Dominos’ site hacked; 37,000 accounts data compromised [stored password in plain text]

And while we were having a debate on Dominos’ CoD model (at Pluggd.in forum),the pizza retailer’s site was hacked (SQL injection) by a Turkish Hacker group Turkish Ajan Hacker Group (via).

Dominos' Site Hacked

As per the BS report, Hackers have leaked details of about 37,000 accounts, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, passwords and city details; and the passwords have been released in plain text (though the pastebin URL isn’t showing any data, as of writing this post).

From the hacked data ( Total E-mails. 37,187), top email providers include:

• Hotmails 3,340
• LiveMail 73
• Gmails 13,913
• Yahoos 10,850

We earlier reported about two hackers being arrested by Noida police after they hacked an online recharge website.

This is not the first time when an ecommerce website has been hacked. Earlier in February this year, Microsoft India’s online store was hacked by a Chinese group identified as Evil Shadow. In addition to that online travel firm Cleartrip ad server was also hacked in July this year, during Cleartrip’s hack, attackers gained control of the website’s ad system via serving malicious code. Importantly, payment gateway, CCAvenue which hackers apparently have bypassed in this case was hacked in May 2011 by hackers through exploiting SQL injection vulnerability.

Meanwhile, as per Government of India data, cyber crimes including hacking are on the rise in the country. A total of 799 persons were arrested under the Information Technology Act 2000, in the year 2010, which is a significant hike from 288 arrests in 2009, 178 arrests in 2008 and 154 arrests in 2007. Delhi reported the highest number of cyber crimes with 41 cyber crime cases registered in 2010, followed by Bangalore with 40 cases, while Chennai and Mumbai reported 10 and 8 cases respectively.

Also see: India ranks high on cyber-affected county list – holds 5th position: McAfee report

Government to set up Cyber Coordination Centre to prevent cyber attacks

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GREE Ventures Invests in Indonesian E-commerce Company Bukalapak

Center three, L to R: Kuan Hsu (GREE), Achmad Zaky (Bukalapak), Takeshi Ebihara (Batavia),

We’re seeing a couple of reports today (from Daily Social and from NNA.asia) that GREE Ventures has invested in Indonesian e-commerce company Bukalapak. The latter company is responsible for a number of standout e-commerce properties in the country, including Bukalapak.com.

Just recently Bukalapak.com added a new payment system, allowing members to use Bank Mandiri’s Clickpay as a payment method as well as manual money transfer.

Many of you might recall that just over a year ago, Batavia Incubator brought on Bukalapak.com as its first incubatee. But the group has since expanded into other areas, such as Muslim online fashion place, Hijup; as well as the more general fashion e-commerce site Scallope.com, which launched back in July. Check out Daily Social’s report for some comments from GREE Ventures and Bukalapak on this most recent investment news.

GREE Ventures also invested in price comparison engine PriceArea back in July, along with So-net, for an undisclosed amount.

The post GREE Ventures Invests in Indonesian E-commerce Company Bukalapak appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Indonesian Telco Indosat Targets Cooperatives and SMEs

Indosat yesterday launched IT solutions targeting cooperatives and SMEs in Indonesia: CUG, i-Koperasi, and i-Customer Relationship Management (i-CRM). The company identified seven cities as its main focus: Jabodetabek, Bandung, Semarang, Batam, Medan, Makassar, and Denpasar.

CUG is a simple telephony solution for better communication between a boss and the employees. While the i-Koperasi is a web application meant to be used by loan cooperatives or other micro-loan institutions. i-CRM is also a web app designed for SMEs to support data management on activities such as sales, finance, customer data, and operational data.

According to data from the government’s ministry of cooperatives and SMEs, Indonesia has around 55.2 million SMEs and 192,344 cooperatives. It is predicted that in 2014, the number will grow to 58 million for SMEs and 200 thousand for cooperatives. Okezone cites Fadzri Sentosa, the director and chief wholesale and infrastructure officer of Indosat in saying that there are still SMEs and cooperatives that have yet to use supporting technology – and they aim to educate these people.

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Make your own 3D mobile ads with Amobee PULSE Create (3D glasses not necessary)

Amobee, a US-based digital advertising company owned by SingTel, has launched today PULSE Create, an ad maker platform that lets advertisers and publishers create 3D and rich media mobile ad campaigns. The tool will be made available to all advertisers and agencies.

PULSE Create is integrated with Amobee‘s ad serving and yield optimization platform, called PULSE for Publishers. This gives publishers the ability to track the performance of rich media ads served on their sites or apps. Ads generated by the rich media ads creator will be MRAID-compliant.

Amobee’s new service is an extension of the technology it acquired from Adjitsu, a former business unit of Cooliris that enables publishers to display 3D ads.

PULSE Create occupies the same space as 2359Media, a Singapore-based startup which owns MobDis, a rich media ad creator. PULSE Create might even have an edge with its 3D ads feature and integration with its platform for publishers.

This new development means that SingTel is competing directly with its portfolio company. In January 2011, the telco’s investment arm, SingTel Innov8, led a Series A round in 2359Media. Don’t be surprised if consolidation takes place.

