery compared to TV ads. Branded video is becoming the most popular way to connect with Chinese consumers emotionally and to differentiate the brand.

As for social media, marketers should be aware of different platform characteristics. For Chinese social networking websites, word-of-mouth from real life friends/family members is most influential, while on Chinese microblogs, celebrities or industry experts are very powerful in shaping consumers’ opinions and attitudes. As for online communities, targeted interest/topic groups can serve as the perfect space for marketers to launch niche campaigns targeted at a specific consumer segment.

Marketers need to pay attention to the quality of the interaction when evaluating campaign progress. Results must be quantifiable, but high participation numbers can be misleading since spam on Chinese social media, especially on microblogs is commonplace. In addition, related to the quality of interactions, there is a trend in China’s social media space in which topic/thought leaders are few, while the majority of users are silent. Therefore, marketers need to examine the quality of their participants, to determine how influential they really are. If you are interested in finding out additional information about the report, you can learn more here [1].

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1. Editor’s note – The link here is for an abstract, and the full report is (regrettably) a paid one. For some of our readers though, this might be of interest.  ↩

The post China’s Advertising Sweet Spot: Online Video and the Rising Middle Class appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Alibaba’s Jack Ma to Entrepreneurs: Listen To Yourself, Not Economists

Jack Ma - Chairman and CEO, Alibaba Group

Besides sharing Alibaba’s sneak peek into the future of e-commerce in China, Jack Ma’s keynote at AliFest 2012 was also largely about who he call “netrepreneurs.” And the veteran Chinese entrepreneur has much to say about entrepreneurship.

The point Ma is driving at, I believe, is to urge entrepreneurs to act in business the way think is right – follow the market and listen to consumers. In his usual amusing fashion, Ma says that if entrepreneurs were to listen to economists, then half of them will be gone. He went on to elaborate his point (translations are mine):

Economists are mathematicians and their analyses are based on the past, not the future. But entrepreneurs are people who look into the future.

Ma also said that “small is beautiful” in today’s business age. He shared an experience in Japan where he saw a small shop that is 147 years old and still surviving. Ma described that the business looks small but remains profitable – because it does its thing very well. He says that entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses too big are crazy. (He says that Alibaba is about the right size.)

He then used height as a quirky example, stating that it is weird if you are taller than Yao Ming. Plugging in another joke, Ma says that it is also weird for folks to be smaller than his tiny frame.

Seriously guys, size is subjective and I’m sure Alibaba is “too big” a company to some of you. It is, after all, China’s biggest e-commerce platform in many sectors. But I think Ma’s point is to keep the company agile, lively, and always ready for the changing market.

To Ma, great entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily from elite colleges like Beijing or Qinghua University. He asked the audience of netrepreneurs if anyone is from such a prestigious university; few raised their hands. Ma then asked if anyone is from his more modest alma mater, Hangzhou Normal University, just a few miles from Alibaba HQ. A handful of hands were seen and the crowd clapped wildly. He added that most great businesses come from graduates of very regular universities – to yet more cheers from the audience.

His last point on entrepreneurship is about quality and profitability. And he aptly uses the recent e-commerce price war (between 360buy, Suning, and Gome) as an example, stating (translations are mine):

I disagree with the price war. Companies who don’t make money can’t be a healthy company, and they can’t grow continually and they can’t serve customers well. Instead of price, we should compete on quality. Making money is ethical and we make money because we want to serve more people in the future.

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