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Meet the Company That’s Building Asia’s Startup Database

I was lucky to have been recently introduced to the folks at Creww.me here in Tokyo [1]. The Japan-based company has some big goals, aiming to collect a database of startups in Japan and around the Asia region – something that is certainly much needed. I had a chance to speak with Sorato Ijichi, its CEO and founder; as well as Kozue Ishii, who is Creww’s public relations representative. Kozue elaborated little bit more about what they have been doing so far, as well as plans that they have for helping out local startups around the region.

What is Creww?

Creww is an online community for entrepreneurs. We define entrepreneurs as people who are passionate about challenges and who are not afraid of taking risks to these challenges. They are people who pursue their goals, look for changes, and have adventurous minds. Creww currently lists over 2,500 entrepreneurs, investors, developers, and designers as registered members.

One of our primary features is our startup database. This database works as a startups’ corporate site, in a way. It has all the information that startups need to publish to their fans such as recruitment, press archives, and activities. This database interface is called “Aims.” Aims was created to enhance engagement between a startup company and fans.

By setting goals and showing their current status, startups can express to their fans what they need to reach those goals. We want to create a community where highly motivated people can inspire each other with their innovations.

When was Creww founded? And why?

The Creww project was started in 2011 summer by Sorato Ijichi, the founder and CEO of creww.me. Its website was opened on July 9th of this year as a beta version. The idea was to create a place where we could show the many innovations in our society.

What inspired you to create Creww?

Sorato Ijichi founded a web consulting company in Los Angeles when he was 21 years old during his time at California State University. Since then he established branches in Tokyo, Japan and Cebu, Philippines. In 2011 he came back to Japan for a family event and spent sometime with entrepreneurs based in Tokyo. Hearing their stories he realized that the startup environment in Japan could improve in many ways as well as entire Asian regions.

Can you tell us a little about your team?

• Sorato Ijichi (founder & CEO) – Serial entrepreneur who established Skyavy, Olio, Creww.
• Kazuma Ieiri (co-founder) – Serial entrepreneur, founder of Paperboy & co., president of Hyper Internets.
• Kozo Hiramatsu (advisor) – President and CEO at Kozocom Inc., former CEO of Livedoor Co., Ltd., former president and CEO of AOL Japan.
• Yukihiro Akimoto (advisor) – Former board member of KFC Japan LTD., former CEO of Nike Japan, former president of Guerlain
• Shinya Nakajima (advisor) – Worked as buyer at Takashimaya department store for 10 years, former VP of Starbucks Coffee Japan.
• Keiichi Toyoda (advisor ) – Executive director at Spice up Japan, former board member of Last Resort.,Ltd.

How many users does Creww currently have?

There are about 2500 users and 200 projects, mostly based in Japan. We are planning to expand our service around Asia starting from this month.

Why should a startup or entrepreneur join Creww? What are the benefits?

The biggest benefit of joining Creww is that startups and entrepreneurs can be connected to an innovative community. In this community startups and its members can enhance lateral communication. For example, startups can brush up their projects by getting feedback from the other members.

What is Creww’s revenue model?

Creww at recent event in Tokyo

There’s the ‘cloud back office’ where creww can help with business transactions for startups. There are a number of legal documents once startups establish themselves as companies. They register required information ahead of time, and they can download in an official format when they need.

There are also social surveys. People in the Creww community are inquisitive and have a high literacy of trends. If one service were to publish their project, Creww members can give them advice and feedback which can be used to improve the project. Comments from Creww members are going to be the most reliable source during a process of innovative service making.

Does Creww have any investors?

We’ve successfully raised about US$360,000 from a venture capital in Japan.

Who are you competitors and what makes you different?

There’s Angel List, but the main difference between Creww and Angel List is its focus stages. Angel List seeks investors for start ups whereas Creww emphasizes a strong bond among startups and entrepreneurs. Creww has several features for matching people, and the ‘recommend’ feature can send you people who have similar interests. By using ‘meetup’ features people can request offline meetings with people in Creww. Another difference is its regional focus, as Angel List is provided in English only and its main target is American and European startups. Creww has its website in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Our main target courtries are Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, China, and other east Asian nations. At this point we are the only startup community in the east Asian market.

Do you have any future plans you can share with us?

We are planning to expand Creww to all over south east Asia. Starting from a partnership with TechinAsia [2] and other startup media in this region, we are ready to invite Creww registered members and projects.

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1. Big thanks to perennial friend-of-the-blog, Serkan Toto, for guiding me towards some quality people once again.  ↩

2. Editor’s note: Given that Creww’s goal of spotlighting Asian startups is one of TechInAsia’s primary goals as well, we’re going to try to work together when possible to help each other, and the ecosystem as a whole.  ↩

The post Meet the Company That’s Building Asia’s Startup Database appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Of “Why vs How” and what to answer in early days of your startup

Why vs. How: What’s the big difference? After all, they are just different semantics, right? Actually not.
Here are a few questions that industry analysts/investors were asking to startups in 2008:

“Why would people buy bus tickets online when there are multiple offline booking options?”
“Why would people use 140 characters to share ‘what they are thinking’?
“Why would Indians buy online where they can’t even touch and feel the products?”

Well, Entrepreneurs often challenge this notion of “Why” to “Why not”, but there is a transition phase between the two states, which often gets missed out in the startup ec(h)osystem discussion.

That is, ask “How”.

When to answer “Why”, before ‘how’?

When your hypothesis has been validated. That is, you started with a certain hypothesis that ‘my target segment will buy <my product>, if <clause>’ and you have validated the hypothesis to a large extent.

Answering ‘Why’ will actually help you in getting the value proposition out.

When to answer ‘How’ before ‘why’?

When there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the product, answering ‘why’ could (and I say, could) turn out to be a never-ending-loop. You might be looking for data that doesn’t exist, you could be looking for customers who are still asking for ‘better horses’.

So what’s the other way to tackle this? Answer ‘How’.

- How can I make people buy bus tickets online (an idea which sounded damn crazy till redBus was launched).
- How can one make people ‘blog’ without the notion of blogging? the micro way of doing things?

In the early days of your startup, you will often meet people who will ask ‘why’, i.e. why would users do X? Why would consumers install your app etc etc? And chances are that you may not have the answer. You may not have enough industry insights/connects to answer the ‘why’.

So what’s the next best alternative? Answer : How.

The real question for an entrepreneur is HOW. That’s your first hurdle to cross. And once you have done that, you will notice why turning into why-not.

Long story short: Do NOT get carried away by your inability to answer “WHY” when asked by industry pundits. Focus on “HOW”.

How equates to call-to-action, while Why could be a blue sky visioning.

How has to drive Why and sometimes, you anyhow need to get to How to start off.

For instance, “How do I sell bus tickets” leads you to explore how people are buying now, and discover what you could do different. You could develop new insights to the why. And maybe you will ditch the idea, but the experience of going in the offline world, talking to operators etc will enrich you more than doing a mere excel sheet calculation of answering why.

Thoughts?

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WeChat Hits 200 Million Users, Generates 700 Million LBS Activities Each Day

Pony Ma, Core founder and CEO of Tencent. Image Credit: TechWeb

Over at the China Internet Conference earlier today, Pony Ma, CEO and co-founder of Tencent (HKG:0700) took to the stage to talk about all things mobile. He began by pointing out that mobile internet users have surpassed PC internet users in China.

Referring to Tencent’s data, he shared that today, more than half of the users on QQ, the company’s huge IM service, are accessing it via mobile phones. Furthermore, he noted that Weixin (aka WeChat to international users), its Whatsapp-style messaging app, hit 100 million users in March earlier this year. That’s old news, of course – but in the six months since then it has doubled to a whopping 200 million users.

Onstage, Ma sang the praises of the new mobile wave in China and urges entrepreneurs to take advantage of it. He said:

Mobile is great because it sticks to users whenever they go. Unlike PCs, mobile also has location features which bring about new industries such as O2O (online to offline) services. (note: translation is mine/unofficial)

WeChat really has some crazy location-related (LBS) figures as well. Ma says that in a day, WeChat generates more than 700 million location-based activities each day! Ma then went on to say that WeChat is now open for developers to leverage on its platform and hopes that all apps (even competing ones) can collaborate to provide a better experience for mobile users.

The post WeChat Hits 200 Million Users, Generates 700 Million LBS Activities Each Day appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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China’s Online Alcohol Sales to Reach $2 Billion in 2014, Might Need to Buy Some Stomach Pumps Too

Well, that’s a lot of booze. Chinese consumers are expected to buy 13 billion RMB – a full $2 billion – in wines, beers, and spirits on the country’s specialist B2C alcohol e-tailers by 2014. That’s the same as the GDP of the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau. The estimated figure for the whole of this year online in China is a relatively small 3.7 billion RMB ($584.4 million), indicating this sector is still young and has a lot of room for growth.

Those figures come from Beijing-based Analysys International, who reckons that there’ll be growth of 200 percent from 2011 to the end of this year (see graph below). Afterall, offline channels still account for about 99 percent of booze sales in the nation, so there’s a lot left to shift online.

Indeed, if you break down that $2 billion figure for 2014 by the number of adults of legal drinking age, then each person is only spending about $3 per year online for alcoholic beverages.

This alcohol online sales vertical – perhaps when everyone has drunk too much it becomes a horizontal – covers everyone from China’s top online store, Tmall, to the Walmart-controlled food e-tailer Yihaodian, to very specialist B2C wines and beers sites like Jiumei and Jiuxian. The fact that those latter two startup sites recently wrapped up some major funding – $15.8 million for Jiumei; $32 million for Jiuxian – shows that well-focused e-commerce sites have a good chance of beating the big boys. There are other smaller contenders too, like the VIP sales site TasteV, and the wine-only Moooton.

In terms of what kind of good stuff folks are buying in China, the research firm reckons that 2012 will see a 60:30:10 split between spirits (including Chinese rice wine), red wine, and other booze, respectively.

[Source: Eguan/Analysys International - article in Chinese]

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